Does anyone trim that little strip on top of the fillet?How about the horizontal bone strip-I usually cut the bone strip out on the larger ones,8 inchish and up.

Scale and fry for me.

I just had a little brainstorm- how about using that little strip for bait.

I strip that on most fish. (Crappies, Perch and walleyes) Fried fish it doesn't seem to matter but I don't like those tiny bones in chowder. It only takes a second. Never thought about using it for bait. I usually feed them to the leeches I trap.

Those strips just show you are doing a good job filleting. Mine fall off in the final rinse with a little coaxing.

x2

Never thought of it that way but I’m kinda over the top anal at getting everything I can off these guys.

Im fairly anal about that stuff too usually pull the off or trim out when I rinse. Bluegills I will start keeping at 7 1/2 if im hungry. Where you finding 8 and above right now ? Are they on the rocks or weed line? Wife has béen bugging to go out.

Mac

Idon't fillet my panfish anymore. I scale, gut and remove the head and tail. I put in pan with oil and back for 10 minutes or so at 425 degrees. I can then remove the skin and the whole skeleton comes right out in one piece.

Bryce

I don't remember even having that strip. I work around the rib cage and keep as much as possible.

If it comes loose I feed it to the hound. If not, it goes in the grease. I take out the ribs, never had a problem any other bones.

I rarely let my oil get over 350 and they are done in 2 maybe 3 mins. When the filets float I typically give them another 30 seconds and then take out.

I remove both. That little strip on the top probably doesn't hurt anything, but it just bugs me flopping around there, lol.

I don't bother filleting gills and other sunfish unless they're really large. Just take off the head and guts and pectoral fin plate. If feeling froggy I'll pull the top fin and bones with a pair of skinners.

The missus don't care for bones in fish but I figure she should be able to know how to get the meat off the bones after all these years.

Caught them on a wing darn and I mean on.Didn’t think they would be there in this high water.Probably only 1 8 inches but I like the 6 3/4 to 7 1/2 myself.

When I clean ghillies or any fish I run the knife along both sides of the dorsal fin and pinch it on the forward end and it will zip the fin/bones right out. Same for the anal fin.

I agree. Mine too. Never trimmed out anything else on them beside the rib bones.

I have always done what Bryce does with bluegills and small crappie.

Yes, lots of poor fisherman have to do that to get enough to eat. lol Just ribbing you Bob!

I prefer eating deep fried, filleted bluegill, so I usually fillet them. When I grill them, I scale, head and gut them. I pull that little strip off, if it's dangling and give it to our cats.

I went fishing Tuesday, Friday and today. Yesterday I tried a new spot. I got 58 bluegill in a little over an hour and I bass fished a good part of that time. The size wasn't good, but I did get some small filletable bluegill. There's a second pond there I should try to see if there's anything with better size.

Today I fished a couple of spots on the Scioto river. I got 3 large mouth, 1 channel cat, 1 probable wiper or huge white bass, 2 bluegill and 2 Gambusai affinis.

Tuesday I fished Indian Lake and caught 4 channel cats, 1 large mouth and 4 mystery snails, including a double, that closed their trap door on my lines. I've never had that happen before.

Keith

That strip at the very top of the filet can be pulled off easily. I pull it off because it has a strong fishy taste in my experience.
I also cut out the thin strip in the middle of the filet to remove those bones.

Scale and fry

^^^^^ sissy

Filleting a bluegill is about a sin and way to get into a fight round here

I clean a few bluegills each year. Fillet, trim out the ribs and skin. Think I can do a better job on the ribs prior to skinning. I try and get all the meat I can off them. I don’t zipper gills unless they are bigguns. Crappies and bass all get zippered to get those small bones out.

Savell. That is some awesome looking fish. I believe the tail is the best piece on one fried like that. I was a grown man before I ever saw a filleted fish and now that’s the only way I clean them. Lazy!

…. Fry up small cats the same way Larry … hard to beat

I prefer to gut, scale, cut off heads, fry and eat them that way. But, my wife doesn't like eating them like that because of the bones. You don't lose any meat if you do them the first way. So, for now I filet them.

I just eat them raw, guts and all. I do prefer them to be dead first.

I'd expect nothing less from you. They don't make guys like you anymore, Dave.

For you guys that don't fillet bluegills, is it because they aren't common in your area and you need all the meat you can get off them? Around here, in a good spot, it's not uncommon to catch more than 60 bluegill an hour out of a pond. There's really no reason to save all the little bits of meat around the bones. I can fillet bluegill much faster than I can scale head and gut them.

Keith

It's just seen as wasteful here. Then again most her never throw ANYTHING back so

If you want to not waste anything you should do them like the Asians I saw at a local lake. The kids were catching them fast as they drop their bait in the water, running them up to their elders who were using a bench mounted grinder clamped on the picnic table. As soon as the kid got the fish off the hook they dropped them, guts and all, through the grinder, formed them into patties and straight onto a flat top grill. They ate all they wanted and put leftovers in a cooler for later I guess. ... I'll stick to filleting mine.

Gooks will eat a lot of things you'd think will kill them, but they seem to flourish on it!