Anyone catch their own fish to eat?

[itsasmallfarm]

Did everyone learn how to fillet their fish from someone else or did you did you watch videos/looked at diagrams? Also I just had a conversation with my neighbor talking about the worms in the fish... is that a pretty normal occurrence?

i learn how to fillet pike from online (northern pike are suppose to be one of the hardest fish to fillet due to there Y-bones)

i was always told the further south you go the more likely fish are to have mushy flesh. worms seem to effect some species more then others,

 

[Thatbirdguy]

Little of both for me, some ppl seem to overcomplicate simple things.

As for fish/worms sometimes it happens for whatever reason. Around me if the pond/lake is close to animal confinement (hog barns) the fish have worms very often. Farther u get from animals seems to go away. After about a mile I haven't seen any worms. This is mainly for bass panfish crappie that are stocked on those bodies of water.

 

[HippieAtHeart]

i learn how to fillet pike from online (northern pike are suppose to be one of the hardest fish to fillet due to there Y-bones)

i was always told the further south you go the more likely fish are to have mushy flesh. worms seem to effect some species more then others,

Interesting about the mushy flesh. I don’t know how well I’d do from an online video but I’ll have to check some out and decide if I’d be able to!

 

[itsasmallfarm]

Interesting about the mushy flesh. I don’t know how well I’d do from an online video but I’ll have to check some out and decide if I’d be able to!

best filleting videos i have seen our not from the youtube fishing "pros/stars" but the DNR videos, for the northern pike think it was Yukon game department and burbot i learned from Alaska game department videos on youtube.

 

[HippieAtHeart]

Little of both for me, some ppl seem to overcomplicate simple things.

As for fish/worms sometimes it happens for whatever reason. Around me if the pond/lake is close to animal confinement (hog barns) the fish have worms very often. Farther u get from animals seems to go away. After about a mile I haven't seen any worms. This is mainly for bass panfish crappie that are stocked on those bodies of water.

I would agree with the over complication, I feel like as long as I have a sharp knife and some kind of instructions I’d be able to muster through.

I can’t lie the worms part grossed me out. It’s not surprising the correlation you noticed between worms and animal areas. Do you generally still eat the fish that have worms?

 

[HippieAtHeart]

best filleting videos i have seen our not from the youtube fishing "pros/stars" but the DNR videos, for the northern pike think it was Yukon game department and burbot i learned from Alaska game department videos on youtube.

That makes sense they would be more informative, good to know, thanks!

 

[B40chick]

My husband was my fishing teacher. He is a country boy. I learned how to clean them from him and watching other people do it. I have never seen worms in fish.

 

[cluckmecoop7]

I learned to fillet from watching videos from YouTube.

 

[littledog]

I've fished for salmon, steelhead and whitefish in our rivers here, trout and Kokanee in local lakes, and crappie when I used to own a property that had a pond.
I've never found worms in any of the fish I've caught, but if there might be some you can't see, frying the fish or cooking it to a high temperature would kill any harmful parasites.

Way back in the day, I worked in the kitchen of a seafood restaurant during college, and the Sushi chefs used to find the occasional worm in the raw fish. The way they sliced the fish so thin, they were able to get rid of every worm, as well as every piece that had contacted a worm. They were extremely skilled chefs, they taught me a lot but I could never do what they do without years of training and practice.

I did get pretty good at filleting different species of fish, deveining shrimp safely, learning how to broil, bake, fry, and saute most fish, and cook the usual dishes associated with each fish or shellfish to a decently tasty standard. Makes me far from an expert, though. The chefs I worked with were true artists. I'm just grateful to have learned enough basics from them to cook the fish I catch these days so many years later, with a few different ways to prepare them.

If you're worried that a freshwater fish you caught might contain worms, including worms too small to see, you could always fillet the fish, then soak the fillets overnight in a brine marinade. This will draw the worms out. Then rinse off the fillets before you cook them and toss out the possibly-wormy brine. For saltwater fish, do the same with a vinegar marinade.

 

[FastEddy22]

I have a fondness for Brook Trout in spring. They are really good simply dressed out (skin and fins left on), dredged, and seasoned then cooked in butter.