Grab your fillet and look along the length just off the center. You will see a line of little white spots. If you feel where they are, you will feel the bones protruding through as you can see in the picture here. Those are commonly called "Pin Bones" We need to remove those, ALWAYS and ALL of them.
I keep a pair of needle nosed pliers in my kitchen utensil drawer just for pulling bones from fish. Some people use tweezers, but I find they just don't work as well. Grab the end of the bone with the pliers and pull toward you holding down the fillet as you pull. The bone will yank out if you pull straight and quickly. If it breaks, feel for the remainder and get it out with the pliers. Go down the whole length of the fillet and pull all of the bones. If you are getting meat pulling out with the bones, try going a little slower but firmer while holding down the fillet next to the area you are pulling from.
When I think I've gotten them all, I feel with my thumb the whole length of the fish to see if there are any left behind. There is usually one or two that escaped me. Feel the edge of the end of the thickest part. Sometimes they hide there too.
Here we are all boned and ready to cut into smaller fillets.
I like to cut the uneven end pieces off and save them to freeze seperately for shredding to use in Salmon meatballs or patties.
Then cut some nice fillets for grilling, about 2" wide each is good. Use a good sharp knife or fillet knife.
Time to divide it up and freeze. I have a basic food saver sealer that I use. I grab some 1 quart freezer bags from the dollar store and cut the zippered part off. Then place 2-4 fillets per bag and seal it up. I mark them with the kind of fish, and the date. Then into the freezer they go!
If you don't have a food saver sealer, use the ziplock bags without cutting anything off. Put the fish in, fold the bag over and push out as much air as you can while zipping it up. You should get a good tight seal on it.
