12 Life Skills You Need to Call Yourself a Man
11. Fillet a Fish
Catch and release fishing is a joke. Why are you out fishing if you don’t intend on eating at least a few of the fish you catch for lunch or dinner? Sure, you can run to the grocery store and buy frozen or fresh fish that have been fillet already, but it is a much simpler task than you think and is an ultimate sign of manliness to be able to catch, clean and cook your own food.
There are specific descaling tools that make the work easier, but in a pinch the dull side of your knife will work. Simply run it against the grain of the scales until the skin of the fish is smooth.
From here there are multiple approaches, but one of the simplest is to start by removing the fishes head.
Place your blade just behind the side fins of the fish and cut down through the body with force removing the head. This exposes the inner cavity of the fish and makes it easy to remove the guts.
After the cuts have been removed it is easy to identify the ribcage. Slide your blade along the ribcage removing as much meat as possible without also bringing bones along with. Work your way up the body toward the backbone of the fish. Once you are done on that side, flip the fish over and repeat the process.
