fillet knife.............

[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by Striper80

My friends father used to do it like that. I remember being at the fillet table behind Atlantic highlands bait and tackle as a kid and he'd be ripping it off with pliers. We'd rent a boat from Pete and put a nice catch together. Not happening these days.

If you do it right you can rip the entire skin from tail to head off in one piece with an easy pull. The tricks are to double the skin at the tail where you grab it so it's stronger, and the other trick is to use a vise grips so the skin (which is slimy) doesn't slip out of your pliers. When the pliers slip that's when you get the rips and tears in the skin and the cussin starts......

Sad but true on the not happening comment. :(

[macojoe]

Same here used to always use the deck the Russ white handle I also used an electric knife work pretty good if you scale the fish first I learned that one from Louisiana when I was there and the guy use it the to fillet all his fish

[SkunkBoat]

The high carbon wood handled dexters can be sharpened better but you really have to take care of them. I use the stainless with white handle. For Flatfish, the 9" with the straight narrow blade is best. For stripers I like a shorter curved blade, but it has to be really sharp. You can push a curved blade and cut the skin from the inside out without trying to cut scales.
Of course never use a good fillet knife to cut bait.

[spareparts]

O have a buck specia 119 that my father bought me for my v 13th birthday way back 38 years ago. I use it exclusively for fileting fish
When I'm not using it, I have an old butchers knife and my edc benchmade griptilliam. The secret is to keep it sharp. Mi do t have my father's skill with an edge so I use the lansky set up

[Blue_Runner]

I have a couple, nothing real special. I've had one like below but I think it is the pre-rapala version b/c it holds a nice edge and I've been using it for close to 10 years on tons of fish, still going strong. I use a hone and also the supplied sharpener. I think the key is not to go too hard on the sharpener as it wears out the sharpener then you end up damaging the blade. Also have a vintage wood handle I picked up at a yardsale. Looks similar to old hickory, might be old hickory, but it has a real nice edge, but the steel likes to rust?