So I usually fish for cats, but I have been catching some really nice gills lately and was just wondering what the general opinion was for the size of a keeper gill? They just seem like they wouldn't have much meat on them for the work but iv been hearing too many people rave about the meat and it's got my curiosity cookin....

Usually the 7 to 8 inch Bluegill are a great frying size. You can keep em bigger but I prefer the 7 and 8 inch Gills. I usually let the nines on up go to keep the genetics on larger fish in the pool. That's just me. Every now and then I will keep a few 9 and 10 inch Redear. Sunfish are super good eating especially the Bluegill and Redear. I have friends of mine who fillet em and the fillets look super good. As for me I scale em,gut em,and cut the heads off. I have had em fried,baked,and grilled. They are simply delicious. Fry em up just like you would fry catfish. Hope this helps you out some.

Thanks for that insight, banker!!! Next time I'm out and get a couple I'm going to try em, making my mouth water thinking about it!

Here is the finished product.

So do you eat that whole? Like tail and bones? Or do you pick em out and eat it like fried chicken?

Sure does look good too

I fillet most of mine
but whole is really good
and about 6 or 7 inches on a fat fish is good enough for me if I am keeping sunfish

The tail has good flavor and a nice crunch. I recently fried some whole, scaled, minus the head. Good eats for sure.

For what I have been reading here on this forum i would say a nice fat 7 inch plus!




Side Note: Bluegill/Sunfish are super good eating!

Love fresh Sunfish! If I want fish to eat I usually keep em in the 7 to 9 inch range. I usually release 90 percent of the fish I catch.