Beyond the Fillet Cleaning Guide: How to Maximize Every Bite of Your Walleye

Don’t waste a bite of these tasty fish! Discover how to properly fillet a walleye, harvest the best cuts, and cook them to perfection.

Fillets are great, but there's more meat on these tasty fish. / Dreamstime.com | © Justinhoffmanoutdoors | 306248519 and Envato | composter-box | KZAQYTU

Walleyes are one of the tastiest freshwater fish. Their firm, flaky white meat makes them one of the most popular fish across the northern part of the country. While the bulk of the meat on a walleye lies on the two fillets running down either side of the fish, they have even more to offer.

Here is how to maximize your meat from these tasty fish.

Step-by-Step Guide: How to Fillet a Walleye

Most anglers know how to fillet a walleye, but here’s a quick refresher. There are two basic ways to take the side fillets off the walleye.

Method One

1. Start Just Behind the Gills: Using your filet knife, make a vertical cut down to the spine.
2. Turn your knife horizontally: Run it along the spine, cutting through the ribs, stopping just short of the tail section.
3. Flip the Fillet Beyond the Tail, Scale-Side Down: Starting at the tail of the fillet, angle your knife slightly downward until you slice through the meat to the skin.
4. Remove the Skin: Carefully saw and pull the knife along to separate the meat from the skin.
5. Remove the Rib Bones: Beginning at the head end of the fillet, find the largest rib bone, and from the top of the fillet, slice down slightly until the knife penetrates the fillet, just below the rib bones. Use the knife to scoop up and then slice the rib bones in a single plane off the rest of the fillet. Don’t cut too deep or you’ll waste meat.
6. Repeat On the Other Side.
   

Alternate Method

This method leaves the rib bones on the carcass, thus, saving you a step and saving the edge on your knife because you don’t have to cut through bones.

1. Start Just Behind the Gills: Using your filet knife, make a vertical cut down to the spine.
2. Turn the Knife: Begin poking your knife point from the dorsal area of the fish toward the ribs. Stop moving the knife toward the fish’s belly when you hit ribs.
3. Saw With Your Knife: Cut along the back of the fish, down to the ribs, moving toward the tail.
4. Once You Get Past the Ribs: Slice through the fish, all the way from back to belly. Keep cutting along the backbone until you slice off the fillet at the start of the tail.
5. Fillet the Fish From Back to Belly: Cut just over the top of the ribs, leaving the ribs on the carcass, and slicing downward to the belly. Slice the fillet off from the carcass at the white belly meat.
6. Remove the Skin: As you would in the previous method.
7. Repeat On the Other Side.

For most people, that part is old hat. Now here’s how to maximize your walleye.

Walleye Cheeks Are a Delicacy

Savvy anglers have long held walleye cheeks in high regard. The cheek meat, located between the eye and the gill cover, is so firm it makes the fillets look like mush. Well, not quite, but the circular cheek pieces, although small, fry up beautifully.

Taking the cheeks is most feasible on walleyes over about 18 inches. On smaller fish, the cheeks are too small to bother. The catch is, most people release large walleyes. The bigger the walleye, the bigger the cheek, but I usually don’t fillet walleyes over about 20 inches.

To remove the cheeks from a walleye, cut in a circular area between the eyes and the gills. The meat peels off the skin so easily you can do it with your fingers. / Joe Shead

Locate the round cheek area between the eye and gill cover. Poke your knife tip into the cheek area just behind the eye. Use your knife to cut on a 45-degree angle in a circle around the cheek area and finishing near the bottom of the eye. At this point, flip the cheek out toward the walleye’s nose. Use your knife to slice the skin away from the meat at the point where the meat is still attached to the fish. You’ll find the skin peels away extremely easy, and once you start the cut with the knife, you can just pull the meat from the skin with your fingers. Repeat on the other side.

Savvy anglers have long held walleye cheeks in high regard. / Joe Shead

Walleye Wings: The Overlooked Cut

More recently, taking the “walleye wings” has grown in popularity. The “wings” are the area on the ventral side of the fish, from the pelvic fins forward to the throat latch. The wings include a surprisingly large area of meat that most anglers, until recently, have simply discarded.

To take the "wings" off a walleye, cut the throat area above the pelvic fins. / Joe Shead

To take the “wings,” lay the filleted carcass on your cutting board belly-up. Cut downward just behind the pelvic fins. Turn your knife horizontally and cut off the flesh, moving toward the nose of the fish. Saw off the meat as this section narrows to a point at the throat.

Walleye wings contain a surprising amount of meat. Fry them up fins and all. When cooked, the meat will slide off the fins and bones. / Joe Shead

Cooking Walleye Wings & Cheeks

When it’s time to fry the wings, simply bread the meaty portion of the wing and throw it in the fryer, fins and all. When done, the meat will slip off the fins and bone-like structure at the base of the fins.

For a nice appetizer, save several cheeks and wings and fry them up all together. Or just serve them with walleye fillets.

Maximize Every Catch: The Ultimate Walleye Feast

With these techniques, you'll enjoy every edible part of your walleye, reducing waste and getting the most from your catch.

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