When cleaning fish to eat, do you scale and then fillet your fish or do you fillet and then skin your fillets? I want to try some skin-on fillets this coming season and cook larger size pieces of fish. Normally, I skin our walleyes and make smaller pieces for easier frying. Looking for a change this year and wondering what others usually do.

Fillet and skin

quote schweady: "Fillet and skin "

+1

Usually fillet and skin, but usually like to make one meal a year with the skin on, just like how grandma used to!! I think the skin adds a TON of flavor to the fillet, and the crispiness of the skin when fried is awesome!!!

Not much better eating than sunnies pan-fried with the skin on. Otherwise I fillet and skin.

quote schweady: "Fillet and skin "

me too

I usually just fillet with no skin...scaling Blue Gill and Crappie is for the birds...but i do like the flavor A LOT. My mom likes hers with skin so i scale a couple times a year.

IN BW, i NEVER scale, fillet EVERY time.

quote walllee: "

quote schweady: "Fillet and skin
"

me too"

me 3

I think 25 plus years ago most people scaled crappies and bluegills. Now it seems most take the skin off. I do both on crappies and sunfish,sometimes I will leave the skin on half of them.

Something I am curious about is nutrient content of skin and are contaminants more prevalent in skin?

Small trout I often leave the skin on also.

quote georgelesley: "

quote walllee: "

quote schweady: "Fillet and skin
"

me too"

me 3"

Me 4

bought an electic scaler (tub type) from cabellas, now just drop 25 perch or gills in turn it on and 12-14 min. later ready to fillet and debone. takes half the time it used to take and they are better with the skin on in my opinion. walleye still skin and fillet.

Filet and skin for good-sized fish. I haven't had a batch of pan fish in awhile so I don't know what I'd do for sure. I am guessing I might filet Sacramento perch and scale blue gill and crappie.

Fillet

I fillet Gamefish all the time and panfish most of the time, but every once in awhile I will scale the crappies, then fillet out the bones and leave the skin on, I love that cruch of a crappies skin with cornmeal .

Blue gill and Crappie and lake perch i leave the skin on. Anything larger i fillet with out the skin.

We used to just scale our bluegills, then cut the heads off and scrape the guts out with our thumbs before frying, leaving the bones in.
As my father-in-law would say: "Ya get hungry eatin' 'em."

quote PINETREE: "I think 25 plus years ago most people scaled crappies and bluegills. Now it seems most take the skin off. I do both on crappies and sunfish,sometimes I will leave the skin on half of them.

Something I am curious about is nutrient content of skin and are contaminants more prevalent in skin?

Small trout I often leave the skin on also.

"

I still gut'n'scale most smaller fish, tastes better IMO and probably results in slightly less wasted meat.

Not sure on the nutrion of the skin proper BUT most of the major fat deposits on fish are right against the skin and that will saturate the skin. Mostly along the backbone, belly, and lateral line. The fat is rich in omega fatty acids and very healthy on it's own. The problem is that PCBs and Dioxins tend to end up in the fat (not really the case with Mercury and some other contamients).

Mercury is very wide spread but PCBs and Dioxins are only in certain bodies of water. I'd check the advisories for your lake/river of choice before eating very many meals including fish skins - especially from larger/fattier fish. I quick scanned and noticed Lac La Croix has having an advisory regarding Dioxins but I did not notice any other Dioxin or PCB related issues in the BW - might be a few I missed though.

Also -as a broad generalization Dioxins and PCBs are more likely to an issue in larger rivers and lakes. Again that is a broad generalization. Like Mercury they can end up in remote waters but Mercury is much more widespread, mercury ends up in extremely remote lakes. I know I've seen mercury advisories on high mountain lakes that I've backpacked into.

Mercury in backcountry lakes is a factor of logging disturbing the soil and washing trapped Mercury into lakes...and it takes several lifetimes for it to dissipate. If there has been any logging in the last 100yrs around a lake you are tripping into it will almost always have elevated Mercury levels.

As for scale vs. skin, for me it depends on the fish. Pickeral (walleye to you Yankees :P ) I fillet & skin. But trout & pike I scale and cook with the skin on.

BTW -- Pike has the sweetest white meat this side of Yellow Perch, you just need to learn the 5 Fillet method of cleaning them boneless. Tastier than Pickeral even, just longer to clean.

I never eat bass, but I would skin them. Just to get them to taste less like bass. :D

Much of the mercury is also from air borne from coal pollution and acid rain leaching natural mercury from rocks etc.

