Allright panfish experts - Crappie or Bluegill? Which is better for eating?

Bluegill although crappie are more fun to catch!

Wow! Tough question. I like crappie for their delicate flesh, but bluegill for their flavor. Have you noticed a difference in flavor between fish that have been frozen and fish that are eaten fresh?

I have been told, "BG are sweeter than crappie".

I love crappie, enough to consider putting in my pond, but with the long term management issues of crappie - I will probably stock BG IF they are as good as everyone one says they are...guess I need to have a taste for myself.

Whichever is biting;

I favor the BG, I think the meat is a firmer and a little flakier. Crappie is a little softer. I just sent the boys to the bait shop after some leeches and we'll see what's biting.

BG..the fresher, the better.

Yes, Bruce there is a distinct difference between fresh and frozen, even a difference between a fresh fish that is cleaned immediately (gills and internals removed) and one that is cleaned later in the day....big difference.

In salt water here, we routinely immediately cut the tail of a fresh caught king fish to get the blood out to improve the taste. It makes a huge difference in all fish I am familar with...try it.

ML is right on. It works on big CC's too.

BG

OOOOh WE! what a question!!! well Blue gill to me is a better eating fish...the only problem is that they are so DANG SMALL! So we like to catch crappie for eating because you get more out of the fillet...

I have never eaten a BG. I filet everything. If a bluegill is big enough to slice the sides off, I want its genes a lot more than its flesh.

Searching distant memories for what Crappies taste like - Bluegill.

DD: You can fillet a 6" BG (surely too small for gene-splicing material) if you don't insist on using a "Hurst & Bowie" knife. :p But I know, everything's big in Texas.

My mother loves BG not filleted but cleaned and fried.
My father-in-law loves white perch [crappie} the fresher the better never frozen.
My wife likes both as long as I clean them.

With those comments I dare not say my choice or else I might get filleted with a "Hurst & Bowie" knife . Theo a great play on words - my compliments . ewest

Theo, I only wish everything was big in Texas.

In regards to crappie the meat is softer as Chip mentioned. Crappie fillets start falling apart while turning them during deep frying especially if using big fillets and or if fried a little too long or just past done. BG do not do that since their fillet is a little more dense. Both respective conditions are due to the density of the myomeres that comprise the fillet.

As far as freezing vs fresh, I haven't found anyone yet who can tell the difference in blind taste tests when the fish are fresh cleaned and frozen properly. Best way I have found to freeze fish is to freeze them in water so they do not freezer burn or absorb any "freezer flavors". The fish froze in ice maintains freshness. Currently I freeze filets in zip-loc bags and place enough water in the bag to cover all the meat; then freeze. I have eaten fish (walleye, BG, yellow perch, crappie) froze in water after 4 and 5 yrs old and they taste as good as the ones froze for 1 to 6 months.

I am told that the vacuum freezing method (Food Saver type machines) also works very good for freezing fish. I have never froze fish this way but I have eaten salmon and tilapia which were froze with the vacuum methods. Both types of fish tasted fine and normal to me. I am currently looking to buy a food saver type machine and trying this method for freezing my fish.

Bill,
I agree 100%!
Here in NC I have had 20# bluefish (saltwater) given to me because the vast majority of people believe the wives tales that they are only good eaten fresh.
I like you have frozen them in ice, as I do all my fish, & when we have guests they can't believe the fish were frozen! Some were 3 yrs old too!
I would challange anyone in an honest blind test to tell the difference!
Many people tend to go with the flow & just believe the wives tales.
Their loss!

Boy I don't know about the frozen is as good as fresh. I've never had a blind taste test but I just ate some frozen LMB that I caught two weeks ago. I also freeze them in ziplocs with water enough to cover the fish. I had eaten half of these fish fresh the day caught and froze the rest and ate them 2 weeks later. I didn't like the frozen ones as well. Now I also must say that these fish were caught wild and one thing they require here in Minnesota is that when you transport fish from the lake to home they have to be dead and they have to have the skin left on. So the fish were fileted but the skin was left on. That may have affected the taste. As far as crappie or bluegill, I can't make up my mind, they are different but I love to eat both. I could live on fish meat.

