So So at Echo 7-22-21

[Jig-fisher]

I like to fish for all types of species, but In the end I like to eat fish as well.  There are days I do the catch and release thing, but most trips involve putting a bag of ice in the cooler to cool down those fish I plan on taking home. Bass, panfish, walleye, wipers, cats both channel and bullhead, then the trout and kokes.  They all grace the table at my house. I grew up eating trout and still enjoy it, only hate the pin bones.

I'm witchoo.  I'm multi-tackle and multi-species...and I do usually keep a few for the table.

I also grew up eating trout...as a kid in Idaho.  And I too hated the little flesh bones...until I learned the way of the fillet knife.  Now I fillet any trout I keep...even down to footlongs.  And with a couple of cuts alongside the row of pin bones I can lift them out and not worry about getting any myself...or effecting any kids or other folks who might be dining on my fish.

Here's a little pictorial PDF file I put together a long time ago on some tiger trout from Huntington (Mammoth) that shows the deboning process.

I do the same with smaller ones, fillet the bones right out.  With the larger ones, I just use some needle nose pliers and pull them out.