Wife tried making some bluegill ceviche tonight and we had it for an appetizer before supper.

It was great!

I think it is going to be a regular staple considering the number of hybrid bluegill we fillet a year (360 so far this year to date).

It looks damn good! Can you describe how it tastes?

Looks good snrub, So tell us the recipe or how u make it.

I would also like to ask, what size bg are u using for eating? I am guessing here that you are returning your largest caught back into the pond? And what seems to be your largest bg of any numbers? In my pond right now, when I fish for the bg using my 3 wt fly rod, I catch mostly 9" cnbg.. This time of year I usually catch many 7 to 8": bg but recently I have not caught any in that size range and I don't see any in that size range. I see many bg in the 3 to 6 1/2" size. I am thinking my lmb are feeding on the bg in that 6 1/2" to 8" size. Or maybe the Bald Eagle, Osprey were thinning them out. They were at the pond every day all winter until the BPW took over. along with the bass feeding on that size.

Ditto... need to know how you made it!... my wife loves Ceviche.... but dont know if i could get her to eat a bluegill one~ lol

TGW1 actually probably 95% of what I have called BG that we have cleaned have been HBG or to a lesser degree HRES. A few full blood BG and a few GSF in the mix.

Back story of why that is: A couple years back I had a huge spawn of hybrids in my sediment pond (I presume due to turbidity in that pond) that I was having a fish kill that I described back then. May have been three years back. But while the fish were gaping air at the surface there happened to be a lot of wind blowing them to one end of the small sediment pond. I had been raising CNBG and RES in that pond (had already moved a lot of the original stockers over by catching them hook and line) and did not want to lose them so I just dip netted all I could and went right across the road with them into my main pond. Along with the remaining full blood CNBG and RES (and their spawn recruitment) and a few GSF were lots and lots of hybrids that were spawned by those fish. As time was of the essence (the fish were going to be dead shortly if I did not do something) I did not take time to sort anything, just dumped them in the main pond. So a lot of hybrids went into the pond.

Those are the fish we are harvesting now. The bulk of them around 3/4# with a few larger and some smaller.

Basically we have been harvesting the hybrids and returning the pure BG and CNBG back to the pond unless they are just not a good looking specimen or we gut hook them.

I really like the hybrids for a meat fish. They go crazy for the commercial fish food, seem to grow fast and are not shy about biting a hook. It is very common when we first start fishing in a certain spot to catch several hybrids and maybe a GSF, then as the spot catch rate slows down start catching BG. So common I notice it again and again. The GSF in those fish just make them very aggressive to being caught compared to my regular full blooded BG.

But wanting to reduce the bio load in the pond and give room for the remaining fish to grow we target the HBG and CC for the fish we most want to remove. I still get a fair amount of hybrids produced every year out of that sediment pond and during really big rain events they end up down stream in my main pond. I don't mind it a bit because I am more of a "catcherman" rather than a fisherman. If I don't have high catch rates, I find something more interesting to do than fish. So that is the story on how we have been "culling".

We are catching a fair number of the CNBG that were originally raised in that sediment pond. Beautiful fish. We always return those no matter what size.

Ask my wife for the recipe and she said ahhhhhhh.......she makes a lot of stuff she just puts together and it may not be the same the next time she does it.

But here is at least a general idea of what went into making it.

Diced boneless bluegill fillets uncooked

Lemon juice - enough to cover and coat the fish well. Doesn't have to completely float the fish, just make sure it all gets covered good.

Mix those two together then start adding other ingredients. Only takes a few minutes for the lemon juice to "cook" the fish. (note: larger fillets would take longer to "cook" in the lemon juice. The fish flesh should go from translucent to white just like it would if being cooked with heat)

Diced fresh tomatoes

Diced onions

cilantro

Diced green or red bell pepper, a little jalapeno pepper if a person wants it a little spicy

Salt to taste. Can add black pepper if wanted

That is it. Sounds pretty quick and easy. Easy for me that is as the wife does it. She makes it and I eat it.......the perfect combination.

In addition I had one person suggest fresh water fish should be frozen for two weeks prior to cold cooking with lemon juice because heat will kill any parasites but the lemon juice will not. The longer term freezing will also kill them. The fish my wife used had been frozen but not for two weeks.

Anyone know any more about this?

John,

A regular freezer isn't enough. They have to be frozen below -4 F for 7 days or shorter periods potentially in freezers that get much colder. It generally takes two stage refrigeration to get this cold. This is something you don't want to fail at if you intend to do it. You need a thermometer to be sure of the time required.

BTW. A lot of HSB are served as sashimi, I have tried them and its not bad at all.

I've heard that salt water fish are not as prone to parasites as fresh water, but don't know if this has any basis in fact. Anyway, I wonder if a brutally quick freeze using dry ice might do the job rather than waiting for a week or two.

i have heard of getting tapeworms for eating raw fresh water fish.

Very good information. Guess no more BG ceviche!