Opinion
Idaho – -(AmmoLand.com)- I usually don’t combine Product Reviews, but on this one, I am since they are so closely related. Today I want to cover the Smith’s Lawaia 7” Fillet Coated Blade and the Smith’s Lawaia 9” Fillet Coated Blade knives. I recently published a PR on the Smith’s 6.3” Boning/Fillet Knife, which works great on boning out your big game and filleting smaller fish. But what about if you fish up in the Northwest Territories at Plummer’s Lodge where you’re going to be catching some huge lake trout and northern pike? You’ll need a longer bladed knife.
I figured the Smith’s Lawaia 7” Fillet Coated would work perfectly for filleting out our lake trout. I gave one the first day to our guide Darrel Smith to fillet our shore lunch, but it turned out that he favors larger knives. Luckily I had also thrown a Smith’s Lawaia 9” Fillet Coated Blade knife in my luggage. He used the Lawaia 7” Fillet Coated Blade, and it worked fine. But the second day I brought the Smith’s Lawaia 9” Fillet Coated Blade knife, and he really liked it.
We found the knives to be great fillet knives. I like the shape of the blade, and it was very functional in the field. They came from the factory sharp. I also brought a smooth steel along to touch them up after use. As I expected, the flat steel worked great on them. If you use it every two minutes, your fillet knives should stay sharp all day. I also threw in a Smith’s Consumer Products Natural Arkansas Sharpening stone in case we lost an edge, but we didn’t even have to open it up.
Darrel does a super job filleting fish. I have always struggled at properly cleaning northern pike when removing the Y-bones. Lake Trout have Y-bones similar to Northerns. I was super impressed at the job that Darrel did at removing them, so I asked him to teach me his method. I can’t adequately explain it in an article, so I guess you’ll just have to fly up to Plummer’s Lodge to learn from him first hand. I can’t wait until my next Northern now to test it out.
I also like the handle on the Lawai’s. I feel like that I have a firm grip which is super essential when filleting fish under the usual wet and slimy conditions and sometimes cold to boot. Although on this trip my daughter and I wore some Fish Monkey Pro 365 Guide Gloves which did help improve our grip while handling fish but still, it’s imperative to have a good grasp on your knife while filleting fish.
Now for the great feature that comes with the knife. The plastic sheath. I’ve always used old boning knives to fillet my fish. And they work great, but they’re dangerous to carry. Problem solved. Smith’s includes a plastic sheath with their boning and fillet knives. I love them. They are thin and sleek and not bulky. They also all come with an extension that snaps over the finger guard on the knife to hold it firmly in place. The sheaths also have slots cut in the side to help the blade air out in case you accidentally shove it into the sheath while it is still wet.
So in a nutshell, I think that you are going to fall in love with both of these fillet knives due to their design, functionality and the accompanying sheath. Especially when you see that the MSRP is only:
SPECS for the Lawaia 7” Fillet Coated Blade:
• Custom textured rubber grip
• 7″ Coated 420 stainless steel blade
• Lanyard hole
• Sheath included
SPECS for the Lawaia 9” Fillet Coated Blade:
• Custom textured rubber grip
• 9″ Coated 420 stainless steel blade
• Lanyard hole
• Sheath included.
About Tom Claycomb
Tom Claycomb has been an avid hunter/fisherman throughout his life as well as an outdoors 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 for $.99 if you’re having trouble.”