How to Clean a Walleye in Seconds

Walleye are one of the most sought-after fish in the waterways of the Northern United States.

These fish prefer colder waters and are among the best-tasting fish you can catch for human consumption.

It is important to clean walleye as rapidly as possible when you have a stringer full of fish.

Discover in a flash how to wash and clean walleye fish in just ten seconds.

How do you Clean Walleye in seconds?

1. Place the fish so that it is perpendicular to you.
2. Raise the pectoral fin, which can be found directly below the opening of the gills.
3. You should cut down in a straight line until you reach the spine, but you should NOT cut through the spine.
4. Flip the knife over so that the flat side of the blade is towards the tail.
5. Beginning with the blade of the knife near the spine, make a straight incision down the animal’s back until you reach the tail. The rib bones should be cut through.
6. The filet is going to be removed from the fish.
7. If you flip the filet over so that the fleshy side is facing up, you will notice a row of ribs.
8. Raise the knife to a horizontal position over the area where the ribs and the flesh meet.
9. Under the ribs, make a series of very thin slices while angling the knife toward the ribs and away from the flesh. If you use this method, you will be able to preserve a greater portion of the meat on the filet. Pulling up on the ribs exposes the cutting zone as you work your way through the cut. As you continue to cut, the ribs will separate from the meat.
10. When you have finished removing the ribs, pass the knife between the flesh and the skin while angling the edge of the knife toward the skin. Raise the muscle as you make the cut. When you make a cut in the meat, the skin will separate from the meat in a single piece.
11. To cook the opposite side of the salmon, turn it over and continue the previous steps.

How to wash a walleye in seconds?

• When we say “wash the fish,” we mean “wash the filets.”
• When you filet a fish, there will be blood and small bone pieces left on the flesh, and there may even be scales left on the fish.
• To clean the filets, simply run them under running water and remove the flood as well as any other debris that may be present.
• After being washed, the filets are prepared to be placed in zipper bags, frozen, or placed directly into a skillet to be cooked.
• You will be able to determine whether there are any bones in the flesh of the filets by feeling them as you wash them.
• A pair of pliers or a sharp knife can be used with relative ease to extract individual bones.
• Grab the portion of the bone that is thicker with the pliers, and then pull upwards and backwards to separate the bone from the skin that surrounds it. This will remove a single bone.

Walleye Canadian Technique

The steps for cleaning a fish in the Canadian manner are very similar to the steps outlined above. Y

• Position the fish so that it is horizontal and flat.
• Make a deep cut starting at the pectoral fin and going all the way down to the spine, but be careful not to cut through the spin.
• Flip the knife so that the blade is lying flat and directed towards the back of the animal.
• Cut through the ribs and along the spine until you reach the tail.
• Flip the filet over so that the fleshy side is facing up, and then remove the skin.

Either method for cleaning a walleye may appear complicated at first, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be able to clean a walleye in less than ten seconds.

How do you wash Walleye without bones?

To clean a walleye filet that has been removed from the bones, simply run it under running water.

The fish should be kept in cold water since warm or hot water would start to fry it.

It’s possible that you’ll need a knife to assist you in removing blood pockets.

The filet is clean and ready to be cooked once all of the blood, bones, and debris have been removed from it.

How to fillet a large walleye?

Walleye that are large in size are simple to clean.

You proceed in the same manner as described in the previous section.

When compared to cleaning smaller fish, a giant walleye is much easier to manage when it comes to the cleaning process.

On the other hand, the filets and the bones are both of a greater thickness.

Increase the amount of pressure you apply to the knife so that you can successfully cut through the rib bones.

An alternative way to clean big Walleye is to:

1. To remove the head, make a cut downward through the pectoral fin and along the spine.
2. Put the blade in such a position that the point is pointing downward, and then insert it through the first rib bone. Make a cut down the middle of the back through the ribs.
3. Flip the fish over and use the blade of the knife to cut down through the rib bones all the way to the tail, but make sure to leave the tail connected.
4. You should now be able to remove the head and the spine from the animal.
5. If necessary, you should make a horizontal cut along the belly. The objective is to maintain the continuity of the tail.
6. When you want to remove the rib bones, unfold the filets and make a horizontal incision from along the rib bones.
7. Repeat the process on the other side of the fish in order to remove the ribs from both filets. To finish, all that’s left to do is peel off the skin.
8. Keep the angle of the blade angled slightly towards the skin as you make a horizontal cut through the meat while sliding it between the skin and the flesh of the animal.
9. The fillet will separate easily from the skin, and it can be washed immediately thereafter.

