I caught bream when I was a kid and in my early times of fishing, but I can't remember how we cleaned and cooked 'em. Head on or off? I guess we fried 'em whole, as they're too little to fillet. I'd appreciate it if somebody would tell me the details of cleaning and cooking.

This might not apply but a true story.

For graduation for my daughter took her out for supper.
She ordered trout...........first time in her life.

It came on the plate with the head intact with the eye balls
looking right at her. We ended up sending it back and the chef
cut the head off.

Hope this helps you on your decison making.

I caught a nice bluegill yesterday on LL while crappie fishing. He was big enough to fillet. I use to fly fish for them back in east texas (around Tyler) and once I got good at filleting I did them too. True not big bites but delicious and lots of them. Redears were best, they got up to 1.5# but haven't seen any of them here in the messoplex area. Before I learned filleting we used to cut the head off just behind the gills and then cut lines to the backbone on each side of the dorsals and another cut from the throat to the tinkle then peel the skin and scales off with a device that rolled the skin off. Clean well, salt, add cornmeal and fry up. Yum. Just take a good bite from the backstrap then if your buck-toothed enough you can clean the ribs up, toss then repeat.

Youtube has good videos on fileting and pan frying bluegills.

"Remember kids, the only difference between a 7in bluegill and an 8in bluegill, is about one bite."

Used to just head, gut and scale the little buggers but now I only fillet them (don't keep the small ones myself).

Then it's salt & pepper to taste and into some cornmeal (your preference) and some hot peanut oil in an iron skillet.

A couple of hushpuppies along with the fillets and you are go to go.....

I can't stand it anymore, I keep drooling on my shirt.

I'll fillet the small ones sometimes. A lot of work but they seem a bit tastier. One thing too, although generally very small the longear are a bit thicker which adds up to more meat in the fillet.

fILLET AND COOK IN A SHRIMP BOIL 3- 4 MIN, THEN CHILL ON ICE. some shrimp cocktail and you have some Good Eats.

Cheers,
mIKE

I fillet bluegills with an electric knife. True you waste meat, but no bones to worry about.

catfishhead, that sounds good. I need to do something other than deep fry, just not healthy to eat too much fried fish.

Tony try Fish Picata, look up veal picata on the net, and just substitute fish for veal. Or, cut the skinless, boneless fillets into 1" pieces, put in a bowl, squeeze several the juice of several lemons and limes over them, cover the bowl and let it sit in the refrigerator for from 1-4 hrs. The acidity in the juice actually "cooks" the fish. Eat them by themselves, or pour some pico de gallo over them and pig out.

thanks for suggestions Cliff...

I haven't thought about the veal picata (fish picata) but sounds good.

The bluegill ceviche (lime joice cooked) sounds good too. I need to get some limes and catch some tender young bluegill.

You can always make soft fish tacos, mmmmmmmmm good.

Scale em, gut em, fry em whole! Thats my opinion. I hold on to the head while I eat them. Its like a corn dog.

Unlike the title of this thread it is always better to clean before eating.

Unlike the title of this thread it is always better to clean before eating.

LOL
That reminds me. Why are they called singer/songwriters? Don't they have to write the songs before they can sing them?

LOL, I try not to use euphemisms like "cleaning fish" too much either. Fillet is a bit more accurate of a term.

Its like when people "crate their dogs" (cage them) or "put them to sleep" (death by lethal injection).

I genetrally scale gut and fry cutting around the big fins and pulling them out first. Even the big ones. If you don't like the skin it's easy to peel it off after they are fried. As to bones they are very predictable and easy to avoid.

Thanks guys. I appreciate it.

that video on how to fillet - he's got it down.

scale, cut the head, gut em', fry whole!! PERFECT!!

Well put sir well put

Another recipe...rub with olive oil, sprinkle Tony Chachere's and Lemon Pepper, cook on a nonstick griddle until it starts to get a little bit of a crust on each side.

You mean you've never cleaned your fish before filleting them? Give them a quick swim in your bathtub & rub then down with a washcloth to get the lake ickies off ...