• Fillet Tutorial

How To Fillet A Yellow Jack

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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.

What You’ll Learn

  • How to fillet a Yellow Jack.
  • How to remove the collars.
  • How to remove the head.
  • How to remove the ribs.
  • How to remove the skin.
  • What you can do with all of the different parts of the fish.

What You’ll Need To Fillet A Yellow Jack

Having the right gear is essential when you’re learning how to fillet a yellow jack for the first time. 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!

how to fillet a yellow jack
How To Fillet A Yellow Jack

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 Yellow Jack. This tutorial will also relate to other similar species!

Our recipes page is filterable by fish part, allowing you to find recipes for every part of your Yellow Jack. 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 Yellow Jack and discarding the rest of the fish will yield you only 2 pieces of meat, while completely breaking down a Yellow Jack will allow you to make delicious meals with every part of the fish!

Common Mistakes When Filleting Yellow Jack

If this is your first time filleting a Yellow Jack, 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 Yellow Jack

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:

Yellow Jack 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 Yellow Jack Video Tutorial

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

Filleting A Yellow Jack Step by Step Guide

The video above is the best way to learn how to fillet a Yellow Jack, 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!

how to fillet a yellow jack
5 from 1 vote

How To Fillet A Yellow Jack

by zachery dykeZachery Dyke
Instead of just showing you just how to fillet a Yellow Jack, Zach from Spearos Kitchen shows you how to break down a Yellow Jack in order to get the most yield out of your fish.
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Prep Time: 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.
  • Remove The Left Fillet
    how to fillet a yellow jack
  • Remove The Left Ribs
  • Remove The Left Collar
    yellow jack collars
  • Remove The Right Fillet
  • Remove The Right Collar
  • Remove The Right Ribs
  • Scrape The Backbone
  • Remove The Head
  • Remove The Bloodline
  • Remove The Skin
  • Overview
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