i live in washington and all the bluegill i have caught so far dont seem to be of eating size. so for all you people down south with better warmwater than me, what do you consider eating sized fish and how do you cook the smaller ones.
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i live in washington and all the bluegill i have caught so far dont seem to be of eating size. so for all you people down south with better warmwater than me, what do you consider eating sized fish and how do you cook the smaller ones.
Smaller ones, just scale and fry whole, fillet if big enough. As far as whats big enough for keepers, depends on how hungry I am for fresh fish... Sometimes it might be just over hand size.
7'' is the smallest that i will keep, and i fillet all mine.
Like LM I prefer to catch the big ones but for eating I like hand size and smaller.
i am from arkansas i keep 8 to 9 inch or bigger and i filet all of mine
once i get about 60 head in the freezer i get real picky,9" on chinks ,8" on gills.
we catch a lot of 10" plus chinks this time of year,i skin all of mine ,although i have been trying to filet some .i have never tired it on panfish but i am getting the hang of it.
This is eating size for me.
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...n/IMG_0014.jpg
Quote:
Originally Posted by chaunc
Thats for sure eatin size.Nice gill
I'm in NY, so we get our fair share of smaller gills. In general, for me to keep them, they need to be 7-8" and must be "fat" so they are easy to fillet.
For smaller fish, which are just as good to eat, just not easy to fillet, I scale them, cut off the heads and gut them, then remove the dorsal and anal fins (leave the tail on). To cook gills prepped this way, we go real simple. roll or shake in a mix of flour and salt & pepper, then pan-fry in butter. To me, this is the best tasting way to eat them, but you have the bones to deal with - and also will have a mess from scaling them (scales love to stick to human skin). The biggest reason I fillet everything nowadays is simply for speed. I can fillet three in the time it takes me to scale one.
sharpshooter, If you get fast at filleting, It really helps smaller waters to pull all the smaller and mid sized you can, I filleted 78 last night that most wouldn't mess with. At 2 per min. it don't take forever to have a nice mess of what I call "potatoe chip" fillets. They fry fast, taste great and will help the population size a bunch. Mike
How do you fillet that fast? How many cuts do you make before you take the fillet all the way off?.. I'd like to fillet more of the mid size ones.Quote:
Originally Posted by Illinoisgiller
Not wanting to hijack the eating size intent of the thread ,but I think it is very realitive to the size panfish kept. I'll have to get with my buddy and make a video somehow to add. A friend phone videoed me without me knowing it and I done a couple decent sized ones at 24 seconds each. I use a Rapala 12v 110v electric. I run it on a 12v cycle battery. Use the 6" blades . Ist cut behind the head,(just touch it, don't push down on the backbone) turn and slice fillet completly off. Flip and repeat other side. discard filleted body w/ knife tip to side. Take fillet w/skin and face large end of ribs toward you. Place the knife edge at the tip just under the ribs and keep knife edge against them and just flip it out. Turn fillet w/skin with tail facing you and fillet the skin off. Flip skin aside and repeat w/ other fillet. I am right handed and consider 3 center fingernails on my left hand as valuable tools. When I break a nail at 66 yrs old you would think it was a model's problem.lol If you eat your nails you ate your tools and this easy system won't work . I have a few friends working on filleting this way and they are picking up speed pretty fast.
Nails are needed for holding the filleted side for rib removal and skin tip for removing meat.
Think small-- Small fish are harder to fillet. When you can fillet a 3 1/2" or 4" bluegill, and the unuseable micro-meat looks proper shape then you have arrived and "keepers" will be a breeze [Start slow, work your way up to speed]
I'll be working on a video. Mike
so far the only bluegills i have caught have been 5 inches long. so i guess either this year i will get into the larger fish or ill learn to fillet tiny fish.
Mike, hard to have nails when you are a Cardinals fan and they lose in the last 2 innings of every game:D I'll work on them.
Thanks for the tips, I am going to try this Saturday.
These gas Gods are sure changing things in a hurry.:mad: Wasn't that long ago that I would just say-
"Line up a pond or something and I'll come down for a day of fishin and filleting" It is so much easier than I make it sound.
Not an activist, but if fishing beds on a pond, I let the biggest males go back. Fillet the next year class
Mike
Sharpshooter I have filleted a bunch of 5in gill's in my time.They have a sweeter taste I think than the larger one's.They are easy to fillet but dont produce alot of meat.I can only eat 4 or five big gill's at a time and I can eat about 7 small one's.I dont use a electric knife but I think a 5in gill would be hard to fillet with one.
my grandma's name was ruby, and be use the "RUBY RULE" when it comes to keeping bream. her rule was if it had two eyes, it was big enough to keep.Quote:
Originally Posted by sharpshooter223
and i'd like to add something to the mix. i cut my teeth on bream fishing and me and my pa have caught some huge bream in our day. but we "scale" all of our bream, it seems that if we filet them, we waste so much meat. but here is ouir trick. after we scale them and cut off their heads, we "skin" them. we take a small paring knife and cut on both sides of the fins on the top and bottom of the fish, then take a pair of catfish skinners and skin them like a catfish. you cannot skin them if their scales are on (we've tried with no luck). then we take the skinners and pull out the top and bottom fins. so you end up with a bream, no skin and no fins. they are so much tastier and the cornmeal sticks to the meat much better than it sticks to the skin.
i have not eaten bream skin in about 30 years. this process takes a little longer to do, but if yoiu have ever eaten a skinned bream, you will be a believer.
doc :)
Doc, i dont see a diffrence in skinning your way or filleting and removing the skin without scaling.:confused:
8+ inches where I am.
