It wasn’t because there was anything wrong with his old fillet table that Capt. Mike Genoun bought a new Ultimate Dock Fillet Table a few years back. In fact, he says, the old table, also from Boat Outfitters, was still in great condition even after almost 15 years in the South Florida sun. “Short of having ten thousand slices across the top,” he says, “it was as good as new.”
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Rather, the main reason Genoun needed a new table was that he had relocated from Pompano Beach to Marathon, where wahoo and swordfish make up more of the catch.
At 48” long, the old table (now sold as the Fillet Table with Drawers) was plenty big for snapper, grouper, blackfin tuna, and all but the biggest mahi.
But the bigger 72” table made processing swords and big wahoo easier.
Extra Cutting Real Estate
When the new table arrived, Genoun didn’t get rid of the old one. He just moved it a few feet away to make room for the new one. The founder and longtime editor-in-chief of Florida Sport Fishing magazine and now the voice and face of Florida Sport Fishing TV, Genoun also offers high-end, hands-on instructional courses aboard his 41-foot SeaHunter catamaran.
With larger groups, the extra cutting real estate can come in handy. “When we have a good day and a heavy haul,” he says, “it’s nice to have room for multiple people to clean fish.”
For somebody like Genoun, who cleans fish on a near-daily basis for both himself and his “students,” a fillet table is more than a convenience; it’s a vital piece of equipment.
In fact, this new table was so important to Genoun that he actually had his dock extended just to accommodate it.
What Makes a Fillet Table ‘Ultimate?’
So, besides size, what is it that makes one fillet table better than another? Simple longevity is Genoun’s foremost concern. “You buy a cheap table,” he says, “and the top warps, the legs rust, rivets start popping out. You’re going to pay for quality, but the value is there in the long run.
In another 20 years, the next owner of this house is probably going to be cutting fish on these same tables. There are so many things to keep up with in offshore fishing that it’s nice to have one that I never have to worry about.”
“You buy a cheap table, and the top warps, the legs rust, rivets start popping out."
Beyond durability, Genoun has found the built-in, lockable drawers beneath the cutting surfaces on both tables to be more valuable than he initially expected. He often uses the new table for rigging swordfish baits — a painstaking process that can take as much as 30 minutes per bait — and being able to securely store his supplies and tools in the table makes a big difference.
“You need leader, hooks, crimps, skirts, brine, stitching materials, needles and so on,” he says. “Before, I had to gather all that from the garage, take it out outside, and inevitably I’d forget something and have to go back for it. The convenience of keeping it all in the drawers is huge.”
Genoun has customized his drawers to improve functionality by drilling drainage holes in the bottoms and lining the floors with Dri-Dek.
The DriDek keeps contents up off the floor and improves airflow for faster drying.
When the drawers need cleaning, Genoun simply removes the contents and blasts the insides out with high-pressure water.
The extra holes allow the cleaning water to drain freely.
Quality Is What Counts
Genoun also appreciates the upper and lower shelves, which provide a handy location for bags, knives and other tools to keep them off the actual cutting surface while the table is in use. The built-in sink, he says, is used mainly as a handy trash receptacle for pieces of leader, packaging, and other small items when the table is used for rigging.
Additionally, when rigging swordfish baits, Genoun sometimes fills the sink with ice and uses it as a cooler for finished baits while he rigs more.
“Part of what I want to show my clients is how important it is to use the very best of everything — that every little detail matters.”
At the end of the day, though, it’s not the clever add-ons and accessories that matter most to Genoun; instead, it’s simply the quality of the table. “My instructional courses aren’t cheap,” he says. “These are VIP customers. And part of what I want to show them is how important it is to use the very best of everything — that every little detail matters, whether that’s electronics, rods and reels, or a fillet table.”