No matter where you're fishing, a good pocket knife will always come in handy for various situations, like liberating tangled fishing lines, preparing bait, and disengaging hooks. In contrast to an ordinary fishing knife, a fishing pocket knife is much more portable and lightweight, easily stored in your breast pocket or clipped onto your buckle so you can reach for it in an instant. A fly fishing pocket knife is an essential must-have for fly fishers or beginners at risk of bird-nesting their fishing baits.
Once you've hauled in your catch, you can instantly get to work on descaling, deboning, gutting, and cleaning your catch with your pocket knife fish scaler so you'll have prime fillet cuts and a full chum bucket by the time you arrive onshore.
Read on to see our top fishing pocket knife picks!
Morakniv Eldris Fixed-Blade
Considered by many as the Ferrari of fishing knives, the Morakniv pocket knife makes it to this list for obvious reasons. The blade is constructed with top-rank Swedish Sandvik 12C27 stainless steel, which gives it an extra boost against corrosion and provides enhanced hardness and sharpness.
The blade spine comes with a fire starter made out of Ferro fire steel. Morakniv also offers various colorful sheaths and ergonomic handle grips that customers can choose from.
The handle comes with a rubbery grip and an ergonomic palm swell for comfort. It comes in various colors—black, blue, green, orange, red, or yellow—all meant for easy identification even in low-visibility weather.
Although the stainless steel is corrosion-resistant, it's not a 100-percent guarantee. It's good practice to rinse the blade with fresh water, especially after using it in saltwater environments. Take all that plus an award-winning design, one-year warranty, and an accessible price tag—it's safe to say that the Morakniv Eldris is a solid purchase.
CASE XX WR Yellow Synthetic Fishing Knife
An angler’s favorite, the bright yellow is a common sight in fish ports. The Case XX WR is a modern rendition of a timeless design spanned through a century.
The Case XX WR has two blades optimized for fishing work. The long clip blade offers versatility with a sharp point for piercing and a flexible and thin length for precision work. The blade's shape and trailing point allow better control of the edge for deboning.
This knife is robust enough for everyday tasks on and off the boat. The 2nd blade, a fish scaler, has a bluntly serrated edge specifically designed to work on fish scales. The hook disgorger at the tip of the blade can quickly remove hook gear from the fish's mouth.
The long clip blade and the fish scaler are all constructed with Case Tru-Sharp Stainless steel with a high-carbon mix that provides a longer-lasting edge than standard steel. Made in Bradford, PA, USA, the Case XX WR comes with a limited lifetime warranty. If you want to invest in a knife with historical elegance and modern innovations, the XX WR yellow fishing pocket knife is right up your alley.
Spyderco Salt 2 Folding Knife
Spyderco is another big name in the knife industry, and the Spyderco Salt 2 Folding Fishing Knife is another quality piece favored by anglers. The blade is constructed with H-1 steel, a Japanese precipitation-hardened stainless steel known for its excellent corrosion resistance. For saltwater anglers, the Spyderco Salt 2 can maintain its quality edge in the long run even with everyday use.
The 3-inch hollow grind blade comes with the signature Spyder edge serration pattern. This design boosts the cutting edge surface area by nearly a whopping 24%, giving it an edge in detangling lines, freeing hooks, and descaling fish.
The Salt 2 has been revamped from the original Salt 1 in various ways. Most of the metal used in the Salt 2 is constructed with special rust-resistant alloys. With top-notch anti-corrosion designs and high-quality grip ergonomics, the Spyderco Salt 2 folding knife is a solid fishing companion on long expeditions.
Smith & Wesson Extreme Ops SWA24S
Smith & Wesson is known for quality guns, but their knives are just as good. With a safe foldable design, convenient flip access, and a blend of serrated and smooth edges, the Extreme Ops is a highly versatile hunting and fishing pocket knife.
The liner lock folding knife is constructed with black oxide high-carbon stainless steel with a smooth blade at the base and a partially serrated point. Although the knife comes with excellent anti-corrosion properties, we'd still recommend rinsing it well with fresh water after exposure to salt.
It comes with jimping and an easy-to-install pocket clip. The textured handle and finger impressions along the black aluminum blade also allows an ergonomic grip. Although the flipping mechanism works nicely, the blade only opens halfway for safety purposes. To straighten the blade, you'll have to do some manual pulling.
Kershaw Link Pocket Knife
Kershaw specializes in creating ideal EDC knives that are easy to handle, safe to use, and suitable for everyday applications. The Kershaw link blade is made of stonewashed steel with a pre-worn finish.
Other Kershaw knives fetch much higher prices due to their quality standards, but the Kershaw Link pocket knife is much more affordable despite being constructed out of 420HC stainless steel. This knife's heat-treated material has an increased chromium composition and carbon, providing superior abrasion resistance and a longer-lasting edge. The material used makes the knife hardy enough but may feel bulky compared to lighter and sleeker knives. The blade easily flips back to the sturdy casing for safe storage.
