An elite WA fish filleter has teamed up with Recfishwest to produce three ‘how to’ fillet videos to help you to get meatier fillets off your fish and better use out of what’s left over.
Cutting down on waste and getting more out of your fish is both good for your dinner plate and for making the most of our valuable fish resources.
Konway Challis, a professional filleter and co-founder of filleting website Fillet Fish Australia, joined Recfishwest to share his knowledge and skills for our members, supporters and followers through three informative videos.
PART 1: Filleting basics
In the opening video, see Konway in action showing how to best fillet a red emperor while minimising the amount of flesh on the fish’s frame.
Konway also shows how to remove the fish’s wings — a tasty part of the fish which is often left on the frame — and also the fish’s head in the second video, which can then be used to make flavoursome fish stock, or recycled for cray or crab bait.
PART 2: Removing the wings and head from the frame
While in the third video, Konway discusses with Recfishwest communications officer Zach Relph a very important point — the knife point(!) — keeping it sharp and the rest of the blade, as well as some other useful tips to help you get the most out of the fish you catch.
Konway — who owns Red Gill Fish, which sells premium Australian fish fillets — founded Fillet Fish Australia with his brother-in-law Rick Knight about seven years ago.
The online portal boasts more than 100 videos of Konway filleting various Australian fish species to help recfishers maximise yields when filleting a fish.
“We wanted to show fishers good clear fish filleting footage and that’s how Fillet Fish Australia was born,” Konway explained.
“It is a free website with a fairly comprehensive library of easy-to-follow filleting tutorials.
“There’s a video for almost all WA recreational species, giving insight to fishers on how to best fillet their catch, as well as lessons on skinning and pin-boning.”
PART 3: Tips and hints to become a better filleter
After spending an hour with Konway at the filleting table, Zach confessed he still has a lot to learn before he’ll be able to fillet like a pro! He did however learn heaps from the filleting guru.
“Konway really stressed the importance of making each cut count because one long slice is faster and more effective compared to many little nicks,” Zach said.
“Also, a mistake I used to make was rushing — but Konway encourages people to slow down and maintain a good technique while filleting to make sure you get the most from a fish’s frame.
“Although I’ve been filleting fish practically since I started fishing, there’s always much more to learn and different nuances to pick-up when filleting different species.
“I’ll keep practising and be watching more of Konway’s videos, that’s for sure, there’s always ways to improve your filleting to increase the fillet recovery of your catch.”
Now you’ve got you fillets, click here for cooking hints and tips!
