I have never fried hole but I decided I am going to give that a try when I catch my next mess of fish

scale , gut , head off and fry

Yes, I do cut the head off as well.

That's how I learned to cook fish.
We as kids used to just gut, scale , cut the head off, and cook over an open fire on a stick.
The best tasting bluegills were rolled in flour , just scaled and gutted, fried in butter, or bacon grease , used a fork to run along the dorsal fin.
Flip the meat skin and all off the ribs, and just leave a skeleton on the plate.
The wife marveled at how I would do that.
I fillet them most of the time anymore , because of how many people eat them that can't see eating the tails, and skin.
But that's the best tasting fish ever, beats perch even.

Cut behind the head through the spine. Grab the head and pull off, pulling the guts out at the same time. Stick your fingers inside and hold it down on the table or stump you're cleaning on and give it a quick scrape with the 97¢ scaler from Sam Walton's Mart. Flip and scrape again. Faster than cutting filets off.

Dip in cornmeal mix and fry. If I've got time, I'll run the filet knife down both sides of the spine so that I can get some breading in there and it will open up the filet when it hits the hot grease.

When it's time to eat you just gently lift the filet off with the fork. Flip it over and do the same and you are left with two boneless filets and just the skeleton like the cats ate on Saturday morning cartoons.