Anyone who has caught and filleted a salmon, trout or other fish, knows the pain of the pin bones. The pin bones extend from the spine to the lateral line, along the side of the fish. Unlike the rib bones, they aren’t easy to cut away without loosing some of that nice meat.
I’ve tried a variety of ways in removing the pin bones and below are the 2 best ways I’ve found.
The first way, which I used for a long time, was to use a set of forceps or hemostats. If you are unsure where to buy them, you can find them online for a cheap price.
Simply lay out the fillet, grab a bone with the forceps and gently pull until the bone pulls free.
This method works great, and I’ve been pretty satisfied with it. However sometimes little bits of meat would get in the teeth of the forceps and make it hard to get a good grip on the bone.
However later I found a tool that works even better and is currently the best way I now how to remove pin bones. That tool is Japanese Fish Bone Tweezers. Even though there are other types of bone tweezers available, I find these work best and are also some of the lowest priced.
To use them lay out the fillet, and identify the bone. Then put the end of the tweezers over them, push down a little and then close the tweezers. Once it has a good hold on the bone, gently pull up and the bone will come out.
Unlike the forceps the tweezers always get a good grip on the bone. The removed bone also tends to drop out when the tweezers are relaxed, making it quicker to grab the next bone.
Hope this helps. For more information about gear for you fishing adventures, check out this page.
