Boneless Northern

Back to Devils Lake and the rest of the story from June 4th. Boyd agreed to show me how to clean a northern and end up with a bone free fillet. I have done this before with some success by following a publication by the ND Game and Fish. I have no idea if that still exists but it was a good reference complete with pictures. Anyway on to the good stuff.
We kept 5 small northern, maybe like 22 inchers weighing in at 3 lbs each, just guessing. These were not big fish by no means and I will get to my point later.

1. Fillet the two sides off of the northern just like you would a walleye.
    
2. Remove the skin from the fillet. So far I’m pretty familiar with the process.
    
3. Cut out the rib bones. Again this is just like many fishermen would do with a walleye.
    
4. Following the exposed bone ends gently cut straight down until you feel another set of bones. Follow those bones out to the edge of the fillet. This will put your knife angle at approximately a 45. This will leave you with a narrow strip of boneless, delicious, perfect frying size fillet. I know I tried it when I got home.
    
5. Begin a 45 degree cut just below the lateral line which will be just below the white exposed bone ends.
    
6. Continue the cut the length of the fillet just past the area of the last back fin. Your knife will naturally run out at this point.

That’s all there is to it. You are left with the second piece of boneless fillet. Boyd had obviously done this a few times and he is very smooth through the entire process. What really amazed me was first, the amount of fish fillets from five small northern. You’re gonna need bigger freezer bags! Second, we pan fried the fillet strips the next day and, yes northern is excellent! Thanks for the seminar Boyd.

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Greg is a ND Fishing Guide and can be contacted at: 701-720-0447