Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Are Bluegill worth messing with to eat?

As Leroy, (RIP) would say: "Sure after they swim in the Crisco Lake"

Bluegill is great.

Always been pretty popular for eating but getting popular at bars around here recently and it blows the traditional cod fish fries away in my opinion.

Bluegills, Crappies, Sunnies, great eating, among my favorites. Small ones are a pain to fillet however.

Cook the smaller ones whole.

we always had them deep fried in cornmeal, just excellent.

That one is a bit small, I don't keep em that small unless they swallow the hook. They are very good eating. Fried in a seasoned corn meal mix after dipping in an egg , milk and mustard solution is good stuff. The big ones can be ( butterflied ) and this is basically filleted but they still have the skin and the tail but no other bones. I specifically seek them out on some of my fishing trips.

I was fishing some lillypads once, i had about 10 thick pumpkinseeds on a stringer, had been a few mins before the next good keeper got hooked.

Pulled up that stringer and there was a FAT cottonmouth sucking on the last fish on the string. I only noticed it after nearly grabbing it. 😬

Meh

I dropped the whole thing and paddled on. 🙀

Best to catch them,other sunfish, crappies through the ice and early spring. They are excellent fried. They get wormy when the water warms tho.

Poach the bony little bastards and break the meat out of the bones.Pick the bones out. Then use them for fish cakes. Out of cold water they are pretty good. Out of warm water they taste like swamp water. Bass...pretty much the same thing. Serve the fish cakes with a sauce made out of ketchup, Mayo, some Old Bay ,thin a bit with water and whatever......

Ya coulda had snake for dinner!

will agree with the cornmeal for fish but flour mix for oysters and shrimp or breadcrumbs or cracker meal or spacial k cerial crushed up for shrimp and oysters

I catch a lot of them to use as catfish bait on jug lines. Sure catch some big ones that way. Around here the bigger Bluegills come from Meridian state park and Lake Whitney. Yes I usually skin them, dip em in a batter made from Mesa flour (corn flour) and egg then either pan fry or deep fry. Fine tasting fish.

This. At least in Minnesota.

I can't believe this is even a thread. Bluegill's are great eating no matter what time of the year.

Pan fish like gills, crappies, sunnies etc. are probably the easiest fish to fillet boneless. Crappie is my personal fave because they're bigger but bluegill's are great too.


If you want GOOD pickled fish, pickle bluegills. Thank me later.

Pickled northern...tops.

Yes and yes - but I don't like bluegill or crappie, especially if the skin is left on. Tilapia are worse than either. I just don't care for the taste. Walleye and northern are fine.

I just finished eating some bluegill fillets for supper. They are good. Walleye crappie and bass are better.

Bluegills are great,, also around here we have goggle eye or warmouth bass and small mouth bass, very good an fresh tasting,,Northern hogsuckers and golden redhorse(yellow suckers) are king if you know how to prepare and cook em

Too small even for bait.















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Sweet meat fried crispy in corn meal with garlic potatoes