Cleaning snot rockets...

So, this year I've kept more pike than I think I've kept in the past 20 years on LOTW. So...that's about 8 this year. Nothing against eating them, just hate the smell and slime cleaning them and dealing with the bones. But then I discovered canning fish and pike were easier to catch than whitefish so I decided to try it out.

Always found the biggest pain cleaning them was them sliding around on the table so I tried something different this weekend. I just threw down a single sheet of paper towel underneath. Wow! So much easier. Will no doubt work well for trout or any other fish as well. In winter slabbing on the lake is easy peasy by putting them on the snow which serves the same purpose.

 

Kill pike and lakers immediately if you plan on eating them, then they don’t slime up and are a breeze to clean... also, put em on a stringer after you’ve killed/clubbed/bled them, the water will wash away the slime...

 

Sorry Patty, I'm going to challenge the wash away the slime part LOL. But yes, if you leave them in a bucket it becomes a big bucket of KY.

 

If they are dead they don’t produce the slime the water washes it off... done it lots works every time.... if they are alive they slime up bad...

 

I'll have to try that then.

 

Kept a limit of nice little eater Lakers. I snip the main artery in the well and pull the plug, let it run. Lakers hold a ton of blood and make a lot of slime. Once they're bled and dead, they're nice and clean

Pike...the meat is fine but the smell of dirty pennies turns me right off....I just hate them stupid things...trashed all my nice largie baits last week.

 

In winter I used to tie them with a length of rope to the back bumper of my sled and drag them for the ride back to the truck. Took the slime off them no problem, scales too!! Sure were not slimy to clean then!! It was like the equivalent of sandblasting them!

 

Pike are every bit as good to eat as walleye if prepared properly. In summer you either keep pike alive right up to the time you fillet them or kill them and keep them in a cooler of ice. I always take out the y-bones and even in August the meat tastes amazing. The fillets should be rinsed well with clean water after filleting to remove any slime from the filleting board. So many times I've had a fish fry with family and friends often with a mix of pike and walleye. I get comments like that's the best walleye ever then I tell them they just ate pike. LOL.

 

Yeah cold water pike is pretty good - I think its the prep and the bones that turn most off. Prep meaning de-slime, and keep the meat away from the guts. The yellow bile that you see with aggressive cleaning really gives it a bad taste, so avoid at all costs...
Boning is super easy with a little training and proper knives.

 

Every blind taste test I have done with people comparing pike and walleye have had 100% of the people pick the pike as better tasting. When we bake them it isn't even close. Battered and deep fried the choice is tougher, but still the pike has won every time. It takes me almost 3 times longer to clean and de-bone a pike as it does an 'eye though, but the people eating it don't care about that part.

 

What cleaning methods are recommended? I've been trying to master the 5 pieces method seen on youtube they claim gives you 5 boneless filets but I still end up with a number of bones.

 

I have never tried the 5-filet method but have looked at it on you-tube a lot. A re-occurring comment for that method was that it works better with bigger fish, like 26 inches and bigger. Unfortunately I do not always have that size of fish to work with so have only used the 2 filet method, and then remove the y-bones. I start by putting the pike on it's back and cutting the belly off. Then I start at the neck, cutting up from the belly cut, around the gill plate to the spine. Then I cut along the spine right to the tip of the tail, then carve back towards the front an inch or so, cutting the meat from the skin a bit, (just to make skinning it easier later), then I cut the rest of the filet off. I then cut off the ribs, then the y-bones, then skin it. I find it is easier to remove the y-bones before you skin it as the skin holds the filet together, giving you a firmer filet to work with. A razor sharp knife and making confident strokes are the 2 keys to success.

 

I don't keep any under 28" so that kind of helps I guess. Where I am fishing we are allowed 5 with only 1 allowed 75cm or greater. The lake we fish we catch lots of 28"-36". Under 28" are very few in number where we fish.

 

For me, the easiest solution was just to let them sit for 10-15 minutes, just until the skin gets tacky. Then they stay put just fine while you clean them. The key to making the y-bones easy to remove is to get the best fillet you can off of the carcass. You can cut through the ribs and remove them later, or cut around them as you remove the fillet. Last bit of advice, keep angle of the knife small, this allows it to be in contact with more bones. It’s much harder to cut thru 6 bones than 1 or 2.


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I'm of the same mind set that pike from cold water are just as good as walleye just more work. I don't keep the small ones, it's way too much work for the meat you get. I too have tried that 5 fillet method, I was less than impressed to be honest. I do it the old fashioned way, down both sides and remove the y-bone. It's time consuming, no question. Probably the reason there is a size limit for walleye and not pike, a lot of people are unwilling to take the time to fillet a pike, walleye 2 minutes it's done

 

I always use a cornflakes box opened up on the cleaning table. Best thing I have found so far.
It really limits the sliding around.

 

I started keeping the rat pike I catch trolling in the fall after finding that 5 boneless fillet video. Worked well for me.

Kids and wife don't know the difference either!

 

I don't keep the snot rockets, but on anything decent size I slab them off like a walleye, take the ribs the same as an eye, which is actually easier as the y-bones aren't attached.; then remove the y-bones so I end up with a backstrap and a fillet.

Easy peasy.

I've also done the 5 method, but only on large fish, as it doesn't work very well with smaller ones

 

Too bad I can't keep mid 30's pike or I'd have fish for days lol

Yeah if they're not close to 30" they aren't really worth the time.