The best fillet knife for salmon and steelhead: a long, narrow, flexible 9-inch blade from a US commercial cutlery maker, but you'll need to buy a sheath separately.
Buy it if: Salmon and steelhead anglers, and anyone who cleans fish at a table or at home and wants a proven commercial knife.
Skip it if: Anglers who need a knife they can carry on the water without buying a separate sheath.
Dexter-Russell knives are standard equipment at commercial fish counters and processing lines, and the Sani-Safe 9-inch fillet knife shows why. The blade is long, narrow and flexible, so you can take a salmon or steelhead fillet off in long, smooth strokes.
Dexter calls the steel DEXSTEEL: a high-carbon, high-alloy, stain-free blend that is easy to hone. The white polypropylene handle is textured, slip resistant and NSF certified, which means it meets commercial kitchen sanitation standards.
There's no sheath in the box. That's fine at a cleaning table or in the kitchen, but to carry it in a tackle bag you'll want Dexter's WS-1 plastic sheath (about $14 when we checked), which has drain holes and a belt loop. Dexter recommends hand washing and drying the knife.
On Amazon, buyers most often praise the sharpness out of the box and how well it handles big fish like steelhead and salmon. Opinions are mixed on three points: some find 9 inches too long to be handy, some say the flex is stiffer than they expected, and a few report rust spots. If 9 inches is more than you need, Dexter also sells 7- and 8-inch versions of this knife for less.
Here’s where its 9-inch blade sits against typical fish sizes. See blade length by fish for more.
This review is based on the manufacturer’s specifications, the Amazon listing and patterns in verified buyer feedback, compared against the other knives we cover. We haven’t lab-tested it. Read our method.