How To Skin A Fish

So you’ve had a top day out fishing on the reef,  and you’ve got a good feed of fresh reef fish.

The crew will have kept them iced them down nicely for you and nothing better than impressing the misses with a good feed.  Hopefully you’ve checked out our How to fillet fish page, and the next stage is skinning your fillet.

There’s nothing worse than having a fillet with bones or skin on, and with a little bit of practice is quite easy to ensure you’ve got a great fillet ready to eat.

Make sure you watch the video on Skinning fish Below, It’s too easy

Ensure you leave the Scales on the fish, saves all that mess, time, and no need to gut or gill the fish.   Make sure you have some good quality knives, and extra sharp as well.  I have a good selection, just for filleting fish, with a good variety of lengths and flexibility to suit any size fish.

How To Skin A Reef Fish

I like a good long skinny knife, and did I Mention sharp, pays to have a good knife sharpener or Steel, and worth just touching up the blade after several fish.  Believe me, makes filleting fish a lot easier and I’m all for that.

Skinning A FishHave a good flat bench, nylon cutting board to work on with the fillet laid flat.  A good Teflon/Kevla ??  glove can also be handy and save the hand from any slips.  Cut a little tab at the tail end, and use this to grab the fillet’s skin with your free hand.

Fish SkinningJust a matter of sliding, see sawing the blade along the skin, between the flesh away from the tale.  The idea being to remove the skin with no flesh.  Angle the blade so it cuts along the skin, but not through it,  Once again a little bit of practice and it does get easier.

Skin A Reef Fish

Check out our video with Matt,  Watch closely to see one of the best techniques I’ve seen. Matt’s filleted thousands of fish, and definitely great to see in action.

Now you’ve got a great fillet, just have to cut out the rib and pin bones.  Feel the flesh carefully and just run the knife along cutting out these small bones.  Rib bones should have been cut out during filleting, but if any left, just slice underneath and remove.

Too easy and you’ve got a great fillet with no bones to impress the Misses.  Cook it for her and who knows she might let you go fishing again.