How To Fillet A Hogfish

How To Fillet A Hogfish In 10 Easy Steps

The Difference Between Filleting & Breaking Down A Fish

In this tutorial, I’ll show you not just how to fillet a Hogfish, but how to BREAK DOWN a Hogfish. The difference is that simply filleting a fish, only yields two pieces of meat, while the rest of the fish goes to waste. If you properly break down your fish, you’ll be left with several other cuts that can be used to make incredible meals.

What To Do With The Hogfish Head, Collars, Skin & More

Use our Fish Recipes Database to find recipe for the Hogfish “off cuts.” These “off cuts” include but aren’t limited to; the collars, ribs, head, skin, blood line and the fish frame. You can also do more with the internal organs of the fish, but I don’t have much experience with that yet. While there are plenty of resources out there that demonstrate how to fillet a hogfish, I haven’t come across many that really show how to break one down. The video above will be the best way to follow this break down process, but I have also included a how to guide below as well.

How I Got This Hogfish

Opening Day Of Grouper & Hogfish Season

I got this particular hogfish spearfishing off my kayak off of Dania Beach. I had originally gone out for the opening of grouper season, in search of Black Grouper, but I wasn’t able to find any. I had actually seen several hogfish in the area, but I didn’t want to shoot one at first because I didn’t want to spook any grouper that might have been there.

how to break down a hogfish
Hogfish

The Only Fish I Needed

After not having any luck with grouper, I made a dive and on the way down I noticed two hogfish off in the distance. I positioned myself so that when I got to the bottom I would be facing them and hopefully be able to get a shot. Once on the bottom, the smaller of the two was already close to me and the bigger one was behind him on the sand. I slowly crawled over the rocks until I was able to get a good shot on the larger one. He made a run for the rocks and got hung up for a second, but I was able to pull him out.

I hope you enjoy this tutorial on How To Fillet A Hogfish:

how to fillet a hogfish
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How To Fillet A Hogfish

zachery dykeZachery Dyke
Instead of just showing you just how to fillet a Hogfish, Zach from Spearos Kitchen shows you how to break down a Hogfish in order to get the most yield out of your fish.
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Species: Hogfish
Continent: North America
Country: United States
State: Florida
Set Up: 5 minutes
Active Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes

Equipment

Materials

  • Wax Paper (to line the trays)
  • Paper Towels (for drying the fish)

Instructions 

  • Make Sure Your Fish Is Bled, Gutted And Completely Dry.
    how to fillet a hogfish
  • Remove The Left Fillet
    how to fillet a hogfish
  • Remove The Left Collar
    how to fillet a hogfish
  • Remove The Right Fillet
  • Remove The Right Collar
    how to clean a hogfish
  • Scrape The Backbone
  • Remove The Ribs
  • Remove The Head
    how to break down a hogfish
  • Remove The Skin
    remove the skin
  • Remove The Pin Bones
    how to fillet a hogfish
  • Overview

Video

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