How to Tie a Fishing Knot & Clean Your Catch

Anthony Rottier, Austin Worachek, Mitchell Henke, & Lukas Erdmann

English 101

Process Analysis

Our group decided that the best processes for us to teach others, that relates to all of us, is how to tie a fishing knot and clean a fish. These two skills can be very important to many people, especially, if they find themselves in a situation where they need to survive in the wild.   However, these skills are more often applied if someone just wants to catch a fish. To become a better outdoors-men and fishermen these skills are a necessity. In the following post we will show you how to do these things. 

How to Tie a Fishing Knot

1. 

Loop the line through the eye of the hook like so. To have a little easier time seeing it we just used a shoe and shoelace.

2. 

Now give the knot a twist around once as shown in the picture.

3. 

Another twist is needed to assure the stability of the knot. There will ultimately be three twists in this knot. 

4. 

There is the third and final twist in the knot before the next step which is very important. 

5. 

It is a little difficult to see, however, we are pulling the line through the hole at the bottom of the twists. 

6. 

Now we just pull it tight and you should be ready to bait the hook and throw the line out into the water. Don't forget to cut off the access line on the leftover side of the knot. 

In conclusion tying fishing knots in today's day and age is a very simple process once you get the hang of it. It is a very good skill to possess because sometimes with all the technology now it is nice to just get away from everything and catch fish. 

How To Clean a Fish

Our second process analysis is how to clean a fish. It is closely related to how you tie a knot because once you catch the fish; you will need to clean it so you can cook it. It combines the skills that an outdoors-men and fisherman need to be successful. The people that would need to know how to do this are beginner fisherman that have not yet cleaned fish. Other people that would need to know how to clean a fish, is any kind of chef or simply anyone who is trying to prepare fresh fish for a meal.

The way to clean a fish is a fairly simple process if you know what you are doing. First, there are a few things that make the procedure easier.  Obviously, it all starts with a fish, a sharp filet knife, cutting board, and a towel or rag will help make cleaning a fish easier.  Next, wipe down the fish with the towel or rag to remove the slime off the fish so it is easier to handle.

After that, you want to make an incision directly behind the gill and stop when you cut down to the spine.  Hold the knife in your hand on a 45-degree angle to the spine of the fish.  Then, let the filet knife do the work; keep the pressure of the blade on the spine as you work your way towards the tail.  Equal blade pressure across the whole fish will produce the most amount of meat. When you get close to the tail, stop before cutting through the skin of the fish. 

Now, flip the lose part away from the body of the fish.  From there, place your filet knife on the tail side on a 45-degree angle and work towards the thicker part of the flesh.  Make sure to keep the knife close to the skin but it takes the right amount of pressure to avoid cutting through to the scales.  After you get the meat separated from the fish you with see a white section; this is the rib cage. Cut that part off of the boneless piece of meat. Finally repeat this process on the other side of the fish and you are ready to put the fillets into a frying pan.

You start of by cutting into the fish right behind the pectoral fin. You want to take the knife at a 45 degree angle and cut in till you reach the spinal cord. Once you reach this you want to change the angle of the knife to parallel with the fish. 

Once the knife angle is changed from a 45 degree angle to parallel with the fish you want to just slide the knife the full length of the fish until you reach the very end of the tail.  

Then once you have done this you want to stop remove the knife and flip the filet so that the scale side of the fish is facing down on the cutting board so that you can see the meat side of the filet. You then take the knife and cut into the tail end of the filet and cut just before the skin of the fish is reached. Once you have done this you put a decent amount of pressure on the knife and slide it the full length of the fish until the skin is completely removed. 

After you have done this you should have the filet completely removed from the body of the fish. There is one more step before your filet is ready to be cooked. The last thing you must do is remove the rib cage. To do this you must cut into the meat at the top end or dorsal end of the filet right where the bones end. You then cut in and apply the pressure away from the meat part of the filet and angle the knife slightly towards the bones so that you do not remove any meat. You slide the knife all the way down the bones until the knife is completely out the bell end of the filet and the bones are completely removed. 

Once you have done all of these steps rinse the nice boneless and skinless filet in some cold water and it is ready to be cooked.