Photo's and Instructions Compliments of "Martin" California Coastlines "Predator"
[DISCLAIMER: In the fun world we live in, people stick forks in their eye and sue the man that makes them. I am not responsible for anything anyone does with this information, period. If you stab or cut yourself cleaning a fish, welcome to the club! Put on a Band-Aid and live with your mistake, don't try and sue me for all the things your parents failed to warn you about.] ..and with that out of the way we can have fun.
First of all, congratulations on catching this magnificent beast! There's nothing like man today coming face to face with a creature that shared company with the dinosaurs. If they could only talk...
If the fish is under 50", make sure you re-measure it to make sure it's legal before taking it home. Honest mistakes sometimes kill innocents.
Now then, let's start by making sure you've got a sharp knife, and a sharpener (as the knife may get dull during this process). Have pliers on hand as well. If you hunt and have a skinner with the hooked blade - get it. You should also have some big zip lock bags on hand, as well as water.
Begin by laying down newspaper. Black and White sections ONLY! No paper with color print, like the front page or certain ads. Lay out the paper in a manner so that it spans most of the fish. Have more paper on hand.
Is it dead? Are you sure? I've seen sturgeon come unglued and move around and breathe and such even after having it's cord pulled, blood gone, meat removed, and all skin off. Kill it dead if you have the tools and means to do so.
INTRO
Ok, we'll start with this picture so we can get an idea of what it is we're going after on this animal.
Black spikes = "diamond plates" that run along the body.
Blue = "Noto" chord, central nervous system
Dark red/brown = guts and bloodlines
Lighter pink = fillet meat
Darker pink = fillet meat, at read portion of fish past gut-line.
As you can see from my primitive drawing, for the most part - when you take the meat off you stay above the bottom 2 rows of diamonds, so as you fillet it from head to end of gut line - you basically take only the light pink section. Once you pass the gut line, you get a little more meat, and are able to cut in to take the darker pink portion as well.
(Please note that the meat on your fish may not match my pink. As a matter of fact, it will be a light pinkish/grayish WHITE.)
We will refer back to this drawing more than once in the upcoming steps...keep it handy.
Here we go.
Step 01
The first cut begins at the top, just behind the head plate, and before the first diamond plate.
(Notice how we don't have paper out? None available, but at least the street was VERY cold.)
Step 02
Hold the knife at a 45 degree angle, and cut into the dark area between the head and first diamond, pointing the edge of the knife toward the tail of the fish and down. Don't go too far in - about 1/4"-3/8" deep should do it.
Step 03
At this point in the cut, you should change the angle of the blade to be parallel to the ground to start your rearward cut.
Step 04
A close up of how the angle of the blade is now parallel to the ground, and and the knife begins to cut rearward, under the diamonds.
Step 05
Continue carefully with the blade under the diamonds, working your way toward the tail.
Step 06
As you cut, lift the strip and ensure you're making clean cuts underneath. Sometimes, you have small portions of "sinue" or tendons holding together.
Step 07
As you see the few areas that are still attached by a piece of skin or tendons, go back and use your knife to severe them. This is easily done by sliding the knife under the joining flap with the blade pointed upwards, as shown in the picture.
As you approach the dorsal fin, positioned far back on the body, simply cut underneath it as you did the diamonds.
Once you're finished with the top row of diamonds, repeat this procedure for the next row down on each side. Stop at that point, we're only taking off 3 total rows of diamonds, not 5 as everyone else will have you do.
Step 08
When you are finished with the 3 rows of diamonds, your sturgeon should look like this on both sides.
Step 09
The remaining strips of skin between the rows of diamonds that we removed will come off very easily. Begin by placing the knife, with the blade flat to the body, edge towards the head of the fish, and the point of the knife down, into and under the flap of skin until you see the point come out underneath, as in the picture.
Step 10
From that position, cut forward toward the head, slicing through the skin at the point where it meets the head-plate. You'll end up with a small piece that you can grab with your fingers as in the picture. Lift this flap and get the pliers. (Look at that nice meat hiding under there! Now I know why I'm such a meat-eater.)
Step 11
Using the pliers, get a very tight grip on that flap of skin you have just cut away, and start pulling back towards the tail, keeping very near the fish at all times.
Step 12
Do not LIFT away from the fish, PULL back alongside it. The angle is important. Notice how in the picture, he is careful to remain close to the ground and resist the urge to pull up on it? That's right, you have to keep those pliers and that pull LOW.
Step 13
At this point, we are going to remove just above the bottom row of diamonds. As with the prior step to remove the skin, we begin by inserting the knife, point down and edge toward head of fish, into and under the skin. Push the knife through carefully to have the point surface just above the bottom row of diamonds, as in the picture.
