Anyone who thinks fishing is all about sitting on the bank of a quiet stream watching a bobber float on the water has never actually been fishing. A pastime that requires a huge box to carry the essential gear is a truly complex undertaking. The knives of the trade are also varied — when we speak of fishing knives, we’re not talking about one type that’s just right. Fishing requires several, each suited to a particular task.
You may need to cut rope, and quickly, if you fish from a boat. Floods used to rise gradually when nature ran the show, but downstream from Corps of Engineers dams you may not have time to untie from that handy snag before it pulls the bow under. A good belt knife like the RAT Cutlery Case RC-3 Bushcraft solves unexpected problems quickly and also does the nasty work like cutting bait. Don’t use the same knife to clean the fish, unless you’d eat the bait yourself.
Things are always going wrong with rods and reels and outboard motors, and if you don’t have tools for the repair, you just go home. Long nose pliers are also needed if you catch and release fish — barbed hooks don’t just let go. While multi-tools such as the Leatherman Surge offer a variety of tool bits handy for working on tackle and tweaking reels, the jaws are a little short for retrieving hooks set deep in a fish’s maw. For more precise fish-handling consider the Rapala Pro Set of long-nosed pliers and folding filet knife.
For cleaning both large and small fish, get a good filet knife. The most economical use of the fish often turns out to be a neatly cut filet. A knife that’s too stiff, too small, or too short wastes a lot of fish. For the larger catch you’ll need a full sized flexible blade like our choice for the best fillet knife — Queen Cutlery’s Fishing and Filet Knife.
Multi-purpose gear for hikers, backpackers, and other outdoorsmen gets better every year. If you make the Buck 731 X-Tract LED Multi-Tool part of your kit, there's at least one extra thing you can leave home, and possibly more. This 6.4-ounce toolkit lightens your load.
This compact multi-tool offers several useful ...
Unless you're accustomed to struggling with the wrong size of knife for the fish you happened to catch, you may wish you had the money or the space to carry a full set of fillet knives with you. Kershaw makes fixed blade fillet knives from six inches blade length to ...
Many freshwater fishermen will find this 7-inch Fillet Knife from Kershaw to be all the knife they need. Take good care of it, and you'll have money left for other important gear.
At 12 inches in overall length, this is about as much knife as you'll want to ...
The Kershaw Fillet Knife with 9-inch blade offers functional quality and a price appropriate to a knife which usually gets the worst treatment possible. A little maintenance keeps it in good shape.
This version of the Kershaw fillet knife is 14-1/4 inches long with enough flexible, slender fillet blade to ...
Made for cleaning larger fish, the Berkley Breaking Knife includes an advanced blade coating to extend blade life.
The ten-inch Breaking Knife is intended for butchering and is most useful for the largest dividing cuts. The high carbon 5CR13MV stainless steel blade flexes but is firm enough for straight ...
Eight multi-purpose blades give the Alinghi Yachtsman a total of 17 functions. This sensible assortment of strong tools makes the Alinghi an excellent multi-tool for anyone who works with rope, rigging and machinery.
Wenger designed the Alinghi for use on yachts, but any outdoorsman would find this knife handy. The mechanics tools ...
The Havalon Baracuta-Edge is a great idea and a good knife, but five inches of replaceable high carbon stainless steel blade comes at a higher cost than the smaller Havalon Piranta system. You might want to keep that whetstone handy and recycle blades instead of throwing them out.
The Havalon concept ...
The Berkley Extreme Duty Knife puts together nearly every high-tech good idea available to manufacturers of rugged fixed blades. The result is a little strange in appearance, but everything about the knife works.
If you're looking for something traditional, you'll skip by this garish knife with its hard plastic sheath, and ...
The Benchmade Barrage adds powerful spring-assisted opening to the already solid construction of Benchmade's Axis-lock knives. The Valox grip also has some excellent features, but doesn't beat Zytel in wet weather.
Benchmade recommends the Barrage for boaters, rescue workers, and anyone else who needs a dependable multi-purpose blade which opens one-handed in ...
Made in Olean, New York, the KA-Fillet Fishing Knife requires minimal care. Built for the roughest working conditions, the knife is strong enough for tougher jobs than filleting fish.
The stamped high carbon stainless steel fillet blade seats in a large black Kraton handle which completely encloses the tang and ...
The Texas Toothpick handle style of the Yellow Delrin Fishing Knife from W.R. Case & Sons makes this knife elegant enough for dress occasions. The knife was actually intended for better things than formal dinners. With this in your pocket and some tackle stashed in the car, you're never ...
Rapala's Soft Grip Fillet series knives feature flexible blades of high carbon European stainless steel and come with a handy pocket sharpening system. If you want a really good edge, you'll still need a whetstone.
These rat-tail tang knives come in several lengths, from this 4" blade version to ...
