
This year we asked for only fish 20lbs or bigger. More meat for less cleaning, and the larger fish give a little more meat for the $.
Filleting tuna is alot of fun! They are a very unique, remarkable fish, and it is alot of fun for the kids to explore the anatomy and marvel at the engineering that went into creating these beautiful animals.
Most fish-mongers will fillet the loins for you for about $3 per fish. It is more fun to do it ourselves. And, it is easy - we can do a fish in less than 10 minutes each. So get your board and a sharp knife!

Next, cut just under the skin (not too deep into the meat) along the back, from tail to head. It is easiest when starting from the tail, and cut up toward the head.


These fish we got were PRIME - very nice fish. Look how oily they are! My hands were covered, just pulling the skin off the side!
Another really cool thing about tuna is that they really aren't slimy like most other fish. The skin is very thin and strong - alot like Tyvek. You'll see!


Cut down through the fillets on either side of the side-bone and dark meat. You can easily get down to the back and belly bones.

Next, do the same on the lower loin - cut from the dark meat in the middle down to the ribs, and fillet the meat along the bones to remove the bottom loin.
Be careful here to not cut into the ribs and into the guts. Its pretty easy if you take it slow and are careful.

If you did get some bones in the loins, simply trim them out. The tuna has large bones, so it is easy to see and feel them.

The dog, cat, or chickens will love this dark meat. If this is your first time, fry it up and try it - you might like it!
So thats it - now flip over the fish and try it again.
We found that about 65-70% of the fish's original weight is meat - the larger fish yield slightly more meat in the ratio. About 13 lbs of meat from a 20 lbs fish.