DO NOT cut toward the head yet to free the skin! You're only trying to "poke a hole" above the bottom diamonds here.
Step 14
This is where a skinner would come in handy. Insert it into the hole you just created and pull back, making a cut all the way back just above the lower diamond row. If you don't have a skinner, as we did not have at this time, use the knife. Insert it into the hole with the blade pointed toward the sky, and get it just underneath the skin so you can slice through, as you see in the picture.
Once finished with this cut, you may "free a flap" of skin at the front like we did in step 10. Take pliers and peel back the skin by that flap. Use the knife as needed to assist with the removal of these last strip of skin. Repeat this for the other side.
Now, it's time to cleanly remove the central nervous system...otherwise known as the "Noto" chord.
Step 15
At the tail, just before the tail fin, make a delicate cut into the flesh from the top. Be very gently and try to "feel" it as you cut down. As soon as you feel something tough, stop and don't cut more.
Step 16
Using the knife, carefully make cuts down each side of the tail at that very spot, as shown in the picture. You should be able to see the chord at this time. It's round, white, and rubbery.
Step 17
Carefully, continue to cut along the outside of the chord, taking care not to cut into it or through it, as shown in the picture (you can see it's nice and safe in the middle there).
Step 18
After cutting underneath the fish and all the way around the chord, you should be able to easily visually inspect it and find that the only thing keeping the tail and body together is now the chord, as shown.
Step 19
By putting one hand around the tail, and one on the body to hold it tight - use your strong hand to twist and "break" the tail section from the body. You'll probably even hear a dull *crack*. As you can see in the picture, it's as easy as bending the tail section 90 degrees to the body. This will also likely stretch the chord just a bit.
Step 20
You're ready to pull out the entire length of chord. Pull by the tail away from the fish while holding down the body of the fish. The cord should be fastened to the tail and begin to start stretching and slurping it's way out of the main body. You may need a friend to help hold down the fish, as the chord can get really long. Either that, or simply grab the portion of chord that's closer to the body and wrap it around your hand to get a good grip and continue to pull it out of the main body.
Step 21
Continue pulling the cord from the main body until you're removed the entire length of it.
Step 22
When you're finished, you may be surprised by how long this chord can actually stretch out.
Now, it's time to TAKE MEAT.
Step 23
Begin at the head, and make a vertical cut into the flesh. Make several gentle passes over it to start the fillet.
Step 24
As you attempt to make the long cuts along the backside toward the tail - be careful to lift, or cut underneath - the backstrap portion of the meat that "held" the diamonds in the beginning. In the picture, the hand is actually holding this "backstrap" up and out of the way so the knife can get in there.
Step 25
Make several passes at it, gently. Let the knife do the work through repetition. You want to cut it until you are able to hold the meat with your fingers, and separate it from that "backstrap".
Step 26
Once you can get a hold of the fillet, continue to make cuts along the top, toward the tail, to free up more meat at the top. When you get to where the picture it, stop and go to the next step.
Step 27
At this point, you have to "balance" things. You have to free up some meat along the bottom part now, so take the knife and run it, point down, along the area above where the bottom diamonds are.
You will at this point go back and forth several times, repeating this step and the one before, cutting along the top to free it up, and then balancing by cutting along the bottom. As you do this, more and more of the fillet will come off. See the first sketch again, as this will show you when to make your cuts further down and deeper into the fish as you get closer to the tail. By the time you get to the tail, it's practically ALL meat all the way around - almost. To get the meat that's just a tad below the lower diamond row, use my "pouch" method of filleting fish. Work the knife from the inside out, cutting from the inside, to the skin, and the up and out.
Continue to work if carefully with the knife, top and bottom, until you have removed the entire fillet.
Do so for both sides.
Step 28
SUCCESS! I would go over the fillets and remove any skin patches left, or dark brown areas.
Cut and bag - I would recommend you gauge how much you would eat in any ONE setting, and cut steaks o fillets in those sizes and bag them individually. No sense in freezing a huge chunk, if at best you'll eat only half in one sitting. Bag and freeze according to serving/cooking sizes. After you "zip lock" the bags, open them just a tiny bit, and suck the air out of them and close them again. Either suck the air out with your mouth, or push on the bag or submerse if partially in water to get the extra air out. Some folks prefer "letting it ripe", as in having it in a Tupperware container in the fridge overnight prior to freezing it. Up to you. Enjoy and make sure you share if you doubt you'll be able to eat it all within 6 months.