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When I clean a pickeral I make the following cuts. * angled but verticle from belly to behind head. * from behind head to rear dorsal with knife ripe only following the rib cage not cutting through it. * at rear dorsal penetrate knife through along spine exiting in bottom center line tail side of the anus * follow spine to remove fillet to tail. * back to head of fish, feather (follow ribs) our the rib cage. Remove fillet from carcass. * skin the fillet. * at this point laying the fillet flat running you hand along it you will still feel bones. These can be removed by making a VERY narrow V out of the fillet just above and below the lateral line about the length of the rib cage This leaves the fillet looking “forked” at the shoulder to about half way back on the fillet but boneless. ive seen other techniques that seem to be faster where they slab off the side ribs and all lift the first few ribs and pull them out which also removes these additional bones, then skin it. It seems way faster. I tried but seem to rip off too much meat

Got my 700 all prepped up. I took it for a little spin while there was still significant snow on the ground, but wanted to avoid getting stuck back country especially since I was solo. So I didn't really consider that a "Maiden Run". I take these 2 weeks off for walleye opening, and after I was ready for that I had a day so ramped it up into my F150 and went off to a place I snowshoe in the winter. I've know this area for more than 35 years and I knew I could walk out if I had to without the weather killing me. 2 years ago while snow shoeing and finally with a GPS I confirmed where I was and the stream was in fact a stream I had discovered in my younger days but couldn't confirm it (no GPS tech back in the day). That following spring I put some speckled trout on a string. This winter past I wanted to explore another trail and I did on snowshoe again, I confirmed again by GPS the mount of this stream into a river... the junction I was looking for. This was my target for my maiden run. The first thing I noticed, beside there being no snow is that the experience from snowshoe to quad was vastly different. I found the difference between truck and snowshoe to be mind boggling... in the truck there are different tangibles. landscape is different you are worried about trees encroaching the trail, the narrowness. On snowshoes it was the opposite, you noticed much smaller things due to the speed of travel, shapes of trees, trees rubbing together, snow drifting down from wind blown snow tipped pines. the quad was somewhere in between. Not the lonesome silence but certainly not the sealed cab of the truck. I could smell the bush I could touch it without the slow space of the snowshoes. …. and the ground I could cover! The exploration factor was through the roof and I am wondering why I waited for middle age to have the versatility of a quad. That day, I not only retraced my track to the stream, but also the track to the junction for which I drove down the sandy embankment and climbed back up with some concern I couldn't (4 wheel dr and diff lock), and 2 other trails I could never get my truck down, which were far to distant to cover mid winter on snowshoes. I ran all the trails, I discovered one bypassed a bog on a pole line, 3 more down to the main river, turning north up a diamond drill road, I climbed a rock strewn hill, football size up to boulder size, I ran 2 more trails all leading to the same pole line, I drove abandoned gravel roads. I did it all … in just 4 hours... snowshoes back country are about 20 min per km (my pace anyways)… I could never do it all, it would be many seasons. Now I can't wait for hunting season, back in the groove after a departure from the sport for some 15-20 years. I found a stocked lake, mid summer when water is low I intend to try and find it. There may not be a trail... I don't know what is around the corner, but for certain I would need a partner for that excursion. The quad, it ran like a charm... It hard stopped once, had some minor idling issues on restart, but everything worked. I was so pleased. This being my first small engine ownership (aka toy, lawnmowers don't count) the only thing that concerned me was that the fan was whirling pretty hard... but my car does that then dies down, just like the quad did... so I didn't worry to much. I did do a coolant refresh after buying it, along with all fluids, spark plug, air filter, bulb replacement...etc... The rad does have some damage to the fins …. but it all seemed to work fine and then RPMs of fan died down again... I doesn't seem like anything to worry about. I read a post about teasing the fins straight with a thin/fine blade of some sort but for me … doesn't seem to be an issue. Is there anything I need to lube on the fan? Bottom line, for anyone reading this... who wants to expand their horizons a little... a quad investment is well worth it IMHO. Here is a picture of the junction I've been looking for since my teens....