Ice was pretty good today got about 26 keeper perch and landed what I am pretty sure is my personal best perch .   A little over 12 inches and weighed 14 ounces.  

Well the electric fillet knife STB  3 fish in.   It had served me well.   Bought from Wal Mart about 20 years ago or so.   Cut up alot of fish with it.   Finished with the Rapala, but  hate having to hone it every other fish or so and it doubles the time it takes to cut the up.   Getting a new one this week.

Cutco is ridiculously over priced.  If you like an electric filet knife fine but I prefer a carbon steel Dexter knife. 

When filleting  20 to 30 fish nothing beats an electric for me.   I   have never used a higher end fillet knife and they may keep their edge better,   but in my experience I just need to hone my knife every fish or 2  due to  cutting through the ribs.   I can zip right through the fish with the electric and honestly the quality does not suffer one bit.   My Rapela's have treated me pretty well when electric is not an option.   May even be time for a new one as  my 10 inch one I got for my 13th birthday and the blade is noticeably smaller due to the 100's of time it has been sharpened.
HT that electric knife has been left out in the rain countless times and submerged a few to boot.  The motor is just wore out

Clint I have a rapala fillet knife that does a good job. On the other hand I have a zwilling ja henckles(made in Germany) that my wife bought me for Christmas a few years back. Don't know the price tag but I know it wasn't cheap. And it does a magnificent job. For smaller fish I cut right through the bones with it. On salmon and steel I prefer to cut just to the lateral bone with it and then use the rapala to cut the bones...only to switch back to the zwilling for final trimming. Everyone definitely has their own way of doing it.

Never used an electric myself so can't comment on that. I do prefer a clean cut with little effort...preferably in one swipe on my fillets though. I know a lot of folks measure quality in filleting fish in the time spent... I'm the opposite. I prefer quality cuts with little or no rinsing necessary. Most folks would think I'm crazy for the time I put in to my fish and deer carving :) but as mentioned to each their own. Its all about how YOU want it. Whatever serves YOU best. For years I would have my fish filleted by a cleaning station. If I did myself I would steak it up. Often I ended up with a wet bag of moosh that never seemed to cook well. Never again to say the least. A Japanese restaurant I frequented in my home town really inspired me to start filleting myself. The care he took and precision in his cuts with no blood on the meat and no need for rinsing was astonishing. I had him fillet 4 fresh kings for me. Anyone I gave those fillets to said they were the best they had ever gotten from me. I was sold from that point on and its been a self learning/gratifying process for me since then

Maybe this post should be removed to the 1/0 hooks thread...party on Garth!!!

I hear ya on the perch tuna. A lot of effort for little meat. I cleaned 2- 12 " perch 2 weeks ago. They were females loaded with eggs so I was quite disappointed on how little meat there was when finished. My typical self tried my best to get the most meat out of it though. I can imagine a bucket of fifty being a whole different ball game though. And yes deer is a whole different animal. This was my second year in experience of carving them. Tedious is an understatement. Friends of mine send them out to the butcher and for the money I do believe its worth it. But I prefer to carve myself

As Gerry said , I always process our own deer. For the money these days some "shops" charge you are way better off going with beef at the supermarket . Another concern I have with sending them out is getting " my" deer back.
De- bone everything , a few steaks, butterfly the back straps, some stew meat, any good size chunks for ice fishing then grind EVERYTHING !! I always get asked , why not more steaks , roasts and such.. No way for me, ground meat can be used in so many more ways.

Bummer about the perch. The females do look bigger then their meat , males are more solid but if you cut them right there is plenty meat to be had.

It's all relevant to ones choice. Venison is super lean meat and if the cuts are not choice the steaks can be terrible , dry and tough. I only cut a few off each hind quarter . Then chunk up the rest of quarter for quick throw on the grill what we call ice chunks..
We mix all the ground meat wit 2 choices, beef trimmings/fat or very thick fatty bacon slices cut and mixed.
For us burger just works well in so many options. Lasagna , chili, meat loaf, tacos, goulash, and of course burgers ..
Mmmmmm, now I'm hungry !!!

Just checking in Guys.  Are we still looking at an Ice Fishing outing  up North on 2-15/16?
Gotta start making the Golumpki's!
Got my NJ license Sat.  Couple 48+" Muskies - some nice Hybrid Stripers and some fat walleye caught on Lake Hopatcong.
Maybe I'll get out locally here before heading up North.  Fichy you still looking to fish NJ in Feb?

hot tuna

Bummer about the perch. The females do look bigger then their meat , males are more solid but if you cut them right there is plenty meat to be had.

I am usually at least 10 to 1 on females to males.  Hardly ever get a male over 10 inches here and only a few over 8.    I had a 12.5 and 2 11's  and it seems I got more meat from those 3 than the 8 inch ones, there is just so much more girth to the one over 10 inches.   I usually keep 8 and up  and I usually average about a pound of fillets for 10 to 15 fish depending on average size.   Lots of work to say  the least, but nice to know where it came from and tastes better than anything I can buy in the store  

Clint . We also get a higher ratio of females - males but we do get large males here and they have " shoulders", humpbacks we call them. We catch our share of females then start sending them back down the hole only targeting the males
Your quite right, either way you still get a nice slab of meat which make delicious beer battered eats.
Try this some time:
Use pancake mix- add a good stout beer and mix to a semi thick paste. Drop filets in and coat them then throw in hot oil until they float and are golden brown.
The pancake mix will be a light airy batter instead of a crunch harder batter .
If you catch some gills , this is the only mix to use for me as they melt in your mouth

Fichy, you had mentioned possibly hitting the river this past weekend; did you ever make it?

hot tuna

Lucky , don't wait to long it's gonna be over before we know it !! Lol

Tuna, jack can cut a mean rug but let's face it, we're in for it til mid April I bet :)

Nice report bud!!!

Clint, so does my wife. She knows there may be no end without a spring break before stripers and adk's , throw a steelhead in there too.. Lol
Also forgot to mention , that 23" laker got hit by a water wolf as well. That's the fish I want next week :)