Doc you would starve to death trying to eat what I leave after filleting.It seem's like you go through alot of trouble cleaning your fish to me but that's the way you do it and I respect that.
I think I understand the reason for docwaldo's system. Most of the advantages of filleting and the plus of keeping the rib bones for flavor. As I fillet all, I still miss the great flavor of gills fried with the bones in them. It is a completely different flavor.
The reason I fillet is for speed and the grubs. I can spot any grubs easily. Not all water in this area has them and they won't hurt you, but I won't eat fillets with them.
I'm glad this came up as I would like to get a few from grub free water and scale a batch so I can enjoy the classic taste again.. Mike
I agree illinoisgiller,the taste is very different and better.Try scaling and then fillet your catch.Leave the skin on and you should be able to see the grub's.I think the skin is where the flavor come's from.
hmm, the way ive been taught to fillet the bones are still in the fish, unless you mean the spinal column? but the last 5 inch bluegill i tried to fillet came out with about a silver dollar sized fillet which i guess is eating size as long as i can find a way to take the skin off, my main problem with fish is getting the skin off, once i do that i can acctually fry my catches instead of steaming them
Bone's still in the fish here too.Just talking about leaving the skin on for flavor.If you were filleting your fish you should'nt have any skin unless you wanted it left there.Are you sure you know how to fillet a fish?If not just ask and we will try to help.
I've been fileting fish since I was ten years old and I can filet any size. I use to say I could filet a shiner if I had too LOL. These days I try not to filet anything smaller than a 7 inch Bluegill and a 8 inch Sacalait (Crappie). It just makes fileting go a lot faster. If you filet smaller fish you have to really slow down and be very careful of blade placement. I only use an electric knife (Black & Decker) or (General Electric) they hold up better than MisterTwister and American Angler. The gears are better and I've cleaned small Bluegills as well as 20# Snapper with them. The trick to cleaning small bluegills is to go slow and let the knife do the work and pay close attention to blade position but most of all they have to be very cold but not frozen. If the fish are not cold enough you will ruin them. The meat will not come away from the spine properly and you will waste meat. The filets are small but they are the tastiest you will ever eat. Check out my recipe marked Zatarains in the Recipe section of the site. I saw a few in there I will have to try this weekend. Good Luck and Good Fishing!
I too use a 12V rapala and generally clean 40 - 100 gills at a time. Anything under 5" goes back. Percy priest is over run with small gills so it doesn't hurt anything to clean them out. Maybe someday they will begin to grow larger as I thin them out. My family prefers the small boneless filets. We like to deep fry in a mix of half Golden dipped for fish and half Golden dipped cajin for fish. Makes them a little spicy but not to much so.
I like your method of half one way and half the other.I would suggest keeping those 5in bluegill and help reduce that population even further.If I did'nt thank you aboard,welcome.
For all of you who enjoy scaling your fish and frying them whole with bones and fins... I saw a post some where on here a while back about a wire cage that you put your fish in as you catch them. You drag it behind your boat and it scales your fish for you. I never actually seen one in person, but I would imagine that'd be a pretty nice item to have and save a lot of cleaning time.
Anybody ever used one of these?
I responded to that post,let me see if I can find it.I want one also.
Go to 2nd page and it's under How do you all go about go to 3rd page and there is a picture of one.Rocket fish basket.
:mad::mad::mad:I have been fishing a long time but don't know what a chink is.... help pleaseQuote:
Originally Posted by shooter
Old Codger
Old Codger...I believe the chinks he's referring to is a shellcracker.
well, i have used one of these baskets, although mine was not called a rocket basket, and they work okay, but the problem is after yoiu drag this thing behind the boat long enough to knock the scales off the bream, they just tear up the bream. it would almost be like dragging a stringer of bream behind the car down the road. they just take chunks out of the fish. other than that, they work, i guess?????Quote:
Originally Posted by Crappie Buster
doc :)
10-4 Old Codger thats what they are, we call them chiquapins in Louisiana, it derives from an Indian name I think. Some people call them (chinks) like some people call bluegill (gills). We usually lump them all together and call the bream.
Doc everything I have heard about the rock it basket was good.What kind did you use?
I wont go without mine. Matter of fact I just bought another one since I lost my old one in vry rough waters. You gotta use it a couple times to get used to it. If you over-pull the fish you might not have anything left in the basket.I usually pull my basket (1/4 to 1/3 full) running @ 20 mph for 300-400 yards. Biggest drawback is you pull them until the tails are gone to make sure they are clean, and I've always loved biting that little crispy off the end of the fried fish. Here's another pic of a Rock-it Fish Scaler.Quote:
Originally Posted by Slipped Cork
the one in the pics is similar to the one we used to have. maybe we dragged them tooooooooooo long. b/c when we opened it up, there was bug hunks of the fish missing and all chewed up. i might have to get one of these and try it. i definitely dragged mine longer than300 yards, but i don't think i dragged it that fast.
thanks for the post and pic.
doc :)
Those are some nice chinks, we caught some nice ones today also.
8'' and over I keep, over12 I fillet them. Other than that, Head, Gut, and Tail em and release em to the grease!