Eating trash fish...

[MN Fisher]

10 minutes ago, GTN-NY said:

I don’t eat any fish because I don’t know how to cook them. 

How are you cooking them on a grill?

Similar to how I broil them

 

Lay some tin-foil over the cooking grid and fire it up the charcoal/gas...let it heat up.

Brush a little melted butter on, dash of salt and pepper...just a few minutes each side.

 

For the broiler inside - lay the tin-foil on the broiler-pan...broil on High for 2-3 minutes a side for panfish...longer for thicker fillets.

[A-Jay]

13 minutes ago, GTN-NY said:

I don’t eat any fish because I don’t know how to cook them. 

How are you cooking them on a grill?

 

Bluegill is a delicious freshwater fish with a light taste that is best fried or cooked quickly on the stove top. They have sweet, white, flaky flesh with a very meaty taste without being too fishy.

This is delicious, simple, quick and very easy recipe how to deep fry Bluegill fillets with cracker crumbs, flour, corn flakes, milk, eggs and milted butter. Easy deep fried recipe.
 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs fresh Bluegill fillets

1 egg

1 cup of flour

6 oz. milk

1 cup of cracker crumbs

1/2 cup of corn flakes

2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

 

How to cook Deep Fried Bluegill Fillets:

Rinse fillets in cold water and pat dry with paper towels.

Preheat deep fryer to 370°F. (170°C).

Mix thoroughly milk, egg, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl.

Slowly with small portions add flour to the mixture and mix until smooth.

Mix cracker crumbs and corn flakes in a small mixing bowl.

Dip fillets in batter, then in the cracker crumb mixture, and drop into the preheated deep fryer.

Fry for 4 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove from the deep fryer and place on a paper towel to drain.

Notes:

This Deep Fried Bluegill Fillets is a very affordable dish.

It is delicious, simple, quick and very easy to cook.

Prepared time 15-20 min.
This recipe for Deep Fried Bluegill Fillets serves/makes: 6

A-Jay

[MN Fisher]

7 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

This Deep Fried Bluegill Fillets is a very affordable dish.

It is delicious, simple, quick and very easy to cook.

For those who like deep-fried - sure.

 

I don't like deep-fried anything.

[soflabasser]

This subject reminds me of how lobsters are seen as a luxury food when over 100 years ago they were seen as trash food. I enjoy catching lobsters but I am not impressed by the favor, snapper and other fish taste much better for me. Have eaten expensive caviar and I was not impressed. It goes to show that most people will follow the crowd in whatever the crowd says is the best thing to eat.

[Tennessee Boy]

2 minutes ago, soflabasser said:

This subject reminds me of how lobsters are seen as a luxury food when over 100 years ago they were seen as trash food. I enjoy catching lobsters but I am not impressed by the favor, snapper and other fish taste much better for me. Have eaten expensive caviar and was not impressed. It goes to show that most people will follow crowd in whatever the crowd says is the best thing to eat.

Well said.  My grandfather always preferred catfish.   He told me when he was a kid,  freshwater drum was considered the delicacy.

[Skunkmaster-k]

11 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

For those who like deep-fried - sure.

 

I don't like deep-fried anything.

Have you ever tried deep fried Twinkies ? Throw that bad boy in a bowl with some ice cream and BAM ! 

[soflabasser]

6 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

Well said.  My grandfather always preferred catfish.   He told me when he was a kid,  freshwater drum was considered the delicacy.

I prefer channel catfish, bluegill, tilapia, almost any decent tasting fish over lobster. I am sure that if someone markets anything well the crowds will fall for it and say it is the best tasting thing there is. With that said one of my favorite fish to eat is mangrove snapper, they amazingly delicious when eaten the same day you catch them.

[GTN-NY]

55 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Similar to how I broil them

 

Lay some tin-foil over the cooking grid and fire it up the charcoal/gas...let it heat up.

Brush a little melted butter on, dash of salt and pepper...just a few minutes each side.

 

For the broiler inside - lay the tin-foil on the broiler-pan...broil on High for 2-3 minutes a side for panfish...longer for thicker fillets.

Are you filleting them?

 

Now I just need to find some bigger bluegills. Most waters around here have lots of small panfish

[MN Fisher]

Just now, GTN-NY said:

Are you filleting them?

If they're big ones - or decent size crappie. Otherwise just scale them, gut them, cut off head and fins.

[gim]

56 minutes ago, soflabasser said:

This subject reminds me of how lobsters are seen as a luxury food when over 100 years ago they were seen as trash food. I enjoy catching lobsters but I am not impressed by the favor, snapper and other fish taste much better for me.

I generally like lobster too and when I heard years ago they were referred to as "sea bugs" and they were not appealing to most people, that blew my mind.  I agree that snapper is very good - I've had fresh yellow and mangrove snapper.

 

I personally think yellow perch out of cold water is the best freshwater eating fish available.  It's better than eater size walleye.  The filets are a bit firmer.  Problem is that there are basically no jumbos left around here so its really not an option for this guy anymore.  The bag limit used to be 100 daily on yellow perch, then it went to 50, then to 20 in a short period of time because people began to realize how good they were - kind of like the lobster story.

 

I'm with @MN Fisher on cooking/preparing fish.  Deep fried fish is a turn off for me.  All you taste is the batter and the tartar sauce.  At that point it's like deep fried hot dogs or Twinkies.  Grilled or broiled with minimal seasoning brings out the true taste of the filet.

