As you get better in fishing and diving you'll start catching a wide variety fish. They'll be longer, wider and hopefully bigger. Eventually you need to start cutting up fish into blocks that you can freeze for later or giveaway to family and friends.
Filleting fish is an art that takes time, consistency and a lot of fish to master the skill. If I felt my knife skills were up to par, this would be an instructional take rather than an informational one.
Having the right tools for the right job is essential in any trade, so why not cutting fish? When it comes to cutting fish, I use Bubba Blade. I've seen them sold in dive shops and seen other friends use them as well so I thought i'd give them a try.
The two main knives I use is the 9" flex and 9" tapered flex. I use the 9" flex for all the first deeper cuts such as around the collars, around the ribs and along the edges of the fish. I follow it up with the 9" tapered flex to drag it nicely along the bones trying my best not the miss any meat. It very flexible to make those precision cuts.
Filleting fish is done for many reasons. To eat fresh sashimi or to cut up into blocks to give it away. Some fish, such as this Mu above, I filleted so that I could eat half of the fish now and save the other half for later. That way none of the meat is wasted compared to if I was to cook the entire fish one time for only me. I do that a lot with Uhu, especially the 6+ pounders. It takes too long in the oven to bake when they are bigger, so I portion it out for two dinners.
This particular meal I made into breaded Mu fish sandwiches so I cut around the rib cages so there would be no bones in the slabs of fish meat. By cutting around the ribs you don't disturb the guts.
Overall, I feel like Bubba Blades get the job done for me. The grip handle is soft, non-slip and the grooves fit well within my fingers. The blade is sharp, strong and flexible to get in all the grooves to lessen your chance of wasting fish meat. Definitely love the colors of the handle and that pirate knife look as well. When you're in the market for a filet knife, give Bubba Blade a try. & if you don't like it, just give it to me.
9" Bubba Blade Tapered Flex: https://amzn.to/366591m
9" Bubba Blade Flex: https://amzn.to/2Z53nMp
Yeti 65 Tundra Cooler: https://amzn.to/364LYoo
Can teach me how to fillet one day?