Thread: cooking/eating sunfish

Bluegil and Crackers do get big enough to filet. Scale the smaller ones. They dont get too small to cook. Cut off the head, scale and wipe the bottom side. Dont cut off the tail. It is very tasty. crispy like a pringle.

I fillet the ones we keep off of KY Lake. After some practice you'll get better. I use me electric knife and it works just fine, but we usually toss the smaller fish back. In my opinion, bluegill/shellcrackers are just as good as crappie. Soak in milk and use Golden Dipt Cajun batter, dip in Heinz spicey cocktail sauce and add a few hushpuppies made with onions and green peppers on the side and mmmmmm, mmmmm, good.

I use the method descirbed in the bluegill video for the smaller ones. Are they as good as crappie? At least, if not better. They're my wife's favorite, and she doesn't like fish.

I am a crappie fisherman that loves to catch crappie. I catch more crappie than a man could ever eat, however, I do not like to eat them. When the bluegill and shell cracker go on bed, i can catch them nonstop. I take enough home to eat a few messes during the year. They are the only fish i will eat. I catch them plenty big enough to fillet and they have a good size piece of meat on them. I can even fillet the smaller ones, just takes a little practice. I dont care for the tails a whole lot, I cut them off sometimes and fry up a batch of them, kinda like eating chips. Comparing the taste of bluegill to crappie is a funny topic to me due to experience. I have had people tell me that crappie is the best tasting fish, that is until they try my bluegill and change their mind. I have even had people that say that cant stand the taste of any fish to try my bluegill and they have come back wanting more. So no doubt in my opinion and the folks i have experienced, seemed to like the bluegill better. I use Zattarans fish batter with lemon. Sometimes I will soak the fish in Italian dressing but they are great either way.

You take ten Blue gill and fillet em gives twenty pieces no matter what size. Good eatin for two or three poeple. If I bring em home I fillet em. Best eatin fish in the river.

just wondering, when some of you talk of eating the small ones whole, what all do you acctually eat? when you talk of eating the tails do you acctually eat the fin? what about the skin? do you crunch down the bones or pick around them? by the way, i dont remember if it was in field and stream or an article on bass pro but they talked of filleting them by making a cut along the back and then peeling the fillets away from the bones.

by leaving them "whole" as we call it, you remove the head guts and scales, and eat the flesh off the bones. My great-grandpa could eat a bluegill like that, and it looked like he was eating an ear of corn!
When i do my fish up like that, i remove the fins, except the tail, they are great eating.
Bluegills,redears pumpkin seeds ect all have similar bone struture as crappies, so you can fillet them just like you would a crappie. They do have a small line of pin bones growing out of the rib cage, if you fillet them down over the ribs, you will have a half dozen tiny pin bones. If your trim the ribs out after you fillet, you'll never see these bones.
Im my experince, gills dont require much if any salt, and they do have a slightly different taste then crappies, but its quite similar,and a bit firmer.

HB

Newbie here.

My Grandad never filleted, never knew how, but I have fond memories of the 'gills we caught and ate together. As many have said, tails on.

In the summer I prefer 'gills, the meat's firmer. Winter or cool water I'll take crappie. Crappie can be helped out by soaking in ice water after cleaning if they come from warm water.

Favorite meal ever is a mess of crisp fried crappie or 'gills, and a pan of crisped down fried 'taters with a few ramps chopped up in them. If you never heard of them, ramps are a spring treat that grows in the woodlands. Looks kind of like a tulip plant. Can't mistake it, it's like a cross between garlicand onion. One smell will tell you. Oh, and add a side of fried morels to that meal. Won't be long now....