Fillet them. That’s the only way I know and they turn out delicious everytime

My wife and I both ice fish. Those are the only ones we'll eat. Summer fish taste like the smell of the water, motor oil and pond scum. Takes me 60 seconds to fillet a gill. Skin off. When you hold one up after filleting you can almost see right through it. No wasted meat. We only keep gills over 7".

Battered fillet

Beheaded, gutted, scaled then breaded and fried. The fried tails are the best part, and to avoid bones you can just take a fork and fork all the meat off going down from the dorsal fin to the belly and it'll all come right off the bones.

Never ate a bluegill, we didn't have them here in our ponds, only the small pumpkin seeds "sunnies". Fun to catch but you'd starve if you had to eat them...

I always filleted usually skin on scaled but I think with the way my wife likes baked and poormans lobster.

I need to try scale like bblwi

That's the way I like them best too. You don't lose any flesh that way and so easy to pull apart. Unfortunately, my wife doesn't like to mess with bones, so they get skinned and fileted.

Just pull the skeleton out for your spouse and then in my case shove over the tarter sauce!! yuck!!

Bryce

Smaller Gillies or Crappie, I pan clean, bone in, skin on. Bigger ones get scaled and fileted.

I never scale fish. I fillet them without skin and I never use an electric fillet knife and never cut into digestive tract. I like bluegills with the skin on but I'm too lazy and mess-averse to scale them!

Aren't the rib bones hard on a manual filet knifes edge?

Bream and smaller crappie get scaled, gutted, and head chopped off. Larger crappie get filleted. I can scale with a spoon faster than my son can chop heads and gut, lol. 2 people can get enough done for a 10 person fish fry in about 15-20min if everything is set up and ready to go. Add a third at the sink to rinse and bag and you’re set.

Wow! I filleted a little over 28 pounds of bluegill and red ear, that I caught, for a large camp dinner once and thought it was a lot.

Keith

For GOOD knife, not so much!

Fillet more fish every year than you can count with a regular fillet knife and never cut into the rib bones but around them

If I filleted a bluegill my grandpa would roll over in his grave

Scale, gut, head off, fry whole

If you know what you're doing you can pull the whole ribcage out at one time at have no fear of bones

Pro Tip: Bury the bluegill heads under your tomato plants

Hey Gary. I don't cut through any ribs; I fillet around them - but yes, all of that dulls my knives. I'm always sharpening fillet knives to put a good edge on them.

Mmm. Bluegill scampi

For years I would scale, cut head off and gut. Soak in salt water overnight. When cooking I would salt them roll them in yellow corn meal and fry till golden brown. However, with age comes poor eyesight. So now I scale and fillet. Frying is the same though. I do miss eating the tails though.

Garryowen

Only way tails are the best