# Cutting off Fish Heads



## patindaytona

What do you use to cut a fishes head off? A knife, some kind of saw? The bone is too thick and hard to cut with a plain knife. Must be a better way. Talking about sheepshead, reds, snook, anything.


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## snookfowl

patindaytona said:


> What do you use to cut a fishes head off? A knife, some kind of saw? The bone is too thick and hard to cut with a plain knife. Must be a better way. Talking about sheepshead, reds, snook, anything.



Why do u want to cut off a sheep, red or snooks head???


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## patindaytona

Do you eat them with the heads on?


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## SurfRat

*Use the Marine way*

The Marines taught us that for smaller fish lock your jaw around the head and chomp it off. For larger fish, RIP it off with your bare hands. For BIG fish some C-4 works well.
Good eating


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## AL_N_VB

Fillet both sides.....then the neck should be able to snap,crackle and pop off


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## patindaytona

So, even with say a red or a snook..you just fillet the sides first and then actually snap the head(neck) in two? Then, just cut through what's hanging on?


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## cygnus-x1

patindaytona said:


> What do you use to cut a fishes head off? A knife, some kind of saw? The bone is too thick and hard to cut with a plain knife. Must be a better way. Talking about sheepshead, reds, snook, anything.


You could make a nice cut with any old knife and then get a meat cleaver and place it over the tough bone and whack it with a wooden or hammer or some substitute. If its real big an axe/hatchet (sharpened of course) will do the trick.

With a fish that big you either want to cook it whole in a bamboo steamer or filet it. Either way you don't need to cut the head off. Don't trash your heads either, either make soup with them or use them to fertilize your tomatos (soil). I have YUMMY tomatos!


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## patindaytona

I can see it now...doing that in the kitchen! I think I'll try to just break it first and then saw with knife.


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## AL_N_VB

cygnus-x1 said:


> With a fish that big you either want to cook it whole in a bamboo steamer or filet it. Either way you don't need to cut the head off. Don't trash your heads either, either make soup with them or use them to fertilize your tomatos (soil). I have YUMMY tomatos!



yummy fish head soup--------I save them striper heads fer mom and pops-----my pop actually will cut one of em 35+ inch striper heads in half----with a big ol' bone cleaver and a 2x4....




> So, even with say a red or a snook..you just fillet the sides first and then actually snap the head(neck) in two? Then, just cut through what's hanging on?


Thats how I get the head off the backbone.


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## derekxec

filet it and ditch the carcuss cube it and deep fry or leave whole(filets) and bake or grill them  or if you are that set on cutting the head off use a cleaver and a piece of wood...just put the cleaver blade on it and wack the top of the blade with the wood till you get all the way down


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## patindaytona

Ok, one more "fishing item" to buy..a cleaver. Thanks. I've heard you can also get a "holster" for putting your rod in around your waist.


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## cygnus-x1

derekxec said:


> filet it and ditch the carcuss cube it and deep fry or leave whole(filets) and bake or grill them  or if you are that set on cutting the head off use a cleaver and a piece of wood...just put the cleaver blade on it and wack the top of the blade with the wood till you get all the way down


Thats basically what I said ... I did not say you had to do it in the kitchen. And yes I was kind of joking with the axe BUT there are some fish where that workd real well. Heck up here we scale black drum with a garden hoe !


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## fishbait

I always use an electric filet knife for cutting through thick bones. Works great! Especially when I make fish head soup. I always cut the heads in half vertically (ie. one eye on each side). The electric knife even cuts tog heads in half. They have that extra set of teeth in the back of the throat that makes it a little dangerous to swing a knife.


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## patindaytona

I thought about the electric fillet knives, but wasn't sure that they cut through bones. Cool. Thanks


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## RuddeDogg

*Good serated knife*

Will do the trick.


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## snookfowl

No i dont eat fish heads, i get the two fillets off and ditch the rest, either throw it away or use it as fertilize in the garden, theres no point in removing the head. Do u not fillet like this??


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## KodiakZach

snookfowl said:


> No i dont eat fish heads, i get the two fillets off and ditch the rest, either throw it away or use it as fertilize in the garden, theres no point in removing the head. Do u not fillet like this??


I agree, unless you plan on using the heads for either bait or soup stock, then there is no need to seperate the head from the body anyway. All you need to do is remove the fillets and ditch the remaining carcus with head attached across the street for the racoons to eat


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## jettypark28

*fillet*

them and dump the body....Make it easy on yourselve...fishhead soup is great, but that a old spanish thing my mom did when i was sick I might have to call her and get her to make me some....Keep it simple!!! and that goes with all of fishing....You might end up cutting yourselve, over nothing


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## emanuel

I do the filet and dump thing. I especially prefer to dump it over the fence into the houses across the fence from my apartment that play their music really loud at night or let their dogs bark at 4am.


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## patindaytona

You fillet even Sheepsheads and smaller Snappers then? With smaller fish I was just removing the heads and frying them whole.


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## VICIII

fillet and send remainder to the garden for help in pushing up produce ..
My soil here is like sand only more sandier....
I fillet them all, even the small ones... 

Not that I ever catch small ones....!!!


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## snookfowl

Yep, fillet everything, even them little snaps


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## Surf Fish

It's messy to clean fish at home, so I put an inverter in the Jeep so I can just clean the fish at the beach with an electric filet knife. No problem cutting heads off.....


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## Gnatman

*Pole holster...*



patindaytona said:


> I've heard you can also get a "holster" for putting your rod in around your waist.


Hey patindaytona,

Yes, you CAN get a pole holster. They are manufactured by 3rd Grip, and if you google
3rd Grip you will find them. They also have a pocket to hold a knife or pair of pliers.

I got mine about a year or so ago from either Cabela's or Bass Pro - and it is excellent.

Try one, you will like it


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## derekxec

you cant filet no 10 inch mangrove snapper the filets will be 1/8 inch thick

scale it cut the head off and gut it, stuff the belly with herbs and lemon slices, then bake or grill


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## patindaytona

That's what i do..those things are small enough to cut through the heads with a serated knife. Anything much bigger gets pretty hard to do with a knife though.


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## Chad S

I take a ten inch boner on my surf cart, it will cut any head off. Sharpen before every trip to the beach.


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## fishbait

That's funny...... You wrote "ten inch boner" on your first post.......

Ok.... I know it's immature, but I had to point it out.


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## barty b

Yup, when I fish the beach during spring break I usually tote around a ten inch BONER too! 

Oh yeah, Welcome to P&S Chad, (It's barty from the Surfcasters club)


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## KodiakZach

LMAO  This thread just took a turn for the funny!


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## jettypark28

*Way to*

Post...and for your first one....ten inch boner..heh,heh....can we say boner??? isnt there a law about that...and ten inch at that!! Damn...can you picture how big, he is going to say the fish he caught ....oh yea you are off to a good start  Welcome to the world of fisherman...where we all have ten inch boner  i said it again


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## derekxec

guess he doesnt need a measuring tape to measure make sure mangrove snappers are legal? lol


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