Filleting Sunfish

[chucker34]

My wife bought me the pan handler as a birthday gift. Anyone heard of it? Anyway, it worked real slick. As long as you have the fish positioned right, it slices the fillets clean off, just leaving the rib section to pop off with a fillet knife. I was all excited to try it again last night but the sunnies off the dock - the most important part of the equation - weren't cooperating! I still like eating sunfish whole but its nice to not have to pick through the bones yet still get a sizeable piece of meat off of them without a lot of hassle.

[mnrstrider]

Really I was wondering if it really worked... interesting, sounds kind of messy too, I'd love to see a fillet report.

[Iron Cowboy]

Hey chucker, I looked it up online and it looks really cool. Do you know where she got it at? Anyone else have one for a while allready? Im wondering how the blades hold up and if there are replacements you can buy.

[Scott M]

I'd like to know about that too. I bet you could really get a system going: Throw all sunfish and crappies caught in one of those Cyclone 5 gallon bucket scalers, run that for about 5 minutes, take out the fish and using an electric fillet knife, cut off the heads, then throw them in the pan handler, half them and pull out the ribs and guts and voila, insta fillets? Would that work? The question I have is 1. Would it be worth the money for all that equipment and 2. Don't you still need to trim off the fins with the pan handler?

[Scott M]

I'd like to know about that too. I bet you could really get a system going: Throw all sunfish and crappies caught in one of those Cyclone 5 gallon bucket scalers, run that for about 5 minutes, take out the fish and using an electric fillet knife, cut off the heads, then throw them in the pan handler, half them and pull out the ribs and guts and voila, insta fillets? Would that work? The question I have is 1. Would it be worth the money for all that equipment and 2. Don't you still need to trim off the fins with the pan handler?

[chucker34]

Hello. My wife got it for me from the company web site but they also sell it on the Cabelas web site. It works pretty slick. Basically, I just scale the fish, cut the head off with a serrated knife, pull out the guts with a fork, slip the remaining body in the panhandler, cut off the fillets (which no longer have the fins attached), and then slice out the ribs with a 4 inch fillet knife.

As for a replacement knife, that's a good idea. It looks like the company sells replacements of all the parts. I may just order some extras just in case it goes out of business or something as I would massacre such a small fish trying to fillet it without something like this. I find doing it manually is particularly difficult after a few celebration beers when I get back from the lake. : )