[MN Fisher]

3 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I generally like lobster too and when I heard years ago they were referred to as "sea bugs" and they were not appealing to most people, that blew my mind.  I agree that snapper is very good - I've had fresh yellow and mangrove snapper.

I'm a fan of lobster, mussels, clams - but the best sea-fish IMO is swordfish.

 

4 minutes ago, gimruis said:

All you taste is the batter and the tartar sauce.

Exactly.

[cyclops2]

Too many people trying to reduce eating costs with all types of  fish.

All the restaurants up here have " All the perch you can eat ...Friday nights.  "

 

 

[Mobasser]

I had a brother in law who loved to fish for, and eat bluegill. He fished for them with a fly rod, and live bait also. A light fly rod and a small popper was his early morning thing.                                     His reasoning was always the same: bluegill on a light rod are great fighters. They bite readily, most times of the year. And, a good mess of bluegill fillets breaded and pan fried are some of the best tasting fish you'll ever eat. I have to agree with him. Serve them with some good potato salad and baked beans. And, give them a little shot of Zatarains Louisiana hot sauce. Very hard to beat IMO.

[DitchPanda]

I'm a fan of fried fish..particularly bluegills, crappie and perch...but that said there's nothing wrong with cooking them in butter with a little lemon pepper or old bay sprinkled on them. 

[GTN-NY]

When I was a kid my Dad use to gut and remove head then bake bass and pike. Pike was always my favorite. 
With rising food prices I might need to supplement the groceries with some fish. Guess I need to buy the supplies to gut, clean, prepare my catches. I haven’t kept a fish in over 20 something years 

 

any recommendations on how to keep fish when you’re on a kayak?

[Mobasser]

Here in Missouri, deep fried fish are an old favourite. Fillet them, batter with a mix of egg and milk. Then coat them with flour or cornmeal.            We've had them like this since I was young. Some of the batter mixes you can buy are good also.

[DitchPanda]

I made my bluegill fillets by sprinkling them with a mixture of lemon pepper and old bay then cooked them in butter on my griddle...fantastic!

[MN Fisher]

1 hour ago, GTN-NY said:

any recommendations on how to keep fish when you’re on a kayak?

Stringer or fish basket hung over the side?

[bigbassin']

1 hour ago, GTN-NY said:

any recommendations on how to keep fish when you’re on a kayak?

On float camping trips, we’ve always just used a stringer. Definitely inconvenient if you are trying to paddle on a lake, but for drifting it works fine.

 

You can always strap a cooler to the back when you’re trying to paddle around. Seems without fail I’ll catch 50 bream to small to make cleaning worth it whenever I take a cooler.

[hokiehunter373]

Alright, so has anyone ever fried your bluegills whole (minus guts/head) and eaten the fins?  I got into cooking bluegill last year so I went to youtube to figure out what I needed to do to prepare them and cook them.  Came across a video of a guy that recommended eating the fins, said they taste like chips.  I figured WTH I'll try it.  He was 100% spot on.  I get it's super weird lol but man it was good!

[VolFan]

That’s the only way I eat the little ones! Way easier to clean that way and the fins get super crispy!

[throttleplate]

5 hours ago, VolFan said:

That’s the only way I eat the little ones! Way easier to clean that way and the fins get super crispy!

my wife eats the eyeballs.

[gim]

On 4/22/2022 at 4:43 PM, VolFan said:

That’s the only way I eat the little ones

I have heard this too.  When they are too small to filet, I know people who cook them whole.

 

Not for me.  I prefer filets.  But then again I don't eat a lot of fish to begin with.

[soflabasser]

On 4/21/2022 at 5:43 PM, gimruis said:

I generally like lobster too and when I heard years ago they were referred to as "sea bugs" and they were not appealing to most people, that blew my mind.  I agree that snapper is very good - I've had fresh yellow and mangrove snapper.

 

I personally think yellow perch out of cold water is the best freshwater eating fish available.  It's better than eater size walleye. 

Lobsters are known as sea roaches since they are bottom feeders that are mostly scavengers. I have caught and seen more lobsters than most people will see in a lifetime, they are fun to catch but there are much better tasting food in the sea. I will take your word on yellow perch being the best tasing freshwater fish in the North, in South Florida Oscar cichlids are near the top of the best tasting freshwater fish. I find Oscars to taste much better than walleye, crappie, and other freshwater fish that I have eaten. With that said hogfish is the best tasting fish I have eaten and they are relatively low in methylmercury, unlike sharks, swordfish, and kingfish which have some of the highest concentration of methylmercury of any fish. The best tasting hogfish is the one you catch and eat the same day, so eating hogfish in a restaurant is not the same as catching your own.

[TnRiver46]

On 4/21/2022 at 6:51 PM, GTN-NY said:

When I was a kid my Dad use to gut and remove head then bake bass and pike. Pike was always my favorite. 
With rising food prices I might need to supplement the groceries with some fish. Guess I need to buy the supplies to gut, clean, prepare my catches. I haven’t kept a fish in over 20 something years 

 

any recommendations on how to keep fish when you’re on a kayak?

Put em in your lap! 
 

just kidding, easiest is bring a cooler half full of ice and chuck them in there. Stringer works great too but slows a kayak way down