How to Remove Pin Bones From Kokanee Salmon

“I’m not eating that, I hate all the little bones.” How many of us fishermen have heard that? It drives me crazy when my family would order fish at a restaurant, but wouldn’t eat the fresh caught, higher quality stuff that I would bring home, all because of the little bones. The biggest offender were the pin bones, so I went to work trying to figure out how to remove pin bones from kokanee salmon, because that’s my favorite fish to catch and eat.

What Are Pin Bones?

Pin bones are the long, narrow bones that are found in the middle of the fillet. If we’re going to get technical, pin bones aren’t actually bones at all. They are actually nerve endings that have been calcified. If you can’t see the bones, you can run your finger along the top third of the salmon fillet, from head to tail, you’ll feel them there. They’ll be all lined up, so once you feel one, the others are close behind. Luckily, removing pin bones is relatively easy, and is a good step to consider when you’re trying to get your loved ones to eat the fish you bring home. There are 2 main methods of removing pin bones from kokanee salmon- to pull them out or to cut them out.

Pull Pin Bones Out

If you’re delicate, and want to get the most out of your fillet, pulling pin bones from your fillet is the way to go. This will get you the prettiest fillet, and you’ll waste little to no meat. That said, kokanee salmon are more delicate than a lot of other fish, so you’ll want to be really delicate and careful. You can end up turning the pin bone area into hamburger if you’re not careful, but if you’re careful and delicate, pulling out all the pin bones will get you the best result.

The first time I plucked out pin bones I used my wife’s nice tweezers. Don’t worry, I cleaned them first, and I even cleaned them after, but that didn’t matter. Once my wife knew I’d done that, it was game over for those tweezers and she threw them away. I’d have kept using them for pin bones if she hadn’t. Instead, I bought some salmon specific tweezers made specifically for the job. They’re not that expensive and they keep you out of the dog house.

2 Pieces Fish Bone Tweezers, Stainless Steel Flat and Slant Tweezers

Cut Pin Bones Out

Cutting out pin bones is the quick way to remove the pin bones from your kokanee salmon fillet. First, on your fillet, you want to identify where the last pin bone is and you only want to cut to that place. The pin bones angle upwards toward the top of the fillet, so you’ll want to angle your fillet knife to follow the bones. You want to cut down to the skin, but not through the skin. Essentially you’re trying to cut a V shape around the bones in as narrow a way as possible so you avoid losing meat. After you cut them out, run your finger along the groove to make sure you got all the bones out.

If I’m making salmon for people who don’t eat a lot of fish that was caught and prepared at home, this is my go to method. It’s incredibly quick and easy and has a good result. This is especially nice if you’ve got to prepare a lot of fish at once. If you’re good at it, you lose less than a spoonful of flesh, and you can use that in other applications if you want as well, such as fish stock.

Fillet Knife for Removing Pin Bones from Kokanee Salmon

You want a knife that is long enough to just line up along the pin bones so you can get them all in one go. I also like the knife to be relatively straight for removing the bones. It just makes you more precise. You also want the knife thin, like most fillet knives, but you want it stiffer than most fish specific fillet knives. Bending while trying to remove a while line of pin bones is really annoying, and leads to more waste. For removing pin bones, I like a boning fillet knife, which is often used by butchers to remove meat from the bones of larger animals, like beef and pork. It has some flex, but has the other aspects I like when removing pin bones.

Boning Flexible Fillet Knife

About Kokanee Salmon

Kokanee salmon are landlocked sockeye salmon, which means they don’t return to the ocean and live their entire lives in lakes or reservoirs before spawning in rivers and streams. These salmon are delicious and are really strong fighters, making them a prime target for anglers, and the popularity of this fish is growing. Because they don’t return to the ocean, kokanee salmon tend to be smaller and a more delicate, softer textured fish than their ocean going cousins, the sockeye salmon.