i live in washington and all the bluegill i have caught so far dont seem to be of eating size. so for all you people down south with better warmwater than me, what do you consider eating sized fish and how do you cook the smaller ones.

Smaller ones, just scale and fry whole, fillet if big enough. As far as whats big enough for keepers, depends on how hungry I am for fresh fish... Sometimes it might be just over hand size.

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In wine there is wisdom.
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In water there is BACTERIA.

7'' is the smallest that i will keep, and i fillet all mine.

Like LM I prefer to catch the big ones but for eating I like hand size and smaller.

i am from arkansas i keep 8 to 9 inch or bigger and i filet all of mine

once i get about 60 head in the freezer i get real picky,9" on chinks ,8" on gills.
we catch a lot of 10" plus chinks this time of year,i skin all of mine ,although i have been trying to filet some .i have never tired it on panfish but i am getting the hang of it.

This is eating size for me.

Thats for sure eatin size.Nice gill

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I'm in NY, so we get our fair share of smaller gills. In general, for me to keep them, they need to be 7-8" and must be "fat" so they are easy to fillet.

For smaller fish, which are just as good to eat, just not easy to fillet, I scale them, cut off the heads and gut them, then remove the dorsal and anal fins (leave the tail on). To cook gills prepped this way, we go real simple. roll or shake in a mix of flour and salt & pepper, then pan-fry in butter. To me, this is the best tasting way to eat them, but you have the bones to deal with - and also will have a mess from scaling them (scales love to stick to human skin). The biggest reason I fillet everything nowadays is simply for speed. I can fillet three in the time it takes me to scale one.

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Fish on!!!

sharpshooter, If you get fast at filleting, It really helps smaller waters to pull all the smaller and mid sized you can, I filleted 78 last night that most wouldn't mess with. At 2 per min. it don't take forever to have a nice mess of what I call "potatoe chip" fillets. They fry fast, taste great and will help the population size a bunch. Mike