I like to take the bigger(12" or better) yellow perch and scale them,then fillet them like normal but leave the skin on.Those boneless skin on fillets are the best.

I'm an odd ball in that my mother taught me to fillet fish not my dad? Sounds like the leaving skin on was kind of a thing of the time. We did pan fish both fillet or scaled and fillet when I was a kid. Seems to me was more the smaller fish we just scaled.. I know that scaling always seemed to make way more mess. Was a lot of times I had fish others cleaned and I was always getting scales in my mouth??
I had a commercial potato peel a freind gave me when I was on a lefse making kick. never like using it made more mess than help.. Anyway I put it on Craig's list to get it out of my way. Guy that bought it drove 30 mile here to get it. Had been watching for one was going to use it to scale his pan fish. Said a buddy had one worked great. Buddy of mine and I still scale white and stripe bass fry them whole..

Mac

I fillet all fish.

As much as I hate scaling fish, I enjoy the awesome flavor that the skin adds to sunfish.
I don't care much for crappie due to lack of flavor, but I have never had them with skin on. I guess I have some crappie fishing to do now.

Perch and bluegill skin on for much more flavor. I have a power scaling bucket that does a beautiful job.

If out of town, or exhausted and want to get a shower and go to bed, or only have a few perch I will fillet and slice off the skin.

Whenever I don’t leave the skin on I think, I’ll regret this later.