After seeing Gary’s thread on crappie. How does everyone prepare bluegills? Scaled and deheaded? Fillets? I’ll fillet crappie but prefer to leave bluegill whole without a head and pan fried.

Fillet. I dont feel like I leave much meat at all.

I scale then fillet -- I like the skin left on.

Filet the bigguns.

Skin the smaller ones like you'd do a catfish.

Bluegills get skinned and then fillet. Havent scaled one in 25+ years. And I do not use electric filet knives.

…. Scale and start the fillet down then fry whole

On the cob

Scale, gut, cut off the head and tail and put in electric fry pan and cook whole. When done the skeleton falls right off. I don't do breading etc. eat them plain and the skin comes off easily if you don't want to eat that.

Bryce

I learned to fillet fish when I was still in high school. My dad yelled at me for wasting some of the meat. But I continued to fillet them and when he cleaned them, he "Hog Dressed" them as I called it. Then sometime in the 1960s we caught a bunch of nice bluegills, and my dad cleaned them for a family fish fry and of course he "Hog Dressed" them.

My sister's little girl was about 4 or 6 years old and loved fish. She was stuffing fish in her mouth faster then she could chew... and of course she got a bone stuck in her throat. All of the usual tricks were tried, and nothing worked. So, they ended having to take her to the E.R.... The Drs. removed 3 bones.

When they returned home... the first words out my dad's mouth was; "she is okay... show me how to fillet fish."

From that time on all fish that were cooked at his house were filleted.

Garry-

We eat them filleted and on the round with find intact, just scale gut and remove head.

Good story Actor. I'm also a fan of electric filet. They're fast and one more fish will make up for any tidbit of waste.
We have lots of bluegills too but I try to avoid them. However, they love to swallow hooks.

I like bluegill best filleted and fried. If I only catch a few, I will often scale, head, gut and fry them instead. I like a mix of egg, salt, pepper, wheat flour and fresh ground corn meal for a coating.

I like bass on the grill better, but will sometimes grill bluegill too. I grill fish over mulberry, which is by far my favorite wood for grilling everything.

I have a standing invitation to fish a private lake, with very nice sized bluegill. I often catch bluegill over 11" long there and occasionally over 12". Hopefully I'll have some pictures to share from there in the next couple of weeks. I'm hoping to get my youngest nephew on some fish there.

Keith

Not enough meat on them to bother fileting unless their really bigguns. Besides filets tend to dry out in thin cuts.

Skinless filets. Just like any other fish. Not a fan of bones.

My dad and grandpa were dead set against filets when I was young.
When I was old enough to set out fishing on my own, I started fileting my fish.
They never complained about eating them and soon decided it was ok to filet fish
I filet all of my fish.

I never could get my grandpa to quit using a shotgun for squirrels though !

Bass, bluegill, crappie and yes, catfish all get fileted, rinsed in salt water,shaken with Fryin Magic and deep fried. Been doing this my whole life and don't plan on changing.

I fillet everything and remove skin,except trout. They just get gutted and heads removed. If only 8 or 10 fish l use a regular fillet knife. Otherwise I use an electric fillet knife if a bigger number. In my world the only way to prepare fish is to fry in oil till crisp and serve with a vegetable, usually asparagus. Best meal on the planet!

Fillet them. One summer 35 years ago I filled 2000+ for a big fish fry. Find a pond with 9” fish, I know of a couple. Nice firm meat.

Fillets only in this house with the exception of fresh Brook Trout.Fresh Brookies get gutted and beheaded and fried up,,,and even the beheading is optional.

skin on fillet