Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations question about cleaning and eating bluegills

How do most of you clean and cook your bluegills? I remember as a kid we would scale them and cook them whole. Do any of you filet them?

Fillet. BPS or Andy's Fish dip and fried or deep fried.

Bing

I fillet mine and cut the skin off as I don't like to deal with the bones, nor do I like scaling them. But my mom prefers them scaled and gutted and fried in a pan. She says there is more flavor that way.

I guess it's a matter of preference.

James, I'm glad you asked that question..!
I have never cleaned fish this small until last fall and I gutted scaled, and deep fried- we really didn't care for them.

Last week we tried them again and I fileted them, fried and it was a pain in the butt for such a small piece of meat- but they were delicious..

Used both a sharp filet knife but slooooowwww....then my old standby elctric knife and half the time cut through the backbone.

Is there a better way?

Scale and fillet. Dip in Grandma Gallus' Secret Bluegill Breading (4 parts cornmeal, 1 part wheat flour, salt to taste - she wouldn't even tell me, so I reverse engineered it after she died) and deep fry in peanut (or canola) oil. Pan frying in Crisco also works well, but leftovers for lunch are better if deep fried IMO.

Yes, they are small (I clean down to 6" long, but 7" to 8" BG make pretty nice sized fillets), but you can get pretty fast filleting with practice. Condello (who skins rather than scaling) can clean BG faster than he can catch them - and that's really fast.

I use an electric Rapala fish fileting knife I bought at BPS or Cabelas. It really doesn't take long and once you get used to it you seldom cut through the backbone. I place the knife vertically right behind the gill flap and cut down to the back bone. Then I turn the knife horizontally and cut through the ribs down the back bone to close to the tail without cutting it completely off. Then I flip the filet over and continue the cut with the blade between the skin and meat. This separates the skinless filet from the fish. I turn the fish over and repeat on the other side. Next I take a non electric knife and trim out the ribs. The only difference between doing it with smaller fish and larger ones is that on the large fish I do not cut through the ribs, but cut around them.

It looks to me like the consensus is to filet them with only cecil's mom going for the whole fish.

How many of you use an electric knife and how many of you use a filet knife.

A lot of people don't like the flavor of the skin. I think most of the time when people cook panfish whole they leave the skin on which makes it too strong for some. I want to try skinning whole fish cooking them on the bone like you would a catfish. The meat is likely going to be more moist and you probably have less waste that way. If you're deep frying whole skinned fish then you'll get a lighter finished product because each "fillet" only has one side battered/fried.

And that's all I'm going to say about that.

I fillet them, the roll the skin w/scales off using a fish skinner...fish skinners are cool. 1) BPS seasoning & fried 2) for large BG fillets, dipped in butter, seasoned with blackened seasoning, and tossed directly into a HOT cast iron skillet, flip after 30 seconds...or less.

Slight Aside for Purpose of Envy Induction:

I am cooking and eating BG fillets as I type. Plus Bass fingers, clam strips, and french fries.

Life is VERY good.

I've been filleting fish for nearly 50 years. Except for some really big fish, like big walleye or Lake Superior Lake Trout, or maybe some certain saltwater fish, everything at our house gets filleted. Most get skinned. My Finnish relatives and ancestors have been doing it this way for generations -- thus the now-famous Rapala fillet knife introduced in the early 1960s by Lauri Rapala of Finnland.

Most fish have similar bone structures. These include the sunfish family (bass, bluegill, crappie, etc.), the perch family (yellow perch, walleye, sauger, etc.), the salmon family (trout, salmon, etc.), and many others. Some exceptions are pike and carp, which require a slightly different fillet technique.

I've used this same basic technique on fish from about 4-5 inches to over 40 inches. I've used whatever knife was at hand, but an extremely sharp and thin blade sure makes it easier. To show off as a teenager, I even used a sharpened double-bit axe to fillet a big walleye -- not recommended. I've never used an electric knife to clean fish, but I've been with professional guides who've massacred my prize fish when they tried to help clean them by filleting them incorrectly with electric knives.

By the way, depending on how and where you are using the word, this technique and piece of meat can be correctly spelled "filet" or "fillet." There are many theories of where the word originated, and how it was originally spelled. That is a whole 'nother story.

Here are a few photos to get you started filleting bluegill, bass or catfish:


Start with a cut from the tail that skims the backbone.

Slice all along the top of the backbone, to just behind the head.