Rapala's Deluxe Cordless Fillet Knife lets you work anywhere without a power cord to get in your way. The fast recharge time and convenient charging station give this fillet set plenty of backup power for those days when you've caught your limit.
The air-cooled DC motor of this electric fillet knife ...
Interchangeable blades and an extra-long power cord add to the convenience of this handy electric fillet knife. Built with the outdoorsman in mind, the Rapala 110VAC knife will be handy in the kitchen as well as the backyard.
Sealed bearings won't need lubrication during the working lifetime of the knife, ...
This upgrade of the Leatherman Ukiah design replaces the Ukiah's glass-filled nylon handle construction with stronger components of machined aluminum and inlays of tropical rosewood. Even the steel takes a step up in quality to S30V high carbon stainless steel.
You'd expect the Steens to fold like a pocket clip knife, but ...
Myerchin's Model A500 Offshore Knife developed in response to requests from Coast Guard sailors and divers in southern California. These professionals wanted a knife specially designed to cut through heavy rigging quickly and stow away with a low profile. No one made a rigging knife that satisfied that need until ...
Unless you're a sailor, you may not know what the spike blade of this knife is actually for. Myerchin knives like the Offshore Crew Pro are finding increasing use even away from the water, as truckers and climbers and other people who work with cargo straps and rope ...
Myerchin's patented double-lock system allows this unusual and practical folding rigging knife to be used with both blade and marlinspike locked in full open position. A number of other features of this heavy eight-ounce folder were designed with the sailor in mind but serve well for anyone who works ...
Since 1984, Myerchin has made modern rigging knives for the modern professional sailor. The Myerchin A200P is one of the strongest Myerchin professional models, carried by sailors aboard hi-tech yachts, Coast Guardsmen aboard rescue and patrol boats, and even crewmen working the decks of river tugboats.
The Myerchin system puts ...
The triple-bladed British Army Knife would make more sense in a sailor's pocket, but anyone who works with rope will find it handy. Knives with marlin spikes are found more often on boats. If you've ever struggled with a stubborn knot in camp, you've found the reason for the ...
If not for the half-serrated cutting edge, the Bear & Son 444SR Gut Hook knife would be a serviceable and economical knife for deer and smaller game. Because the serrations will be tough to keep sharp without professional help, it's a much better choice for the boat ...
The American Angler Freshwater 110 Volt electric fillet knife will require a power outlet and some caution, and will work out much better if you bring the catch back to the house for cleaning. Set up in the backyard where the mess won't make a difference. The eight-inch blade ...
At the end of the fishing day when you're tired, it's time to clean the fish. If you'd rather not struggle with poor tools, a good fillet knife like the Wusthof 4622 Classic 7-inch fillet knife makes the last chore of the day go quickly.
Forged from high carbon stainless ...
The Wusthof Gourmet 6.3-inch fish fillet knife finds a place either at camp or in the kitchen. This short fillet knife still handles most of the fish anglers actually catch, and the narrow blade even trims neat fillets from pan fish.
When filleting the day's catch, the right knife not ...
The Buck 179 Mayo Hilo, designed by Tom Mayo, took inspiration from the surf and the sharks of the Hawaiian coast. The Hilo is all about sleek lines, light weight, and shark-tooth efficiency.
The bead blasted finish may have been intended to simulate sharkskin, but you'd probably not make that ...
The large oval thumb loop in the Gerber EZ-Out DPSF S30V technically makes this a knife you can open with one hand. Though that's possible, most people will continue to use two hands when unfolding this 8-inch lockback. The four-inch combo serrated high carbon stainless steel blade ...
Let's talk tackle boxes before bringing up the Buck Protege. If you fish, you probably do have a knife tucked away in the bottom compartment where everything gets wet and nasty. Not every knife will hold up to that, and probably you've stashed something cheap under the extra reel ...
Especially designed to meet the needs of anglers, the Swiss Army Fisherman includes a special blade for scaling fish. Ruler markings on the blade help determine legal limit size of catch. The hook disgorging notch at the blade's tip releases fish with minimal harm. Several other large versions of ...
Instead of a heavy multi-tool with a host of options no fisherman needs, consider the Pro Guide Camp Combo from famous lure maker Rapala the next you head for the lake or stream. This kit places a 5" (closed length) surgical steel filet knife and an 8" pair ...
It's not only the good fishermen who actually need a knife of the quality that this Queen Cutlery Filet blade shows. We all get lucky sometime, and when the day is done and it's time for the dirty work, to do justice to the catch you need ...
Not pretty, but functional.
The Gerber Lariat incorporates a few modern folding knife features into a very utilitarian design, which in spite of being practical has little of the class most knife enthusiasts expect. It reminds me very much of the kitchen tools built for arthritic hands, with soft oversized handles that ...