Ewest said, “My father-in-law loves white pearch (crappie) . . .
It sure was good to see the name “white perch.” I haven’t heard anyone use it since I grew up and left Vicksburg too many years ago. I must be the only one here who likes “crappie” better than bg–but not by much. No crappie in my pond, so I let my friends do the bass fishing and I go after bg. I scale and fillet (skin-on) every bg I take out of my pond. I saute’ them in a little bit of olive oil with peppers and onion for breakfast most mornings, so I never have them in the freezer longer than 2 weeks. For that purpose, it works fine to freeze them (wet, but not covered in water) on a teflon cookie sheet and pop them into freezer bags as soon as they are stiff. I take out as many nice, flat fillets as I want for sauteing and put the rest back. They don’t have to be thawed before cooking, aren’t drowned in melt water, get good contact with the cooking surface, and don’t have time to get any freezer burn. Yum, Yum!
Lou 13.5 acres

I'm with you, Heronblu. Grew up on 'white perch' and 'brim' in Philly, Ms., of course. If ya'll are filleting all your BG you are missing out. Take the 6-7 inchers, scale, slice about 1/4 inch deep, lengthwise, on each side of dorsal, and fry them crisp. The little bones are like crispy breading. Dont forget fries and hush puppies. yum yum!

Not sure...but we eat more BG, so crappie are more of a treat. I don't really enjoy fish as much as some, but eithe BG or crappies filets will work for me.

It's similar to trying to choose catfish or walleye...since walleye are more of a challenge to catch, it seems I enjoy them more.

Man...what a decision!

Bluegill!

I prefer the firmer and tastier flesh of BG. Crappie is good, but like LMB, the flesh is too soft and flaky, and the flavor is a bit weaker.

My wife and I used to fish nearly every day (after work!) and I got real adept at filleting BG. 4 strokes per side with a sharp knife yielded a nice fillet. Seasoned and breaded just right, there's no better tasting fish IMO.

I think RES are excellent too!

Note to heronblu: I call white perch "crappie" on this forum just for uniformity. In real life, I call them "white perch" and sac-a-lait. I'm building my pond in a community called "Patasa", in honor of the white perch.

Bob said:
I call white perch "crappie" on this forum just for uniformity. In real life, I call them "white perch" and sac-a-lait. I'm building my pond in a community called "Patasa", in honor of the white perch.

More memories! When I left Vicksburg, I went to New Orleans, often leaving from there to fish early in the morning in the bougalies (?how to spell), and was happy to catch sac-a-lait (bag of milk, literally, or so I understand) when I could.

I need some help with patasa. I found lots of references to a sweet in India by that name and found the town you mentioned when I looked on the net, but what is its relationship to white perch? I found one place that said that patasa is a Choctaw word for a flat fish, and I guess that could more or less fit sac-a-lait.
Lou

Small Fish:

One way to evade filleting small fish is to just scale them remove their inners and if preferred various fins as well. We do this with smelt from Lake Erie, small perch and of course those tasty BG......to small to fillet.....a great way to cook up many smaller fish without the time spent on trying to fillet those little guys. My father used to fillet a ton of perch a day in his early years as a Great Lake commercial fisherman. Try it you may like it??????? Give you move time fishing..,...

Rowly

Bz,

Your response is somewhat kinder than mine but I'm taking lessons from you

...the only way I will eat frozen fish is if I was blindfolded and didn't know it was frozen. If I'm not going to eat it fresh, I don't keep it.

Learned the hard way, bringing back 200 pounds of fresh caught Alaska salmon that was "professionally" packed and frozen...within 6 months it was like cardboard, and I can't imagine what it would be like after 5 years.

For you guys that mention BG being "hard" to filet, try an ultra-sharp knife. I've kept 5" BG in winter (sometimes, ice-fishing can be slow, and you just want some fish!) and with a super sharp knife or even a decent electric filet, you can get some decent meat even off the smaller fish.

A large diamond hone (butchers use them) makes a world of difference...