Slice just behind the head and gill cover, down to the belly.

Slide down the backbone and ribs, cutting through the "wire bones" or lateral bones that are at the top of the ribs, extending out to the skin. We'll remove the lateral bones later.




Flip the fish to its other side, and repeat.






Remove the skin. Using either the fingernail on your index finger, or a kitchen fork, securely hold the skin against a flat surface. Just ahead of your fingernail or fork, cut through the flesh to the skin. Put pressure against the cutting board with the broad side of the knife. The knife will easily separate the skin from the meat.





Use your fingertips to feel for the lateral bones.



Cut out the lateral bones.


Separate the "shoulder" from the "belly."



Bread or batter the pieces. We find that three 9-10 inch bluegill are plenty for my wife and me. When we have company, we figure on 1.5 bluegill per guest.

Enjoy.

Ken G.

P.S. Catfish fillet photos

Great post, catmandoo!

I have used every brand of electric filet knife on the market and like the new rapalas the best. The main problem with them is they burn up if you use them for more than 20 minutes. I go through about 6 of these knives per year. When one starts getting a bit warm, I just switch to another.
Next best would be the american angler, followed by the mister twister and the pirhanna. The mister twister lasts the longest, but the blades are big and bulky.

Kens method does indeed save the most meat, but is too time consuming to filet lots of fish.
I take the meat off the bones by starting at the head, cut right thru the rib cage, and then have my partner take the rib cage out and take the skin off with a rapala hand knife.

Yes!

Fillet if you must, but please fry up the carcass. The closer to the bone, the sweeter the meat.
Small bream, cut down parallel to the back fin so the grease can penetrate; fry whole and crisp. Eat the tail and breast bones. That's how po folks do it.

Ken, thanks - great tutorial that belongs in the archives.

I like you, have cleaned literally thusands of fish in my lifetime, but none ever as small as BG's.

I'm starting fileting on the wrong end of the gills...

My stomach is groaning after seeing the catfish chunks in the frying pan.

So which Texan is going to cook a shore lunch at the Conference in a few weeks?

James Holt?...

Interestingly enough, james holt has not yet voiced his status of attendance for this years meeting.

But I'm with you george, so I second the motion.

I will absolutely not miss the meeting. Catmandoo that was excellent. I do not have your skill but would like to try and improve it. Are you going to be at the meeting? If I brought some fish would you consider doing a fileting demonstraiton?

If there's going to be fish, then they'll need to be cooked.

Ken,

I use the same basic method you use, and same strokes. My fish carcass ends up looking identical to yours. I scale first, and prefer to keep the skin on. I use a JA Haenkels or any thin fillet knife that takes and holds a sharp edge.

My main point is to say how quickly you can fillet a fish. At first, it took me too long. Once I practiced and learned the strokes and BG anatomy, I got it down to well under 30sec per fish.

Having said that, BG are bone friendly. Except for the rib area, the meat just lifts off, bone free. Good fish for kiddies to learn on.

I like to roll BG fillets in cornmeal, and deep fry in bacon fat. :P

James,

I certainly could do a demonstration. (I'm assuming this wouldn't be a Huck Finn / Tom Sawyer event -- you wouldn't just be bringing me a box of fish that you wanted cleaned, would you?)

Do you think there would actually be time in the schedule? Is Bob Lusk the one who would make that determination? And, do you think security would let a bunch of crazed Pond Bossers bring knives and a box of dead fish into the convention center?

I'm flying, and not planning on checking any baggage, so I'd need someone to provide a cleaning board, a fillet knife and preferably a "sharpening steel" or a good stone. I'd probably need some paper towels and a pan to wash and soak the fillets.

Bruce, Cecil, or others -- do you all use the same basic technique as me for BG? If not, maybe you could show an alternate way of filleting and skinning.

One of my old mentors could fillet and skin extemely fast. He'd start at the back the head. He would not cut the fillet off at the tail. Instead, he'd flip the fillet over and just keep going with the knife, removing the skin. I've tried and tried, but have never been very sucessful using his method.

I certainly agree with Bobad above about the speed. It takes me about a minute-and-a-half to fillet, skin, and remove the lateral bones of a BG.



It certainly would be fun to do a fish fry. The logistics of it may be a little more difficult. I guess we could have sushi.

Ken

IIRC, that's how Bruce does it. He actually, really and truly can fillet a BG faster than I can scale one.