Buck pocket knives are an American classic, the evolutionary result of a Kansas blacksmith's search for a better tempering method, about a hundred years ago. Now that stainless steel has taken over the market, tempering probably isn't the pinnacle feat of the industry any longer, but back in the days ...
Small enough to carry as a pocket knife, stout enough to be useful as a hunting knife, this update of Buck's 1964 invention, the lockback, is a smaller variation of the knife I've carried on backpacking trips for more than ten years.
The lockback style solves the primary issue of a ...
Pocket knives are tools, legally not considered to be weapons at all unless over a certain blade length, and even today there are many people who would not be without one. I'm one of those, since I feel very strange without one in my pocket. I carry one ...
From the sounds of it, and the initial first impression, the Black Ultimate Survival Knife is just about the best thing since sliced bread. It's basically a survival kit built right into the handle of the knife.
If you twist the handle open, a whole plethora of goodies falls out into your ...
It's rare to find a Swiss Army knife with locking blades. In fact, only three of Victorinox's pocketknives feature locking mechanisms... and the Trekker is one of them.
Only two of the Trekker's twelve accessories lock into place, but they're the most important to contain this feature: a large screwdriver, and ...
Nothing like taking an industry standard and making it bigger & better, right? That's what Leatherman has done with its Surge pocket multitool.
Apparently, the press agrees. Back in 2006, Field & Stream Magazine awarded the Surge the title of "Best of the Test" for multi-tools for hunting and fishing.
The pliers are ...
This is the Cave Bear pocketknife from Schrade's immortalized Old Timer product line. And again, it's another example of a high-quality knife at a reasonable price.
The blade is made from high carbon stainless steel, and features a single-blade lockback design into the handle. Its plain edge is actually quite sharp! You ...
The craftsmen behind Boker bring you the knife you see here; a blade that's fairly cheaply made, but is still handy to have as an all-around tool knife.
Its 2.75-inch blade is made from carbon steel, but it's not high enough of a grade to warrant anything above its low price tag. ...
This small knife is a stylish and sturdy choice for an everyday carry.
When folded, it's only 4.25 inches long. The blade itself is made from 440 stainless steel. It may not be the highest quality steel available, but it gets the job done and is made to be withstand minor abuses.
The nickel silver ...
Case is the first place you should look for Johnny Cash collectible knives. They carry a lot of their popular pocketknife models in Johnny Cash gift sets, as well as other memorabilia.
This particular pocketknife is the "Trapper" model, from renowned W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery Company. It contains two different blades: ...
Talk to people about their Buck 110 knives and they get all misty-eyed. While not quite as much of an icon as the '57 Chevy, it's still got a special place in American history.
The 110 has been around for forty years and you'll find plenty of people who have ...
The S1 is another great knife from Fallkniven. Fallkniven is a small family-run operation known for producing a short list of exceptional knives.
The S1 is a "forest" knife, though it might be better known as part of the bushcraft, survival, or wilderness categories.
What differentiates a wilderness knife like this one from a ...
Spyderco makes cool looking knives that often break ground in terms of functionality and materials.
The Pacific Salt actually looks pretty tame compared to other Spyderco Knives. Compare it to the Spyderco S, for example.
However, the Pacific Salt has something that very few other knives have these days: H-1 Steel.
And what's ...
Not that many Swiss Army knives are available in black as well as red. The Swiss Champ is one of Victorinox's most popular models and is also one of the most sought-after black ones.
No surprise, really, since it does a great job packing a ton of tools into a small, lightweight ...
Tracing Boker's lineage is a bit like tracing down a family tree. The current Boker knife making company has been at it for just over twenty years. And yet their lineage traces back another two hundred years before that!
They've been sold, re-formed, moved and just about anything else you ...
A ceramic folder knife with a titanium handle? That's some fancy materials there, sir. Is it worth the hype?
Ceramic, as you may know, presents a unique trade-off. Ceramic blades are lightweight, hold their edge for darn near forever and are extremely sharp.
The downsides? Ceramic blades can chip or break under ...
Fire up the barbie and let's grill us some bass! Right after we clean those suckers up, of course.
Luckily we've got this electric fillet knife set from Rapala. It will surely do the trick. What with its interchangeable 6 and 7.5 inch stainless steel blades.
And don't forget its versatile go-anywhere power ...
If you're a seafood lover, chances are at some point you're going to want to cook up some oysters of your own, because eating out can get really expensive.
And for that, you need an oyster knife. Unless you're really rich, in which case you probably already have a set of eight 24 carat gold oyster ...
Gotta hand it to the Swedes - they sure do know how to make a great survival knife. Fallkniven is a supplier of knives to the king of Sweden, so they're probably doing something right.
Along with the H1 Hunting Knife and F1 Pilot Survival Knife, this A1 is another ...
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