How to fillet and de-bone a Jackfish/Northern Pike. Step by Step. Living In the North Woods.

How to fillet and de-bone a Jackfish/Northern Pike. Step by Step.

You will need a very sharp knife for Jackfish, you may also need to sharpen part way through. Let's get started.

Step 1
Remove the pelvic fins, it will be hard to slice through in later steps if not removed
One slice angled in front

and in back of the pelvic fins

Step Two
Cut on an angle behind the gill cover and pectoral fin

Step 3
Slice down its belly to the anal fin where you will then be able to push the blade up through to the dorsal fin

continue the cut and slice outwards just before the tail fin

Step 4
Go back to where you made the angled cut behind the gill cover, tilt your blade and slice down its back to the dorsal fin

.

You should now have a nice big fillet.

Step 5
Flip over and make the angle cut again behind the gill cover and pectoral fin slice right down the back bone and out for the next fillet.

.

This is what you should be left with.

Step 6
Removing the rib bones. tilt your blade and slice along ribcage while lifting up on the bones until removed.

Repeat on second fillet.

Step 7
Removing the 'Y' bones. You can see the line 'Y' bones just below my knife blade..

slice down into the fillet, there you should be able to feel the bones, with the tip of your knife follow them the length of the fillet

Step 8
Along the cut you just made tilt your knife and slowly slice in the upward motion along the 'Y' bone (you will be able to feel when the bones have ended)

Step 9
About a half inch down towards the belly make another slice downward, then upwards once again following the 'Y' bones but from underneath, cut through until removed

Step 10
Removing the skin.
Slice a 'grip" at the end of the fillet, face your blade against the skin, push and then pull on your grip in the same motion.

Depends on the size you may have to end up cutting the fillet in to 'steaks' before removing the skin.

You should now have nice de-boned fillets or 'steaks' as I call them lol

the liver was cooked up for the dogs

I hope my Step by Step was good enough to get you started on filleting Jackfish, I actually prefer to eat Jackfish over eating Pickerel as it has a more firm texture (one more reason why I call them 'steaks' lol).

This 39inch Jackfish had something in its belly, stay tuned to see what it was!! Video coming soon 😃

Please check out how to fillet Pickerel here:
How to fillet a Pickerel. Step by Step. Living In the North Woods.

@leemlaframboise

#north-woods