I don’t filet bluegills and have never ate a walleye but other than that I rank it 

• Catfish 

• bluegill ( a very close second )

• crappie 

• walleye ?

I would fit bass in between bluegill and crappie for taste, but theyd be second to catfish for filets in the group…

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

 

 Sac-a-lait 😉

 

Y'all ever cook em on the pit?

 

@Mobasser

 

12 minutes ago, Catt said:

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

 

 Sac-a-lait 😉

 

Y'all ever cook em on the pit?

 

@Mobasser

 

Catt, I'll try some of this.

Filleting is usually my last choice of preparation unless I'm dealing with a big fish. I prefer to leave them whole scaled and gutted. I like the natural flavor of fish.

 

#1 would be crappie. Fried until the ribs are crunchy you can eat basically the whole thing except the spine.

#2 walleye either steamed or braised in a soy based sauce. 

#3 bluegill either fried whole or braised. Bluegill have harder bones than crappie so the bones can't be made edible through frying.

#4 catfish is a very distant 4th for me and out of all of these the only fish I would default to filleting. Handled carefully they are decent filleted and fried or blackened but texture is inferior to the others and flavor is something you generally cover up through breading and frying/heavy seasoning. I've had channel, blue and flathead and they are pretty much the same to me.

 

On a side note bass is also excellent, I'd rate it between walleye and bluegill. Their quality is a bit more variable than walleye but in general they are on par. Pretty much the same as bluegill with a lot more meat on them.

 

Bluegill are the best . They are scrumdiddlyumptious. Y’all member Ned ? 

'Eyes by a lot.  Coated with lightly seasoned flour (pepper, salt, dash of cayenne), and straight into cast iron skillet with hot lard

Bluegill/sunfish, crappie, walleye and if no fresh fish its canned tuna fish mixed with mayo, onions, and spices spread over toast with a slice of cheese.

 

Hope I explain this correctly. I like cooking up Bluegill up on the BBQ Grill. But for the longest time thought they were a PIA to deal with as far as cleaning and scaling. So I quit doing all that. 
I take the Bluegill and lay him out on my filet board. I use a small electric filet style knife and make that cut from behind his ear toward the tail. Keeping scales and skin on them. Do both sides. Discarding heads, tails and internals. Wash then up good. Than I soak them for a period of time in a SS pan/bin of cold fresh water that I have salted. I prepare up dry seasoning in a plastic bag. Drain off BG pieces and shake them in the seasoning bag. Have my grill grates covered in aluminum foil. Have my butter melted.  Place my bluegill pieces on aluminum foil scale and skin side down. I don’t flip them. Leave them scale side down the whole time. Brush butter on. No need to turn them. Skin and scales will start to darken and want to separate from the meat. They don’t take long to do. When done I remove them from the foil. Skin and scales stick together but not to foil. Meat separated easily to eat. Bones are a pit of a PIA but easier than other fish (trout) to deal with. I’m not a big fish eater but will eat Bluegills if I do them this way. 

Walleye. 

4 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Fillets practically fall right off.

And don’t forget the cheek meat!

38 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

And don’t forget the cheek meat!

I have come to forget about the cheek meat on purpose. I can get the big fillets off in under a minute then spend 15 minutes trying to get a 25 cent piece size of meat, I think I burn more calories than the cheeks provide 😂 

I’ve never had walleye, so I’d go crappie, bluegill, then catfish. Catfish taste pretty good, but I have a mild aversion to eating bottom feeders out of dirty water. Bluegill are so small that I don’t bother filleting them. They taste pretty nice, but the bones can be annoying. Crappie are easy to fillet, taste fantastic, and return a high yield, so I enjoy eating them. 

 

It’s not an option on the list, but I fried up a mess of kingfish (whiting/sea mullet) last week and really enjoyed them. They taste mild, but not totally neutral; they still have a pleasant briny/sweet flavor. I butterflied them this time around. I’ve filleted kingfish

in the past, but they have a triangular shape to their body and scales like armor, which makes it a pain. I don’t know that I prefer them over crappie, but kingfish are a fine fish for frying, and easy to catch, too. I’d eat them more if I lived closer to the surf.

In order….

 

Walleye

Crappie

Bluegill

Catfish

Although you don’t mention it, Yellow Perch is also a favorite and I will add a caveat that properly prepared catfish is very, very, good.  If you don’t get the right type and size, they can taste muddy.  Although they are tougher to fillet, White Bass or White Perch as some call them, are also very good.  

My wife fileted this white bass and said it had portions of the meat that were red, so i googled it and read that its a good idea to cut out the red parts so she did, it tasted very good but now i dont eat anymore white bass.

 

Bluegill hands down for me, always been a favorite. That said I like everything you listed. Only freshwater fish I like as much as bluegill are yellow perch...they really are fantastic.

It’s hard to beat fresh walleye shore lunch.

I rarely deep fry anything and BBQ grill fresh fish of several species. 
Breaded fish fry Crappie on the list would be 1st choice.

Tom

13 hours ago, throttleplate said:

My wife fileted this white bass and said it had portions of the meat that were red, so i googled it and read that its a good idea to cut out the red parts so she did, it tasted very good but now i dont eat anymore white bass.

 

It’s just a bloodline , dozens of fish have them. Especially tuna. I’ve never seen a fish over 2-3 lbs that didn’t have a hint of bloodline actually