bluegills any good?

[okeechobee fisher]

are bluegills any good eatin?

[David Waters]

YES. They are very good. Not a crappie, but still very good eatin. Growing up in north Florida, I can't tell you how many times I ate bluegill. Fished in the Appilachicola River system, below Jim Woodruff Dam. Great bream fishing in that river. Huge bluegill. We called them handpainted bream. Shellcracker are also good eatin.

[okeechobee fisher]

ya i live here in south west florida and ive seen some perty big blue gills and was wondering if they were any good...so il have to try some then

[big "E"]

Bluegills are still my favorite eating fish.As stated above they are not crappie , but a taste all it's own.Some folks skin the fillets (if you fillet them) and some dont.If you leave the skin on a fillet make sure to cook them skin side down if in a pan.They tend to curl up in the pan and this helps keep 'em straight.A very hard fighting fish pound for pound as well.

[unknown 5]

I wish up north here we had the nice bluegills you folks in the South have. Lots of folks eat bluegill around here. They may not be quite as good as crappie (but are plenty good) and they sure put up twice the fight a crappie will. I like to fish for bluegill if the bluegill are biting and the crappie are not.

[Tugaloo]

You shouldn't have asked. Now it's "History Lesson" time. During the Revolutionary War, when things weren't going too well for the British, the King of England (King George, I think) wrote to Lord Cornwallis who was, at the time. in South Carolina asking, "Is it worth the effort to continue this war?" Lord Cornwallis sent back his reply. "Yes, King, It's worth it. If for no other reason, then for the bream that swim in the waters of Carolina."

End of lesson. The moral is: Yes, Bream, (or whatever you want to call them) are delicious table fare.

Tugaloo

[labill]

Bluegills are still my favorite eating fish.As stated above they are not crappie , but a taste all it's own.Some folks skin the fillets (if you fillet them) and some dont.If you leave the skin on a fillet make sure to cook them skin side down if in a pan.They tend to curl up in the pan and this helps keep 'em straight.A very hard fighting fish pound for pound as well.

As far as taste, I wouldn't turn around for the difference. They both have a different flavor, and each are equally as delicious. I prefer both fried whole, but also fillet for certain members for the family. Makes me hungry just thinking about it..... :D

[DENNIS BOWERS]

Yes We Eat Alot Of Them! Next To Crappie I"d Just Assume Catch & Eat Bluegill!! Great Fighters On Lite Equipment- Heck Most Of Us Learned How To Fish Catchin Em!! I Still Get A Kick Out Of It---bluegills & Grankids Go Togeather Like Crappies & Jigs!!good Fishin To Ya!!!dennis

[410MAN]

If one weighed 3 lbs. you would knot bee able to get him in the boat.

[Moose1am]

Blue gills are not only fun to catch but they are great eating. Their meat is said to be sweeter than crappie. I like both bluegills and crappie meat fired up in a batter or dipped in egg and rolled in corm meal and flour.

Blue gills can be caugth on a fly rod during the spring and they make for a fun fight on the end of a 5 weight graphite fly rod. I use small #10 sinking red and black ants with hackels and a 9ft long 2lb tippet to catch my bluegills in shallow water. If the mayflies are hatching out on the lake you can find a nice willow tree that overhangs the lake and fill your livewell with big fat bluegills. They love to hang under a willow tree.

The only problem with bluegills is that they are not always very big around here. Patoka Lake in Southern IN was famous for it's bluegills before 1997. Then someone gizzard shad were found in the lake and they are outcompeting the bluegill for the available food and the bluegill population has suffered ever since. We still have a good population of bluegill at Patoka but they just are not growing as fast as they did before the shad got into the lake.

You may have to just scale the bluegills and cut the heads off and gut them to get enought meat to eat. Fry them up in a frying pan or deep fry them. You will have to pick the bones out and there will be a lot of them. Have some bread ready just incase you swallow a small bone. The bread can help get the bone out of your throat. LOL Well that is what I was always told by my dad. I am very careful and eat the fish slowly to find any bones before I swallow them.

I prefer larger fish that I can filet as then I am sure to get about 99% of the bones out of the fish before I cook and eat it. But bluegills are mostly too small for me to filet. Now if I catch a big slab bluegill then I may filet it. Most of them at patoka lake are under 8 " in lenght.

Man I have seen some huge bluegills on a spawning slope while scuba diving at cilurian springs near Dawson Springs KY. Those would have been nice eating but I didn't have the heart to shoot them that day and didn't have anything with me to take them home with me. We were just scuba diving and I left all my fishing stuff back home that trip. I went in someone else's car that day. Man I wish I had been able to take some underwater pictures of those big bluegills on the spawing beds. They were in 15 to 20 ft of water and the water's visibility was over 100ft that day. It was one of the best faster than I could keep up. I must have followed that big bass for about 5 dives that I have made as far as seeing lots of freshwater fish. I observed many 4 and 5 lb bass that day and saw one bass that was at least 8 lb. I followed her around for a bit and then she finally got tired of me and swam off minutes before she took off and left me.