Rapala R12 Heavy-Duty Lithium Fillet-Knife Review

My neighbor Larry, who is also a fisherman, recently told me that I needed to get a cordless fish fillet knife. He told me they are super handy because you can fillet your fish at the lake and not wait until you come home. Which is especially nice if you’re spending the week on the lake like he normally does.

Well, shortly thereafter, I was attending the big iCAST Show in Orlando, which is the largest fishing show in the country. While at the show, I met the Rapala crew and noticed that they had a cordless electric knife. I remembered what Larry had just told me, and before you knew it, I was working a deal with Rapala to get one to test.

Rapala R12 Heavy-Duty Lithium Fillet-Knife

I figured that since it was getting late in the summer, my crappie fishing would be done until next spring since it was time to jump into backpacking/flyfishing and then on into archery elk hunting. But one afternoon, I had some free time, so I ran over to Oregon for what would most likely be my last crappie fishing trip of the year.

Wow! The fishing was still hot. We didn’t get as many as normal, only 48, but they were the largest I’ve ever caught in Oregon in 25 years of fishing there. Nearly all of them were 10-11 inches, which is big for Oregon. I got home about midnight, threw ice on them, and went to bed.

The next afternoon, I wanted to go shoot some Eurasian doves with my .25 cal. Umarex Gauntlet, so as soon as I woke up, I set up my tables to start filleting my catch. Wow, this cordless fillet knife was going to be sweet. Normally, I have a water hose running and an electric cord to the knife dragging through the wet grass to my set-up, which always makes me nervous that I’m going to get shocked.

No longer do I need to worry about that since the Rapala R12 Heavy-Duty Lithium Fillet-Knife is cordless.

I would say that I’m particular about the flexibility of my fillet knives. But I don’t think I’m particular; I know what works and doesn’t, and I know what I want. Half of the fillet knives on the market are designed by someone who obviously never has filleted coolers of fish day after day. The dysfunctional designers think that a fillet knife needs to be super flimsy. Not so. You want enough flex so as to be able to adequately do the job but not so flimsy that it is out of control.

The flex on the Rapala R12 Heavy-Duty Lithium Fillet-Knife is perfect. The flex combined with the 7 ½-inch blade makes for a perfect combination and is the perfect fillet knife for crappie on up to medium-sized fish.

REMOVING THE BLADES

Like most electric fillet knives, you push a button on the handle of the knife to remove the blades. On the Rapala R12 Heavy-Duty Lithium Fillet-Knife push the small red button on the bottom front end of the handle to remove the blades.

As is common on other electric fillet knives there are two blades that connect on the tip end of the blades by sliding the head of a bolt into a slot on the other blade.

ON/OFF BUTTON

The Rapala R12 Heavy-Duty Lithium Fillet-Knife is turned on/off by pushing down on the large red button on top of the handle. I like that it also has a locking button that you can push that deactivates the on/off button to help prevent you from getting accidently cut.

GRIP

Even though the Rapala R12 Heavy-Duty Lithium Fillet-Knife has a full-sized handle, it is comfortable to hold. And due to the rubberized grip, I feel like I have a firm grip on the knife while it is in use.

CHARGING

To charge the knife is simple. Simply press in on the two tabs (I guess that I will call them tabs) and pull the battery out. Slip it into the charger and plug it in. It’s pretty much the same scenario as charging any of the rechargeable batteries on any of your other tools.

So, if you’re a fisherman and never have made the switch over to using electric fillet knives to clean your catch, you need to check out the Rapala R12 Heavy-Duty Lithium Fillet-Knife. And especially so since it is cordless. The MSRP on the Rapala R12 Heavy-Duty Lithium Fillet-Knife is $137.49 and is usual, we will close with the company specs.

PRODUCT DETAILS

• Lithium Ion battery provides a consistent speed and torque from fillet to fillet, without reduced power or slow down as battery power wanes.
• 80 minutes of continuous runtime on a single 2Ah Lithium ION battery charge
• Twice the speed and three times the torque of other cordless fillet knives
• Radical ergonomic design features a positive-force power button
• LED light for filleting in low light conditions
• On-board LED power gauge to monitor battery status
• 7-1/2″ PTFE coated blade
• One R12® 2Ah Lithium ION battery
• Compact sleeve charger, battery charge time of 4-1/2 hours
• Two Year Warranty

About Tom Claycomb

Tom Claycomb has been an avid hunter/fisherman throughout his life as well as an outdoor writer with outdoor columns in the magazine Hunt Alaska, Bass Pro Shops, Bowhunter.net, and 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 #ad for $.99 if you’re having trouble.”