101 on Y-bone removal from Pike

Alright Boys!!

Maybe in warmer waters pike are mushy, but here in cold water pike are plenty tastey. I am always curious why fish eating anglers frown on Pike. Actually in many cooking applications we prefer a 4-5lb pike. Truth of the matter is most people hate a mouthfull of bones. Here is an effective method to rid these toothy critters of the Y-bones.

First off start by a cut behind, and gills much the same as you would fillet a walleye.

Second go ahead and strip the fillet of each side of the fish being careful to get all the meat.

Third step is to remove the fillet from the skin.

Forth step for me is to remove all belly fat. (Belly fat or silver skin is reported to contain the most mercury content, and besides that it plain old tastes FISHY!! Get rid of it!!)

Fifth step is to make a cut just to the inside of the piece of the Y-Bone that you can feel with your fingers. Cut this straight down until you can feel the tip of your knife clicking along the bones much the same as you feel if you rib walleyes.

Sixth step is to take the previous cut and slide your knife down the tail of the Y towards the top of the fillet. Be careful to follow the bone not cutting through it all the way until the bone stops.

Seventh step is to slide knife at a steep angle on underside of the open end of the “Y” towards connecting with your previous cut.

Eigth step is to gently pull the intact Y-Bone section.

THATS IT!! Once you do it a few times it is a piece of cake.

NOW!!!

Take care of your fillets!!! Regardless of whether it is a pike or Walleye keep your fish fresh, and be careful not to throw them around to bruise the meat. Trust me no fish hanging over the side of your boat dead will taste good.

After cleaning your pike be very careful in washing off the fillet. Pike will have a little more slime on the fillet then other fish. If you leave it on it will taste fishy!! Wash it thoroughly until the fillet is not longer slippery.

Now you are left with some of the best tasting meat swimming the midwest!! SHHHHH!!!!!

Now here is one way in which the Daze Camp likes to prepare these fillets.

Lay fillets in baking dish.
lay thin pads of butter on fillets
Add small amount of Chicken soup base (powder) to fillets
sprinkle dill weed
add zesty seasoning salt

cook fillets for approximately 25 minutes in a preheated oven at 350 degrees.

Best baking meat in the midwest!!

Enjoy!!

Nice post Daze! Did that pike eat a small child before it found your hook? That thing is FAT!!!

Ran out of room for pics “Imagine that!!” LOL!! Oh I almost forgot check out what I found in the stomach!!! My Vertiglow from yesterday with minnow completely intact!! Want to know what fish are feeding on Check stomaches of cleaned fish. No guess work there, but probably don’t want the gals around during this operation, and even if you find something really really cool expect a less than amused response if you call them down with the camera!!

Nothing like good filet ‘o pike. I actually prefer it over walleye.

This subject comes up from time to time here. Here is a link from a previous (2006) thread on Y-boning pike.

Eric

Y-boning Pike

Eat-N-Good in the Neighborhood!! Rainy hasn’t run short of tastey swimming treats as you can see by the beastly size of these Borderland fish!!

Top 3 tasting fish in the river IMO

In the mid to late 80’s, my brother, dad and I fished LOW quite a bit. Our best luck was always with one of two guides who were natives and subsequently brothers. They ALWAYS kept a 4 or 5 pound pike. Both would comment about how white man starve to death always eating those “Damn walleyes”.

Nice pics and instruction Daze!!
clap clap clap clap
PS Does anybody remember/still use a “Bait walker”??
we used to catch 40 fish each per day each, using them on LOW
Its an orange chunk of lead shaped like a canoe w a wire bent 90 degrees sticking out that you tie a minnow and hook on a leader, the other to your line…bumps along the bottom and keeps bait just off the bottom(poor description)

I have 1 or 2 left but never much luck on Rainy w them

Great post. That’s the way I learned to de-bone northerns years ago. Excellent pictures of the different cuts. Your baked northern recipe will be tried too. Thanks for sharing!

One of these days I’ll have to come up there and have you show me how to do that….from catching them to getting up from the dinner table.

Thanks a lot Chris

What?
Something else besides RD with a big fish.
Great info!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow

I’m an untapped wealth of useless information for most, but for a group of anglers….

I need to get one of these slime rockets on the ice before I can worry about making the perfect fillet.

Speaking of, rainy, can you diagram how to fillet a sucker minnow and/or shiner? That would help me out this season!

Pike have been rolling in out of the permanent rental. For sucker minnows and shinners we prefer to pickle them up here! Goes really good with the Muskrat Tea

What? “Muskrat Tea”?
That is what I want with my “Squirrel Tenderloins”
How does one make “Muskrat Tea”

Boil muskrat in water for about 30 minutes. Then add a little honey. Pour into small cups and drink with your little finger out to be proper! Mmmmmm!! Thinking about adding it to my shorelunch’s for only the “Special” clients