Fillet Tutorial

How To Fillet A Blackfin Tuna

Zachery Dyke

March 15, 2026

About Spearos Kitchen

Spearos Kitchen is an ocean to table education platform focused on helping the recreational spearfishing and fishing communities responsibly utilize their catch through recipes, species guides, fillet tutorials, and educational content.

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What You’ll Learn

How to fillet a Blackfin Tuna
How to remove tuna collars.
How to remove tuna head.
How to remove tuna ribs.
How to remove tuna skin.
What you can do with all of the different parts of the fish.

What You’ll Need To Fillet A Blackfin Tuna

Having the right gear is essential when you’re first starting out filleting fish. A sharp fillet knife and a good cutting board are probably the 2 most critical pieces of equipment. A dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp one when it comes to filleting fish!

Cutting Board
Fillet Knife
Serrated Knife
Kitchen Shears
Spoons
Aluminum Tray
Wax Paper (optional)
Paper Towels

how to fillet a blackfin tuna — How To Fillet A Blackfin Tuna

Frequently Asked Questions

In this tutorial we used the Dexter 7″ Narrow Fillet Knife.

No! While this is common practice amongst many charter captains, you never want to hose down any of your meat after filleting it. If you need to clean off scales simply use a paper towel.

Yes, this method will work with just about any sized Blackfin Tuna. Larger tuna species like Yellowfin and Bluefin tuna may require a different method.

Our recipes page is filterable by fish part, allowing you to find recipes for every part of your Blackfin tuna! The cool part about completely breaking down your fish is that you get to enjoy extra meals with all of the different parts of the fish!

Simply filleting a Tuna and discarding the rest of the fish will yield you only 2 pieces of meat, while completely breaking down a Tuna will allow you to make delicious meals with every part of the fish!

Common Mistakes When Filleting Blackfin Tuna

If this is your first time filleting a tuna, the biggest thing I will say is to take your time! There’s no trophy for going the fastest, and to be honest, the slower you go the easier it will be to understand the fish for future filleting!

Using a dull fillet knife.
Trying to go too fast!
Not letting the knife do the work.

How To Use Every Part Of Blackfin Tuna

Our parts pages feature recipes for every piece of the fish. Once you learn how to remove all of the different parts, here’s some ideas of what you can do with them:

Collar
Fillet
Frame
Head
Ribs
Skin

Blackfin Tuna Recipes You Might Like

We have a full database of recipes that would be suitable for preparing this fish, we also have a few species specific recipes on the recipes tab of this page. Every part of the fish is delicious, be sure to check out our recipes for all of the different parts below!

How To Fillet A Blackfin Tuna Video Tutorial

Instead of just showing you how to fillet a Blackfin Tuna, Zach from Spearos Kitchen shows you how to break down a Blackfin Tuna in order to get the most yield out of your fish. This might not be the easiest way to clean a Blackfin Tuna, but it will certainly yield you the most meat!

Filleting A Blackfin Tuna Step by Step Guide

The video above is the best way to learn how to fillet a Blackfin Tuna, however below is a step by step guide that can also serve as a reference. Be sure to rate this tutorial if it was helpful!

5 from 1 vote

How To Fillet A Blackfin Tuna

Zachery Dyke

Instead of just showing you how to fillet a Blackfin Tuna, Zach from Spearos Kitchen shows you how to break down a Blackfin Tuna in order to get the most yield out of your fish. This might not be the easiest way to clean a Blackfin Tuna, but it will certainly yield you the most meat.