Hey Kevin,
Years ago when I lived over in Phelps on Lac Vieux Desert Lake, an ol local named Clayton Kopanski showed me a method very similar and he called it shucking perch. The secret was using a dull pocket knife and it was great when the fish were running smaller as there is no waste. We would fry em up and eat em like corn on the cob. You get a bone once in a while and the kids complained , but I loved them that way. The tails were like tater chips. I'll have to show ya sometime.
Slammer!!!