[jad2t]

Heck yea I eat them. I've eaten a 20 pounder too and they taste just as great as a 3 pounder so don't let anyone tell you different. I've seen over and over that the larger ones don't taste good. I think that's more of a bias from people who want to tell you to catch and release. That whole concept is strange to me. Humans hunt for food and we fish for food and we've been doing it since the beginning of time.

Since it's a large fish there is going to be a lot of red meat to deal with. Sometimes I get lucky and can "zipper" the strip right off the bottom of the fillet. After you fillet the skin off, take your knife towards the tail of the fillet and cut into the red meat at about a 45 degree angle towards the center. Do this on both sides for the last 3-4 inches of fillet. Then you should have a string of red meat hanging there. Hold the fillet down with one hand and pull hard with the other hand on that red meat and most of it comes off like pulling a zipper. It's an awesome trick!

If that doesn't work I literally cut the fillet in half, long ways right down the middle and then cut down the inside edges to get all the red meat off. You might waste a bit of white meat too but be careful to save as much as you can.

I hope that description helps, I tried to be detailed but I guess it's hard to describe how I do it. But seriously, eat the stripers, they're delicious. They're also a fattier fish and have a good amount of Omega-3 fat.