The matte black nylon handle is equipped with the SpeedSafe assisted opening, allowing for one-handed blade deployment. To activate this feature, the user can either press a thumb stud or press a flipper. The flipper on SpeedSafe assisted knives are ambidextrous and will have no problem with left or right-handed users. Once the blade swings into a locked position, the flipper either disappears for a sleeker look or remains out in the open for added finger protection. The material allows for incredible stiffness for a stabilized grip, heat resistance, and dimensional stability combined with essential wear and tear resistance.
The Kershaw makes their pocket clips to fit their specific models according to weight, intended applications, size, style, and hardware. The Kershaw link's pocket clip allows either tip-up or tip-down position in either left or right side of the body, offering convenient accessibility that will fit the buyer's needs.
Although some may find the grip uncomfortable after extended grips, the Kershaw is still one of the best value fishing pocket knives out there.
Victorinox Swiss Army Classic SD Pocket Knife
From supplying knives to officers in the swiss army for the first time, Victorinox has built a brand that needs no introduction at all. With multiple stainless steel tools contained in a compact and light frame, the Victorinox swiss army pocket knife is a timeless icon that will surely come in handy during your fishing expeditions. Although the stainless steel blade is just about 1 inch long, the swiss army knife is all about accomplishing multiple tasks and less on size.
This toolbox knife boasts a large blade with a precision-honed sharpened edge, a versatile screwdriver, scissors, bottle opener, tweezers, and plastic toothpicks. You can trim lines with scissors, use the tweezers to disgorge hooks, use the large blade for everything in between. The bottle opener's handy for, you know, an ice-cold beer after a big haul. All the tools are hewn out of quality swiss steel tempered, annealed, and polished to perfection. The ABS/Cellidor handle tops it all with a smooth surface and a rust-resistant material.
The unit comes installed with a ring at the edge for easy hookups to lanyards for keys. The weight of the unit is just suitable for pockets and fishing vessels. You'll find that the Victorinox pays for itself over time due to its durability and solid build overall. With Victornox's lifetime warranty, you can trust this knife to stay in your pockets for the next few years.
CRKT Squid
The CRKT Squid folding pocket knife is a multi-purpose knife perfect for budget anglers. This pocket knife boasts high-end specifications, especially in terms of construction material, safety features, and price point. It's also quite a looker with its stonewash finish.
The drop-point blade is constructed with 8Cr13MoV, a Chinese stainless-steel grade commonly used in knives for its hardness, low cost, and ease of manufacturing. It's comparable to an AUS 8 steel, although it has a higher carbon content overall. This alloy won't hold an edge as long as VG10 but is softer and can be sharpened quite easily to a razor-sharp edge. CRKT offers black stonewash, silver stonewash, silver assist, and holey Squid, with the stonewash shades, in our preference, being a better option due to their ability to mask scratches.
On-blade friction grooves are installed for maximum control with your index finger so you can handle the blade better when doing grunt work like cutting through ropes or lines. The handle is designed to mold your palm curves, so the knife feels like a natural extension of your hand. However, some users complain about the all-metal handle, which is heftier than the blade. You may have to consider adding some grip tape on the handle surface for improved grip.
Although somewhat heavy, the handle is rounded out for comfortable handling, with a pocket clip suitable for belts or fishing vests. The thumb studs stand out for an easy one-handed opening. The limited lifetime warranty guarantees that you won't have to worry about assembly or factory defects. Together with a safety lock and solid metal construction, the CRKT Squid folding pocket knife is one of the best value fishing pocket knives out there.
Grand Way Spring Assisted Knife
This Grand Way knife is easy to wield and highly affordable for a quick-flipping blade with a razor-sharp edge. A lightweight folding knife with a sleek matte black finish, Grand Way's pocket knife combines the best of style, durability, and affordability.
It has a spring-assist mechanism that is easy to handle and affordable for a quick-flipping blade with an excellent edge. This lightweight folding knife comes with a nice matte finish. Grand Way's pocket knife offers an EDC with durability, style, and affordability that will surely be nice to have on a fishing trip.
This pocket knife's blade is constructed with 440C stainless steel, a material that's unpretentious, high-quality, and inexpensive to manufacture yet still gives the blade a razor-sharp edge. The 440c stainless steel alloy is further strengthened with advanced heat treatments. The stainless steel provides the blade with some heft while counterbalanced with a partially hollowed aluminum that keeps the blade light on its feet. The handle is designed with a textured grip, with a pocket carry clip that makes it possible to carry everywhere in the convenience of your pocket or fishing vest.
The Grand Way pocket knife boasts a semi-automatic mechanism with its spring-assisted system. In the case of spring breakage, Grand Way assures buyers that the knife can retain its original functions as a foldable pocket knife. The blade is lined with a simple liner lock, an index flipper trigger, and some jimping on the blade for better handling. The index flipper trigger is responsive enough and functions as a finger guard once the blade switches into position.
For fish with tough scales, like sea bass, a one-handed spring mechanism is a clear advantage.
Conclusion
Whether you're deep-sea fishing in the blue ocean or hitting up the local pond, a good fishing pocket knife is one of those tools you'd sorely miss when the need arises. While all the knives in this article are quality knives with little left to prove, the top rank goes to the Morakniv Eldris Fixed blade pocket knife for its distinct resistance to corrosion and durability in any environment—qualities that any angler would appreciate.
August 19, 2022
