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flytire

Are bluegills etc....

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I fillet them.

Roll in cornmeal, paprika, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder salt, pepper mixture.

Bake at 400 degrees on a "Pammed" cookie sheet 10 - 12 minutes.

 

For crappie I like to put a tablespoon of soy sauce on them and let it set for 6- 8 ours. Then bake as above.

 

Rick

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I grew up on white crappie, but like Mike said, we only have blacks here in Fla. The ones I've eaten didn't measure up, but water quality can have an influence so I'll admit they deserve a more thorough trial. I still go for BGs and white crappies.

A while back I posted a discussion to see whether people preferred BG, WC, BC, walleye, perch, or smallmouth bass. As you might expect I never got straight enough answers to consider it a vote.

But this question was whether BGs are good to eat. Frankly, I can't believe you've been throwing them back all these years and never ate one!!!! Man, talk about missing out on life!!!

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Fillet then skin the fillets. Simple, fast, no wasted meat, very little bones. Much less mess and bother than trying to scale them. Corn meal then hot peanut oil. Fry until golden, just a couple minutes. Only thing better than a big pile of fried bluegill fillets is a big pile of crappie or yellow perch fillets!

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Fillet then skin the fillets. Simple, fast, no wasted meat, very little bones. Much less mess and bother than trying to scale them. Corn meal then hot peanut oil. Fry until golden, just a couple minutes. Only thing better than a big pile of fried bluegill fillets is a big pile of crappie or yellow perch fillets!

Actually you lose a significant amount if meat by filleting them.

 

Flytire you can buy a scaler, or use a knife, or a spoon. You can screw two metal beer bottle caps on a wooden handle and use it too. Field and stream posted that.

 

My friend has a hexagonal drum made of expanded metal. It spins and sprays water on the fish. We just cut the head off, gut them, put then in it and flip the switch that makes a sewing machine motor spin the drum. About 30 min later everything is scaled.

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Fillet then skin the fillets. Simple, fast, no wasted meat, very little bones. Much less mess and bother than trying to scale them. Corn meal then hot peanut oil. Fry until golden, just a couple minutes. Only thing better than a big pile of fried bluegill fillets is a big pile of crappie or yellow perch fillets!

Actually you lose a significant amount if meat by filleting them.

 

Flytire you can buy a scaler, or use a knife, or a spoon. You can screw two metal beer bottle caps on a wooden handle and use it too. Field and stream posted that.

 

My friend has a hexagonal drum made of expanded metal. It spins and sprays water on the fish. We just cut the head off, gut them, put then in it and flip the switch that makes a sewing machine motor spin the drum. About 30 min later everything is scaled.

 

Sorry, Fisherboy ... I got some "bones" to pick with your statements!

 

"... significant amount of meat ... " hardly. Maybe one mouthful worth. I would MUCH rather lose that little bit, than to pick through all the bones while I am trying to enjoy a meal.

 

" ... 30 MINUTES ... " ??? I can have 20 fish filleted and skinned in 30 minutes. I suppose it comes to the same number of fish, depending on how big that drum is. How many fish can you put in there at one time? Still, if you have to wait 30 minutes and then finish processing the fish ... seem like a long time to scale some fish.

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Fillet then skin the fillets. Simple, fast, no wasted meat, very little bones. Much less mess and bother than trying to scale them. Corn meal then hot peanut oil. Fry until golden, just a couple minutes. Only thing better than a big pile of fried bluegill fillets is a big pile of crappie or yellow perch fillets!

Actually you lose a significant amount if meat by filleting them.

 

Flytire you can buy a scaler, or use a knife, or a spoon. You can screw two metal beer bottle caps on a wooden handle and use it too. Field and stream posted that.

 

My friend has a hexagonal drum made of expanded metal. It spins and sprays water on the fish. We just cut the head off, gut them, put then in it and flip the switch that makes a sewing machine motor spin the drum. About 30 min later everything is scaled.

Sorry, Fisherboy ... I got some "bones" to pick with your statements!

