Okay, some of us keep 'em. Some of us eat 'em. One of my favorite campfire breakfasts is to sautee bluegill fillets in melted butter with a sprinkling of cajun spices, then break fresh farm eggs over the top. My favorite all time is to roll catfish into a cornmeal-cajun mix and frying in hot oil. What’s yours? JGW
This is not my recipe but I use it alot. You can use it with just about any fish.
Take mayo and coat the outside of the fillet, not too much, just enough to coat the fillet, sprinkle with salt and pepper… Place on a baking sheet. Then Sprinkle/cover with REAL parmesean cheese, not the can stuff, real grated stuff… Then broil them for about 7-9 mins… untill golden brown.
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RRhyne56
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Start fire. Put fish over fire. Eat fish.
donald
If I’m too lazy to do a beer batter and fry up some bluegill fillets I like to saute them with salt, pepper, cumin, onions and maybe some fresh jalapenos. Scoop into a warm tortilla, top with cheese and hotsauce and devour.
Crap, now I’m hungry…
My current craze is a store-bought mix called New Orleans Fish Fry (with real lemon). It’s sold in bags, two different sizes are available.
Nothing to it: you dredge the wet fillets in this mixture (pre-coating with milk, etc. is not needed) then skillet fry the fillets in olive oil until golden brown on both sides.
After I’m done cleaning fish, I rinse and bag the fillets. But prior to sealing the ziplock freezer bag I pour in some concentrated lemon juice then squeeze the air out of the bag before zipping it shut.
Come meal time, that real juice you’ve pulled the thawed fillets out of plus the lemon contained in the fry mixture gives the fillets a light Cajun-spicy but very delicate lemon flavor that’ll have you eating yourself into a coma.
Joe
“Better small than not at all.”
Just out of curiosity, does anyone not fillet their bluegill? We never do, always ate 'em on the bone since I was a young 'un.
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I’m curious as to how you eat them when you don’t fillet them? Filleted is the only way I have ever had them.
How do you get the meat off the fish once it’s cooked?
I use a fork.
Sorry dog I had to
“Just as in cooking, there’s no such thing as a little garlic, in fly fishing, there;s no such thing as a little drag” H>G> Tapley
“The sportsman Notebook” (1964)
Hey Roger,
Gills are a favorite on my table, and I
NEVER fillet them. I know lots of folks
prefer corn meal batter. I prefer a flour
batter. I drop them in a gallon baggie with flour, salt, pepper,
and a bit of garlic powder. Then I drop
them in the Fry Granpappy. Little bigger
than a fry daddy.G When they float to the
top, I remove them to a paper plate with
paper towels to absorb the grease. They
are a quick, waste free fillet at the table
with just a few seconds of fork work. They
just seem to taste better cooked with the
bones in. Fries, cole slaw and corn bread
and a jug of sweet tea. Man, thats good
eating.G Warm regards, Jim
My method for Atomicdog:
Scale and dehead and gut fish. Batter with egg/beer mix into Zatairans fish fry. Fry up golden brown, and serve.
To eat: First, nibble the crispy tails and ends of the fins (sacre bleu but that’s GOOD!) then, with the tail of the fish pointing up, gently pull both fins away from the body top to down, taking a buncha little bones with 'em. Then gently break away the tail without too much meat.
The fillets should neatly separate from the backbone with just a fork or even just your fingers, but BE CAREFUL around the rib cage and in general, chew carefully before swallowing. I find removing the fins and tails first helps a lot.
R
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C’mon!! Several of you went up several notches on the ‘respect’ meter when you said you eat bluegills ‘whole’.
But out of those, Roger is the only one who really knows how to eat them?
They come apart like they have zippers… and oh, so sweet.
You win Roger:
but personally, anyone who would put anything but flour, cornmeal, salt and pepper on a bluegill would put ketchup on apple pie. 
I usually fillet bluegills (and all the fish I keep). Here’s my favorite 'gill recipe. It works really well with stripers and just about any other fish as well.
Goujanets (Poor Man’s Crab Legs)
Put on a soup pot of water and heat it to a roiling boil. Add 1 package of Old Bay Crab Boil to the water and let it steep for a few mins. Then drop all the fillets ( or fillet strips, if preferred) in the water and let them boil. When they float, remove them. Shake on salt and pepper to taste. Melt butter and add garlic and lemon if desired, for dipping. Dip fillets into butter sauce while eating, like crab legs, and enjoy!!!
Semper Fi!
Hidehunter,
Now, now! Zataran’s is a cornmeal and Cajun spice with lemon fry. It’s awesome. I admit I like my ‘gills with a dab o’ ketchup, too. Not overpowering! Just a dab, with the french fires and hush puppie, of course.
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Ahhhhhhhhh Pan fried fillets (skin on keeps them from falling apart)with onion garlic paprica basil and tyme in an iron skillet with fred pottatoes and eggs shore lunch.ohhhhhhhhhh good eats.
I fillet everthing after getting a bone several years ago.
Dennis
I ALWAYS filet & skin my gills…the rest of the recipe follows:
- Dust with flour seasoned with 1 c flour, 1 tsp salt & 1/4 tsp pepper.
- dip in well beaten egg.
- Coat with Keebler CLUB cracker crumbs…NO SUBSTITUTES!!!..I put mine in a ziplock storage bag, run a rolling pin over them repeatedly, & crush any larger pieces with a dinner fork. Drop in 375 degree oil…when they float, they are done. There are TWO keys to this recipe…cracker crumbs MUST be Keebler CLUB (NOT saltines or bread crumbs!) & oil at 375 degrees…the only way to achieve this is to have a deep fryer that employs the heating element IN the oil. The fryers with “enclosed” heating elements NEVER reach close to 375 degrees.
Mikey
This site’s about sharing!
[This message has been edited by ohiotuber (edited 30 March 2006).]
Tough to beat the fine white fillets of walleye and yellow perch. Coat the fish in your batter of choice and fry in olive oil. The nice thing is you can make batters each time, varying the ingredients.
We have a “Cheap Lobster” recipe for pike too.
Ingredients:
1 2-Liter bottle of Sprite
De-boned pike fillets, cut into 3x1" strips.
Real butter
Directions:
Pour Sprite into a large pot. Bring the Sprite to a roiling boil. Add pike. Bring Sprite-pike mixture to a boil until pike floats. Cook for another three minutes. In the meantime melt the butter in a gravy boat in the microwave. Remove pike from Sprite. Serve with cups of melted butter, like Lobster! Excellent, and sweet like Maine’s finest shellfish!
Wow. A couple of our SE Asian exchange students have a flair with cooking Coca Cola Chicken, but Pike in Sprite? That is a new one. I’ll have to try it. JGW
I reckon Roger and me growed up in the same house…green onion hush puppies, cole slaw french-fied taters and iced tea. And a big ol’ slice of homemade key lime pie!