Filleting Pike

Filleting a pike is a little different from preparing a walleye or bass because pike have a third set of bones to deal with -- the nefarious Y bones that plague many anglers' attempts to produce a boneless fillet. Use a four-inch filleting knife, honed razor-sharp, for the job. With the fish on its belly, backbone facing up, make an incision down the back to the first set of ribs -- the small ribs that are known as Y bones. Follow these all the way back almost to the ventral opening, feeling the bones rather than cutting them. Follow the bones out towards the skin.

Turn your knife and follow the small ribs from below. Again, cut almost to the skin.

Turn your knife again and, feeling for bones as you go, separate the flesh from the main ribs, peeling the meat back as you go. The small ribs will remain on the skeleton with a flap of flesh on them.

Make a cut across the fish behind the gills and slit the belly skin to the vent and run your knife along the vertebrae behind the vent. You now have one side of the fish loose from its skeleton.

Lay the fillet skin-side down and separate the skin from the flesh, resulting in a boneless fillet.

Repeat the process on the other side of the pike

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