If you are among the numerous people who don’t eat northern pike because the thought of removing the Y-bones is more trouble than you’d like, then you might want to tune in to our latest video.
Avoiding pike because of the Y-bones may just be one of the greatest culinary travesties of our time. Keeping this delicious fish that is high in both protein and B vitamins off your dinner table because of its Y-bones is sort of like staying clear of crab because of the shell. And why would anyone want to do a thing like that?
The added benefit of incorporating pike into your recipe Rolodex® is that in many areas they are in abundance, so catching and eating them won’t prove detrimental to their population.
In this video, Jake Wallace of “Lindner’s Angling Edge” debunks the stigma around the dreaded Y-bones by making quick work of removing them, leaving himself with two gorgeous, de-boned fillets ready for the oven or grill.
As you would do with any freshwater fish, start by removing the ribs. Wallace demonstrates this process in easy-to-follow steps in the video. Next, comes the fun part – removing the Y-bones. The Y-bones are located above the bloodline in the middle of the fish and run from the head to the dorsal fin.
Wallace's technique involves making a pair of parallel cuts above and below the row of Y-bones without cutting all the way through the fillet. Then he gently cuts under the Y-bones to remove the entire strip.
Once you have the Y-bones out of the way, you can remove the skin as you would for any fish, by running your knife, with a downward angle, between the fillet and the skin, grasping the section of the skin you have removed away from the fillet so that it doesn’t get in your way. Proceed until you have fully removed the skin, and then repeat the process for the other fillet.
And there you have it. Two beautiful pike fillets. No Y-bones. No skin. Just delicious, succulent fish. Ready to be seasoned and placed on the grill. Enjoy!
To see more great fishing content, be sure to visit the Linder’s Angling Edge website.
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