Not sure if this is the place for this post, but...

I caught a few fish today, pictured below. I'm guessing they are shellcrackers? I'm new to fishing so I have no clue.

I also decided that since I caught about 10 of them to keep 2 of the bigger ones and try my hand at cleaning a fish. I watched hour upon hour of youtube videos to get my learning started.

I also wanted to confirm the fish species, and see if I can eat it or if there are any signs not to eat it. I caught it in a lake 30 minutes outside of Washington DC, so I'm a little sketched out.

Also pictured my cleaning. I feel like I did a good job filleting the one side of the fish, but i had a little trouble on the second side of the fish. Any thoughts on how my filleting looks?

Thanks!

Name: fishy.jpg Views: 623 Size: 63.3 KB

Name: fishcut2.jpg Views: 615 Size: 32.3 KBName: fishcut.jpg Views: 580 Size: 33.6 KB

Hmm, why are the pics so small.