I would recommend a pair of fishing pliers, like these:
If you need to pinch on split shot, these are handy. Also for removing hooks when they go deep, or the barb isn’t cooperating. Also if you catch pike or pickerel - you don’t want to put fingers in range of those teeth! I still have a scar from when I was 14. The pliers often have a built-in tool to cut line and even wire if you need to. A good pair can be found for under $20 if you wait for a sale. Attach a float to your new pliers. Ask me how I know…
Good filet knives are important, but you might already have that for purchased whole fish. The only other prep tool I’d suggest, and it’s a bit of a splurge, is a pair of deboning tweezers. They are fantastic for removing pin bones from filets. I use them even for Costco salmon and rockfish, which often still have bones in them.
Great tips, thanks!
We have a filet knife, but are having a hard time getting it as sharp as we’d like. We are good sharpening the chef’s knives, but something about the more flexible blade is challenging our skills. I might spring for a new one so we can start fresh.
It’s tough to keep a filet knife sharp, because you cut through so many bones with them. And they are tough to sharpen conventionally, as you point out. I have a small, thin Rapala knife and a large Bubba Blade for salmon. Since I don’t catch as many salmon as I’d like, the Rapala gets more work in my house.
Thanks for that! I wonder if hitting the fish over the head has similar outcome as spiking it. The response from the fish looks similar. Also, I didn’t know to cut the tail artery. I will have to add that to my process. Certainly, bleeding the fish in the ice bath makes a big difference in how much blood is in the filets. It’s obvious when you clean the fish what a difference it makes. Doesn’t matter if it’s a 30 lb salmon or a 1/3 lb perch.
It looks like you’ve got the basics covered. The pliers for removing hooks are a really good idea, especially as DukeTrout mentioned, since you’ve likely got at least chain pickerel there (like they do across the lines in Canada). It’s nearly impossible to remove the hook from one of those things without one.
I’ve never used a scaler, we always just remove the skin while fileting the fish, which is way easier than it sounds (I’m horrible at fileting and I can do it).
I learned from my father to kill fish by pushing a knife blade through the skull from the top, between the eyes. The fish always seemed to die instantly. This method can be easier than bonking the fish with a club in tight quarters such as a canoe.
In the video the narrator spikes the brain from the side. I don’t know if that would make a difference. I’ve thought in the past that a sharpened screwdriver would be an effective tool.
I’m sure you know, but for those who don’t a fish club is often called a “priest”, in the sense of administering the last rites.
Here’s a couple of nice ones, Tlingit and Haida respectively:
Can confirm, those fish hook removers are hand savers any time you’re dealing with musky, pike, pickerel, or even walleye you don’t plan on keeping. I never leave home without this thing when I’m fishing for any of those fish.
Bog-standard needle-nose pliers are just fine for hook removal. Additionally, you can use them to flatten the barbs on the hooks. Yes, debarbing the hooks might mean you lose a fish now and then, but when you manage to hook yourself (and if you fish enough YOU WILL), removing the hook from your own flesh is far less awful.
The only downside to needle-nose pliers is that sometimes a toothy-critter will inhale the hook deeper than you can reach. The ones posts above basically eliminate the need to go anywhere near the inside of a pike’s mouth.
That is true, and in a few cases I just have cut the line. Here in western NC, I don’t have many toothy fish to worry about (apparently there are muskellunge in the French Broad, but I don’t fish there much). The gear you need depends on your quarry, and I like to keep things simple when I can.
Definitely true. The same could be said for handling a sharp knife in rough water, though. I’ll take my chances with the priest in that situation. It also has the advantage of being effectively applied through a net on a big fish that poses a danger to said boat’s occupants.
But I really should use my knife more for dispatching smaller fish. Thanks for the reminder.
Regarding the extra long hook disgorgers, those are must-haves for dedicated anglers pursuing pike, muskys, barracuda, and king mackerel, but overkill for most. As @DurhamO mentions, if the hook is so deep that you can’t reach with regular pliers, it’s better to just cut the line.
I’m the same, in terms of preferring simplicity. I only carry what I need to catch whatever lives in the water I’m fishing. It just makes life easier, plus I find I really only going to use the same three lures/flies unless the fishing is tough.
When trout fishing, I carry a pair of hemostats to remove the hook because I usually only catch fish a handful of inches long and even pliers are too much for that.
can confirm. you do not want to stick your hand in a 'cuda’s mouth! I use those roach-clippy ones or long needle nose pliers. here we use (Gulfside it is required) stainless circle hooks (not J-hooks) that hardly ever get swallowed and are easy to retrieve from fish’s lip. snapper, too, are bitey little bastards with sharp teeth!
Oh, yeah, I forgot about snappers! They are sneaky ones, too. You don’t expect how far & fast they can reach with their teeth. I saw a friend get bitten by a mangrove snapper while removing a hook, and one tooth went right through the middle of his thumbnail!
Gah! I don’t even know which fish have teeth yet! I don’t want to find out the hard way, but it is a LOT to learn all at once!
Looks like where we’re going this weekend has salmon, white perch and trout, among other things. It’s right down the road, so I hope to get a good handle on it this summer.
The only thing you’ll really need to watch out for are pickerel and maybe pike. Long, green, (kind of) spotted, with pointed mouth full of teeth. They’re like fighting a log with a rocket attached to them.