 

"... significant amount of meat ... " hardly. Maybe one mouthful worth. I would MUCH rather lose that little bit, than to pick through all the bones while I am trying to enjoy a meal.

 

" ... 30 MINUTES ... " ??? I can have 20 fish filleted and skinned in 30 minutes. I suppose it comes to the same number of fish, depending on how big that drum is. How many fish can you put in there at one time? Still, if you have to wait 30 minutes and then finish processing the fish ... seem like a long time to scale some fish.

 

The drum fits roughly 50 big bluegill, crappie and small bass. It's not bad. We take the head and guts out, put them in the drum, and by the time we get everything put up and cleaned in the boat and the dock, the fish are ready to put in the freezer or the grease.

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I agree with FB... a mouthful is about half of what you actually get from most bluegills. They ain't that big (except for FB's 12-inchers). I try not to keep anything under 8 inches, but they're still small once you behead them. I scale them with a not too sharp fileting knife. There's no need to skin them. Just bread with cornmeal and a touch of salt, and fry away.

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When I was growing up we ate lots of bluegill. Still do, though I now fillet them, They were scaled, gutted and the head cut off. All the fins and tail were left on. They were then rolled in corn meal and fried in Crisco. When served, the dorsal fin was pulled out, then the fish would be pulled apart at the backbone, all the meat on each side,of the backbone came off in one piece, leaving the ribs attached to the spine. No lost meat, and lots of good eating. Don't remember eating the fins, though.

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Bluegills, like all centrarchids, have both a spiny dorsal and a soft dorsal. Yes, you pull the spiny part out. I usually cut it out while scaling the fish. The soft dorsal is just like the tail.

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Why mess with bones? When I have a gill fish fry I want to eat. Not mess with bones. Gills, crappie, yellow perch, and walleye are the only fresh water fish I eat. Fillet is the only way to go IMO. Crappie, gills, and walleye are easy to fillet but the perch is a real pain and I am not good at it. Lay the gill and other sunfish on it's side and take your 'sharp' knife and cut along the back bone starting behind the head. Cut all the meat off down to the ribs and along the ribs until you get just behind the ribs and then push the knife thru to the bottom of the fish and then slide the knife down to the tail just short of cutting thru the skin. Flip the fillet rearward and take the knife right along between the skin and the meat until the meat comes free of the skin. You get nothing but meat and you don't have to skin or gut the fish and there are no bones to mess with while eating. UMMM UMMM Good.......I prefer breaded and deep fried but just skillet frying the breaded fillets is very good too. .....After you have filleted a few I doubt that it takes more than a minute each. Two people can fillet a whole fish basket full in a half hour to 45 minutes. It is a lot easier to do than to explain......Freeze me up a boat load and send them up.

 

I will add that I don't care for rock bass either but most of the other sunfish are very good. If I am meat fishing I will even keep most of the dinks unless there is a possession limit of like 25. In that case I do cull my keepers. I seldom keep any fish anymore. The wife doesn't like fish or the smell while cooking. I haven't killed a bass in decades.

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The wife doesn't like fish or the smell while cooking.

It's a shame you let your wife dictate what you can and can't eat. (Oops, gotta get offline, Wife is coming into the room!)

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I fillet the crappie but scale the bluegill usually.

 

Scale them, cut the head off and remove inards. Then slice into the flesh down to the bone from the dorsal to the bottom. Usually two slices a little distance appart on each side of the fish. That will give you three sections of meat that the breading will get down into the slice. After deep fried, the sections of meat come right off with a fork. No bones although like with all fish, you want to be attentive around the stomach as those bones will come off with the flesh.

 

To help the fins fry up nice and crispy, make sure after the egg wash that you push each fin/tail into the breading mix while fanning it out with the other hand.

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I clean fish as ditz stated. I used to use an egg wash but much prefer buttermilk now.

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Mike, you best keep a sharp lookout......I do it just to be nice. A happy wife is much more enjoyable to be around.

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