70cm Flathead at Balmoral

[johnk]

Fished on the drift this morning at Balmoral with a mate - pretty slow - lot of small pickers. That is until I landed a 70cm flathead. Caught on 4lb lin using squid. Took a while to land but well worth it. Given has been a long while for a decent fish I kept this one - fish and chips tonight.

The fish had its revenge though as I nearly cut my finger off taking off fillets. I can catch fish most days but for the lifeof me cant fillet. I am self taught, trial and error, with everything to do with fishing - reading, watching other people, videos etc. But cant get the hang of filleting.

Does anyone know where one can go to learn how to do this - be grateful for help.

Cheers.

[mullowaytheday]

Nice fish mate, just wait til you see someone at the cleaning tables and ask them if you can watch and get some tips. Most would be happy to help

[thefisherman6784]

great fish mate

hope it tastes good

[chilledFisho]

nice mate. im a bit of newbie with fillet but the main thing i keep in mind when filleting is to take it slow and work the blade close to the spine, long thin knife, and super sharp. pretty much push the blade on a good angle with the spine form the tail up to the head and then cut through the rid cage keeping those bones still in the flesh. then use the same technique to get the rib cage out, holding the rib cage then slowly running the knife down the outside of the bones. then pull them out in one go. THEN BEER BATTERED deep fried high heat with a nice salad salad with a glass of nice wine and good environment/ atmosphere / mates and yep life is golden.

[johnk]

Appreciate all the tips and feedback. Thought my flathead was big until I saw the post of a 92cm one re Botany Bay

[night_rider]

John, nice catch! Have a look on youtube, I found a video that showed you how to fillet and skin a flathead really easily and quite well. I've successfully used the technique many a times after catching a nice croc.

To start, slice in behind the head towards the spine, then cut along the spine to just before the tail, then slide your knife back along the skin, it removes a perfect flatty fillet every time! Plus doing it this way allows you to keep your hand away from your filleting knife using the head as a handle.

Apologies for the rough description, I assure you after watching someone do it, it makes sense!

Good luck!

[nickb111]

Johnk did I see you at balmoral jetty at about 6am on Wednesday?

[shak4g63]

Im like you trial and error...self taught filleter....when working the blade along the rib cage...

-slightly wiggle the blade to help it cut through bones

-when skinning fillets angle blade diagonally down and put some salt to hold down the skin strech the skin and let the knife do the work

-use a cloth yo get a good grip on the fish

-try to watch as many you tube videos etc to get an idea for technique

- different fish species have different techniques

-sharp fillet knife is a must

Id love to teach others to fillet ive butchered many fish...and found it gets easier the more you do

Heres some whitings I filleted 100% bone free

Tight lines!, Shakeel

[johnk]

Guys thanks for the advice and I am sure I will get the hang of it though you think by now I would have given I have been fishing for about 42 years but alas one aspect I cant get the handle of. To answer your question Mackerel no it wasn't me on the jetty on Wednesday. Cheers and thanks again.