Old but interesting topic. My time does fly since this was originally posted.

Do you eat the skin. I do on sunfish,crappie,a occasional small lake trout or brook trout.
Like I stated previously when younger we always ate panfish with the skin on,than I went into a period I skinned everything and I think most people do now.
I went back to scaling and eating panfish with the skin on.

Also only at home after cleaning the fish I now put them in a salt broth for like 10 minutes to clean slim and things out of the meat. Than rinse and wash completely.

Am I the only one to use salt at all?

had fresh crappie tonight-loved it.

Filet and skin...sorry I'm not eating skin.

skin 'em...even the little members of the Sunfish and Perch families. Don't like the skin. If ya use the smallest Rap filet knife the little ones are easier...not perfect, but a mess of big 'ol Bream---well now, that's just FINE DINING!!!! I know, you Walleye guys are gonna "slice and dice" me, but those little guys are my FAV!!!

Pinetree, with perch/panfish I fillet, debone then put them in saltwater overnight in the fridge then rinse well in water and vacuum seal. Yesterday I found a bag of perch vacuum sealed april 2014 in the freezer and had them for dinner last night, just as good as fresh caught.

quote mutz: "Pinetree, with perch/panfish I fillet, debone then put them in saltwater overnight in the fridge then rinse well in water and vacuum seal. Yesterday I found a bag of perch vacuum sealed april 2014 in the freezer and had them for dinner last night, just as good as fresh caught."

You freeze in water they last forever.

Fillet then skin

quote Pinetree: "

quote mutz: "Pinetree, with perch/panfish I fillet, debone then put them in saltwater overnight in the fridge then rinse well in water and vacuum seal. Yesterday I found a bag of perch vacuum sealed april 2014 in the freezer and had them for dinner last night, just as good as fresh caught."

You freeze in water they last forever."

+1

quote Basspro69: "

quote Pinetree: "

quote mutz: "Pinetree, with perch/panfish I fillet, debone then put them in saltwater overnight in the fridge then rinse well in water and vacuum seal. Yesterday I found a bag of perch vacuum sealed april 2014 in the freezer and had them for dinner last night, just as good as fresh caught."

You freeze in water they last forever."

+1"

I have heard this before but my worry would be the time to thaw. I use a vacuum sealer although I probably don't even need to use that since I usually have it consumed within a month or two.

I have never had a vacuum sealed fish get freezer burn or anything but 12 to 18 months is as long as I have ever had them. saves a lot of room in the freezer if vacuum sealed rather than in bags of water.

Skin bass, walleye, and northerns. Scale panfish.

quote yogi59weedr: "Filet and skin...sorry I'm not eating skin."

hahaha ME EITHER!

I skin everything...except trout and I peel that off before eating

Filet and skin, even trout sometimes.

Another who fillets and skins. Except sometimes I'll leave the skin on trout and I don't bother scaling them. Trout scales are very small and so thin they dissolve when cooked.

quote gutmon: "Not much better eating than sunnies pan-fried with the skin on. Otherwise I fillet and skin."

+1 if you got the time it is the best.

quote mutz: "I have never had a vacuum sealed fish get freezer burn or anything but 12 to 18 months is as long as I have ever had them. saves a lot of room in the freezer if vacuum sealed rather than in bags of water."

+1 yes if you havent eaten them within a year why would you keep them ;) but i do live in a state with limits.

quote shock: "

quote gutmon: "Not much better eating than sunnies pan-fried with the skin on. Otherwise I fillet and skin."

+1 if you got the time it is the best."

if it is crappies they scale so easy.

Who scales fish except buffalo since ya' gotta score 'em?

quote BnD: "Who scales fish except buffalo since ya' gotta score 'em?"

Bigmouth buffalo I had smoked once. Better than carp-not so greasy.

quote shock: "

quote mutz: "I have never had a vacuum sealed fish get freezer burn or anything but 12 to 18 months is as long as I have ever had them. saves a lot of room in the freezer if vacuum sealed rather than in bags of water."

+1 yes if you havent eaten them within a year why would you keep them ;) but i do live in a state with limits.
"

Shock
We also have limits, possession limit is two days limit so 100 perch or 200 filets. I normally eat 10-15 filets at a meal if we have company we may eat 50-60 filets. sometime a bag of filets gets pushed to the bottom of the freezer or doesn't get eaten in order it could be year old by the time its eaten. Don't assume someone has over there limit because they have a bunch of fish in the freezer, limits vary from state to state.