Hello,

 

I've never cleaned fish that were too small to fillet.  Never kept 'em. 

 

I'm finding myself in a position now to keep a bunch of small bluegill.  How does one go about cleaning these?  Someone mentioned "fish chips."  I assume gut, scale, cut off the fins, and fry?

 

I've never gutted a fish to my recollection; just filleted 'em.

 

I guess I'll watch YouTube for that. 

 

Any other ideas, comments, etc?

 

Thank you,

 

Josh

Scale`em first

 

cut along both sides of the fins,pull them out with pliers

 

head & tail off

 

guts out

 

pan fry in butter

 

stand them vertical  ,peel fillet off with fork,

lay flat, remove skeleton

 

ENJOY

 

C22

When you say too small to fillet, how small are you talking? I've filleted some pretty small bluegill and never really had a problem with it. 

Moonfish, aka lookdowns, are as thin as wafer, they get filleted all the time here.

Hello,

Panfish I've always kept are around 8" minimum.

The ones I'm talking about here are maybe 3"-4".

I still feel like I'm shooting a fawn, but I understand the ecology is vastly different. Just was raised in earlier days of fish management as understood by the average bass fisherman when we didn't keep small anything, panfish included.

Thanks!

Josh

The ones I'm talking about here are maybe 3"-4".

I wouldn't waste my time. Personal opinion though