How to Fillet a Northern Pike

How to fillet a pike .... one version. This is the one I use and works great. Pike tastes great if cleaned properly

There is another one but this is my preference

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Fillet knife
• Sharpening stone
• water available
• fillet board or a any flat surface
• zip lock bag or way to store
• recipe for my beer batter

1. Make vertical cut behind head, down to, but NOT through the backbone.
   Turn knife horizontally and cut backward along top of backbone. You should be able to feel the blade "clicking" along the top of the "Y" bones.

2. There is a row of small bones down the center of this fillet. Remove them with a V-shaped, lengthwise cut along each side of the center bones.

3. With the backbone exposed, a series of bones will be observed running parallel to it on either side. Make a cut down and slightly inward along the outer edge of these bones. Work down and over the ribs and remove the flank fillet. Repeat for other side.

4. Cut fillet free from each side of dorsal fin back to tail. There are no "Y" bones here.
   Skin each fillet. You now have five bone-free fillets.

5. Rinse well in cold water

6. Place in zip lock (or storage container) for freezing. Unless preparing immediately

7. Look for my beer batter recipe for a melt in your treat

Tips & Warnings

• Removing the Dreaded Y Bones
• Despite all of the hoopla over de-boning techniques, we find that it is most effective and efficient to simply remove the Y bones from the fillet AFTER the Northern is cooked. All of those other techniques seem to end up making more unrecognizable strings of fish and sushi than just knowing where the bones are in a fillet and eating it accordingly.

[pen-to-paper]

on 7/19/2008 I totally disagree..Y bones are terrible to deal with when eating. You sure don't want to feed a fillet withy Y-bones to your children.

Removing Y-bones is quite simple.