A battery/electric fillet knife will probably change how many more fish you decide to keep and clean. I know you said you only keep what you eat, I assume you mean you keep what you are gonna eat right away?

I started using electric knives about 15 years ago and it changed how I look at it now. I live and fish on Lake Hartwell in Georgia for the last 7 years, and also fish the South Carolina side for the last 18 years, and do some part time guiding for crappie and hybrids/stripers.

We have averaged cleaning around 1800 crappie and hybrid/stripers.
I average around 85 fishing days on the lake for the last 7 years. I keep a log of everything,( only way I can remember). I fish on average 55 days personally/family and the rest guiding others. I catch and release little more than half on my personal trips.

It’s about 80% crappie and 20% hybrid/Striper with about 15 walleye mixed in each season. ****The walleye have started showing up more the last 5 years, but not in any numbers.****

I say all this for this reason… I used to not let people keep any more than they themselves wanted to clean. I got tired of cleaning fish after 8 hour fish day in the heat or cold. I started dreading it.

Well I ended up helping them anyway because I let them use my fish cleaning table and knives, normal fillet knives and electric.

So I just started letting people keep their limits as long as they helped me clean, or payed me to clean em. I quit dreading to get back to the dock with 2–3 limits of crappie because I would start with the electric knife and let them cut the rib cage out with manual knife. Even with a novice fish cleaner helping me , we can clean 60 crappie, wash and bag in about 45 minutes give or take.

I have compared it many times with people cleaning manually. The guy with the electric fillet knife (especially if he gets good at it) will be about twice as quick as the manual… normally.

Sorry for the long winded answer, but was trying to tell a story that could explain what kind of difference a electric knife makes when it comes to cleaning numbers.

Last thing, if you are just gonna clean 8-10 fish or less each time then I would just keep doing what you have been. Unless those are large fish then it still saves time using electric.

Bottom line is you can’t go wrong with a good electric/battery knife. I see absolutely no downsides. But always keep your manual for rib cage removal and fine trimming, or as a back up in case electric/battery knife dies.

Good luck