Slippery Little Devils - How do you keep them from sliding around?

I've been filleting a lot of fish this year - not that you can tell from my AOTY score - and with salmon, I'm always a millimeter away from amputating one digit or another.

Is there a surface that helps keep a big fish from sliding hither and yon when cleaning and filleting?

Or is it technique?  And if so, what's the secret?

Cardboard or newspaper.  A good scaling and rinse also helps

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk

Someone gave me a fish filleting cutting board with a big, toothy clip to hold down the fish's tail. So far I have not used it, though,  since the fish I catch are much too large for the board so I can't tell you how it works.

Thank you, Lee.  I rinse them pretty good.  Maybe I need some Dawn, too...   

I tired using cardboard and it didn't help much.  I'll give newspaper a try.

Best one I've seen was this summer. Craig had an astroturf shoe cleaning door mat. Non skid and easy to clean. Worked really well.

Someone gave me a fish filleting cutting board with a big, toothy clip to hold down the fish's tail. So far I have not used it, though,  since the fish I catch are much too large for the board so I can't tell you how it works.

Of course they're too big.  I expect no less!

I have one of those clip-boards, too, and it works fine for the fish I normally catch - in fact, it's too big for most of my catches - but this has been an usual year for me.

I was thinking about textured surfaces, but I'll give Lee's suggestion for using newspaper a try before I out-think myself.

Thanks!

Best one I've seen was this summer. Craig had an astroturf shoe cleaning door mat. Non skid and easy to clean. Worked really well.

Now we're taking!  Astroturf plus newspaper.  Thank you, Jed (and Craig).

A damp dish towel works fine and has more than one use. It's an old kitchen trick used to keep cutting boards from slipping on tables.

A towel!  I have lots of old towels.  So towels are No. 2 on the list of things to try, right behind newspaper but above Astroturf (since I don't have to buy towels and newspaper to test them).

Thank you, N.O.N.

put a lot of salt on the fish both sides, wait 5 or 10 seconds and rinse well. This will remove a lot of fish slime.

The turf mats are hard to clean up and hold smells. Good Day Fishing mats are the bizzomb.

http://gooddayfishing.com/featured-product/

I cut a few inches off the mat so it would fit in my Wondertop.

https://www.opensky.com/wondertop/product/wondertop-1

I use the combo not only while camping and fish cleaning, but at home quite a bit too. The Wondertop preemptively comes out whenever I know I should contain the mess I'm about to make in the kitchen. Chop, prep, add seasoning or sauces and walk the whole mess out to the grill.

Wondertop has also come in very handy for HOW events.

Somebody is going to be using this combo long after I'm dead and gone. Stainless won't rust and those rubber horse mats won't rot.

The strip I trimmed off the mat makes a great bait board.

Here's how I keep fish under control while filleting them on a cutting board - a paintbrush cleaning comb, which should be available in the paint section of your local hardware store.  I've used these for years.  For example, when removing the rib bones from a fillet, I press down lightly with the comb on the area above the ribs.  They are also good for hanging on to the skin at the tail of a fish when removing the skin from a fillet.



I don't clean fish on newspaper because the ink comes off the newspaper onto the fish.

I'm a fan of the "big toothy clips", but the boards they come on are typically too small, plus you still have to put them on something like a tailgate, another table, ect... I mounted two on a 4' $30 Cost-Co table. Now I can set up a fish cleaning station built for 2 anywhere in about 20 sec.



Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Yeah, poly's setup works pretty good, but always be prepared for the fish to slip out of the clip!

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk

Yeah, poly's setup works pretty good, but always be prepared for the fish to slip out of the clip!

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk

Fact!! It's pretty common with bottom fish as you hit the rib bones. It's no dramatic ejection off the table, but do slide a little when they come loose.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk