U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- I’ve worked with fillet knives and boning knives for over 40 years but when Smith’s Consumer Products came out with their Mr. Crappie 6in Flex Folding Fillet Knife I thought it was ingenious. Smiths designed it for filleting fish and it works great for the original intent of design but I think it will also be a cool boning knife for your big game. Don’t you?
Mr. Crappie 6 Inch Flex Folding Fillet
I’ve tried for years to get a company to make a big game folding boning knife. I live in Idaho and it is a tough country there. In a hard week of elk hunting, I’ll fall 5-8 times and a couple of those times are hard. So, if you have a straight blade boning knife in your backpack or pack scabbard you always wonder how safe it really is, even if you have a good sheath. The Mr. Crappie 6in Flex Folding Fillet Knife may just be the answer. So, if you’re a big game hunter you need to check it out.
Out West most of the time, you have to bone out your big game so you can pack it back to the truck. Many times I’m miles from my truck when I kill something or if we’re packed into the backcountry on horses, you sure have to bone out your big game. It is a lightweight, compact folding knife that will work great for boning out your big game in the backcountry.
But since the Smith’s Mr. Crappie 6in Flex Folding Fillet Knife was made for filleting crappie, let’s get back to the fishing applications for this knife. I saw Ricky and Charles in Talladega, Alabama at the Shooting Sports Classic back in March. One thing led to another and they were soon sending me their Mr. Crappie 6in Flex Folding Fillet Knife to test.
I got excited thinking about how it’d be great for boning out my big game in the backcountry but then right after receiving it, I was over in South Dakota and one evening decided to go walleye fishing. There’s no freshwater fish better than a walleye.
A couple of weeks before I’d been in SD and thought I’d go exploring and so I hit a few lakes. I found one that I could catch walleye off of the shore. So my wife and I zipped over to that lake in hopes of catching a few walleyes for dinner.
I had a few hits but only landed one that was big enough to keep. We fished a few more hours and then headed back to the room. Now to test out the Mr. Crappie 6in Flex Folding Fillet Knife. I dug out the cutting board and slapped on the walleye. As usual, I made a cut behind the gills while slightly slanting the blade forwards on the top to pick up the thick meat there.
I cut down to the backbone and then swiveled the knife towards the tail and ran the knife along the backbone and swept towards the back, cutting through the rib cage. Right when I got to the tail end I stopped cutting and flipped the fillet over and pressed against the skin and slid the blade along the skin while firmly pressing0 against the skin, thereby removing the fillet. I then cut off the rib cage.
The Mr. Crappie 6in Flex Folding Fillet Knife worked fine. It will now be my go-to knife for filleting next to my Smith’s 8in Electric Fillet knife.
The MSRP on the Mr. Crappie 6in Flex Folding Fillet Knife is $24.99 and as is usual, we will close with the specs.
- Folding Fillet Knife
- Slim, lightweight, easily fits in your pocket, tackle box of fishing bag
- Blade – 6″ Razor Sharp stainless steel
- Handle – features non-slip TPR inserts to improve grip
- Lanyard Hole – Tether Ready
About Tom Claycomb
Tom Claycomb has been an avid hunter/fisherman throughout his life as well as an outdoor writer with outdoor columns in the magazine Hunt Alaska, Bass Pro Shops, Bowhunter.net, and freelances for numerous magazines and newspapers. “To properly skin your animal, you will need a sharp knife. I have an e-article on Amazon Kindle titled Knife Sharpening #ad for $.99 if you’re having trouble.”
