How many zipper your walleye when you fillet them? I zippered all of our walleye on our trip to Canada in September and everybody agreed they were better eating with the center bones removed. Any other opinions on any difference?

I only zipper the larger fish(over 21"). But I do bleed out all my fish before cleaning.

I don't zipper. I unzip.

As well as removing the lateral bones, the smaller pieces cook faster and easier. Just found out about bleeding out walleyes this summer... nice improvement as well.

I have eaten countless walleye of all sizes my entire life, and have never even heard of this, let alone ever felt the need to remove the lateral bones. Never even knew they were there.

Wish I wouldn't have read this, now the next time I eat a walleye all I will be doing is feeling around with my tongue when I am chewing.

We live near and fish a lot on Lake Erie, walleye capital of the world.

I grew up zippering walleye, especially the larger ones. This time of year it's not uncommon to pull in a number of 7-8 pounders. Even zippering them gives you large filets.

We'll be pulling them in until "ice in", which won't typically happen until sometime in January.

Forrest75: "I have eaten countless walleye of all sizes my entire life, and have never even heard of this, let alone ever felt the need to remove the lateral bones. Never even knew they were there.

Wish I wouldn't have read this, now the next time I eat a walleye all I will be doing is feeling around with my tongue when I am chewing. "

Fish under 15 or 16 inches are no problem. You definitely want to unzip walleyes 20" and over.

Forrest75: "I have eaten countless walleye of all sizes my entire life, and have never even heard of this, let alone ever felt the need to remove the lateral bones. Never even knew they were there.


Wish I wouldn't have read this, now the next time I eat a walleye all I will be doing is feeling around with my tongue when I am chewing. "

It’s very simple to do, takes less than a minute per walleye. I don’t think you will probably notice a big difference on 16-18 inchers but once they get in the 22 and up size you will definitely notice a difference. Watch a video and give it a try.

When I'm done fishing I just pull a gill rake on each fish and put into a bucket or cooler with water for 5-10 minutes.

They don't flop around when cleaning and there is no blood in your filets.

I've never heard of zippering walleye before but definitely want to give it a try. Also was impressed with some videos I found on bleeding out - especially the side by side comparison of bled and non-bled filets. Is there any reason to believe bleeding out would not be beneficial in other species like lakers?? I'm assuming zippering is specific to walleyes.

I bleed everything. It makes the biggest difference with catfish IMHO.
You need to do it before they die.