Deboning a fish in the backcountry?

[Adam Klags]

Reading the post of another member, and seeing some of the suggestions made me wonder… how do you deal with the bones when making "fish soup" or when poaching, and you intend to eat the whole soup/drink the poaching liquid? Do you filet the small fish before cooking, or just butterfly and de-bone after cooking the fish?

[Stephen Barber]

With trout, whether frying or poaching, I normally cook it whole, then debone by lightly lifting the fillets off the skeleton. Any ribs or fins that remain attached to the fillet are easy to lift off and remove.

[Adam Klags]

Yep, good point. I always thought it wouldn't be worth the work of trying to filet these small fish, nor the waste that you would lose doing it. Normally that's how I would deal with whole fish in the frying pan or BBQ too… thanks for the reinforcement on that.

[Jim H]

This past weekend I caught my limit of two 8" river trout on my tenkara pole. I cleaned both on site, removed the head, but didn't do anything else, and kept them on ice until I got home.

I pan-fried one and boiled the other, skin on. In both cases, once cooked through, it was very easy to remove the meat from the bones; essentially the whole spine and rib cage could be removed in once piece, and and only a few of the pin bones remained. Pulled one or two out of my mouth when eating the fish, but they're pretty small and soft, so even swallowing a couple be accident probably wouldn't be a big deal. Only big difference is that boiled skin isn't as appetizing as a nice crispy skin from a pan fry.

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