This procedure takes a little bit more time, but it can potentially spare more meat.

Walleye are one of those fish that can readily produce catches of twenty or more in a single day.

Therefore, being able to clean them fast is a useful talent.

Because there are so many fish, you don’t need to be too concerned about throwing away insignificant pieces of their flesh.

How to clean frozen Walleye?

The only change in the cleaning process for a frozen walleye is that it must be thawed before the fileting process can begin.

The next step is to clean and fillet the fish using any of the two methods described in the previous paragraph.

How do you grab a walleye?

Keep Walleye in a horizontal position to take some of the pressure off of its spine.

Make use of your fingers to grasp them gently at the opening of the gills without touching the red gills themselves.

Make use of your other hand to provide support to the stomach area.

Do Walleye have Y bones?

Walleye do, in fact, possess Y bones, but they are not difficult to dismantle. The filet has Y-bones running along the middle of it.

To get rid of them, you need to make two cuts, one on either side of the Y-bone strip.

To begin, hold the filet vertically and grip the meat with one hand.

After that, give it a light downward tug, and just like unzipping a zipper, the flesh will separate from the Y bone portion.

It should be repeated for the opposite side.

The filets can now be removed from the bone, and the portion of y-bones can be thrown away.

This technique produces good results while wasting very little of the walleye meat.

Do you scale Walleye?

Because the skin is removed before cooking, there is no need to remove the scales from walleye.

Any cooking tips?

Cooking walleye on a hot pan that has a lot of oil in it is the most effective method.

To prevent the meat from adhering to the pan, you can dredge the filet in a little flour that has been seasoned with salt and pepper.

Walleye is often considered to be one of the healthiest fish to eat.

Add some salt and pepper, and either lunch or dinner is ready to be served.

Cleaning a walleye using an electric knife.

1. I start by laying the walleye on its side with the head in my left hand (I am right handed). I then position the electric knife behind the forward fin of the walleye and cut down to the back bone while being careful not to cut into the back bone. After that, I turn the knife so that it points toward the tail.
2. Continue cutting down the backbone until you are approximately a half an inch away from the tail. After that, I invert the fillet onto the table, moving it away from the fish.
3. Now, position the knife so that it is pointing at the tail, which is still connected to the fish by a thin strip of skin. After that, make a cut toward the front end of the fillet while pressing down and keeping the knife flat on the skin of the fillet.
4. After that, make an incision all the way through it, therefore separating the fillet from the skin.
5. You should now have two fillets with the ribs still attached to them after turning the walleye over and repeating the previous steps on the other side.
6. Place the fillet so that the ribs are facing away from you, then place the electric knife under the ribs and cut away from you while maintaining the knife flat against the ribs. This will remove the ribs from the fillet.
7. Taking the “Y” bone out of its zip. When looking at the filet from above, you can see where the “Y” bone runs the length of the fillet down the middle (the red marks run the complete length of the fillet), and you can see where it is located at the tail end of the filet. I use a regular knife—not an electric one—to make a cut approximately one to two inches deep, beginning at the end of the fillet and running parallel to the “Y” bone all the way back to the beginning of the fillet. Now, with one hand holding the “Y” bone and the other hand holding the side of the fillet (on which you cut the notch), carefully pull the half fillet away from the “Y” bone until it is free. Continue in the same manner on the opposite side. In the event that it does not separate on its own, you might have to use your knife to remove the remaining portion of the “Y” bone.
8. After filleting and removing the bones from one walleye, you should now have four boneless fillet pieces. If there is any black meat, which will be proportionately more present in larger fish, you should flip the portions over so that the skin side is facing you. After that, I like to flip the fillet over so that the dark flesh is facing up. Then, I like to put my usual fillet knife along the dividing line between the black meat and the light meat and shave it off the fillet. It is the walleye’s dark flesh that is responsible for its robustly fishy flavor.
9. The fillets are then washed in clean water two or three times until they are clean. Next, we place a meal-sized part of the fillets in a quart zip lock bag, fill the bag with new water until it is above the fillets, and then zip the bag tight while pressing the air out of the bag. This process is repeated until the fillets are clean. After ensuring there is no air trapped within the bag, I turn each one over in the freezer and place them there until they are completely solid. Because of this, it is much simpler to stack them while putting them away for the winter.