Eating bluegills and/or pumpkinseeds
Eating bluegills and/or pumpkinseeds
May be a novice question for someone whose been fishing for 35 years but here goes, can you eat bluegills or pumpkinseeds if they are large enough to keep and, do they taste anything like crappie. Also is the bone structure like crappie when it comes to filleting them. Are they not from the same family?
I have eaten thousands of them, literally. And the nice thing around here (Kingston) is there is basically nobody else fishing for them. They are plentiful, typically easy to catch, easy to fillet, and delicious, what's not to like? Same goes for rock bass, although I highly recommend only keeping rock bass if you can get them onto ice quite quickly - their flesh goes soft very quickly in a live well, even if the rocky is still alive.
I would not personally use an electric filleting knife for these little beggars, that is just too slow compared to a good handraulic knife, once you have a bit of practice. And the first time you bring home a couple hundred, you will get your practice! I try to fillet with another guy - I take the sides off the fish, and he removes the rib bones and skins them. We have a large steel bowl half-full of ice cubes, and the fillets go into the bowl to keep fresh and firm. Afterwards, give them a good rinse with cold water, and freeze them in plastic bags with water covering the fillets - they will keep for a year easy in this way and not get freezer-burned.
And here is another reason why you SHOULD fish for them (target them): the voracious little devils play hell with bass eggs and fry! When I returned to Kingston in 1996, there were lots of bass, both smallies and bucketmouths, on the south shore of Loughborough Lake (deep end). There were not many bluegills or pumpkinseeds. Each year after that, there were less bass and more panfish along that shore. I did not get out to that spot in 2006, but in 2005 there were zillions of bluegills and pumpkinseeds (and rock bass) all through there. So do your part, and keep a couple thousand this year!
Yes, I know that sounds terrible, especially for the catch and release purists. But around here, the balance between panfish and top predators is seriously out of whack and if we don't knock them back it will keep getting worse.
Doug
I would not personally use an electric filleting knife for these little beggars, that is just too slow compared to a good handraulic knife, once you have a bit of practice. And the first time you bring home a couple hundred, you will get your practice! I try to fillet with another guy - I take the sides off the fish, and he removes the rib bones and skins them. We have a large steel bowl half-full of ice cubes, and the fillets go into the bowl to keep fresh and firm. Afterwards, give them a good rinse with cold water, and freeze them in plastic bags with water covering the fillets - they will keep for a year easy in this way and not get freezer-burned.
And here is another reason why you SHOULD fish for them (target them): the voracious little devils play hell with bass eggs and fry! When I returned to Kingston in 1996, there were lots of bass, both smallies and bucketmouths, on the south shore of Loughborough Lake (deep end). There were not many bluegills or pumpkinseeds. Each year after that, there were less bass and more panfish along that shore. I did not get out to that spot in 2006, but in 2005 there were zillions of bluegills and pumpkinseeds (and rock bass) all through there. So do your part, and keep a couple thousand this year!
Yes, I know that sounds terrible, especially for the catch and release purists. But around here, the balance between panfish and top predators is seriously out of whack and if we don't knock them back it will keep getting worse.
Doug
just one thing....crappy is great to eat.
A lot off people wont even imagine to eat some....but i did a little test wit my familly 2 weeks ago...
i had a bit off walleye some perch and some crappy....clean them all...all in filet cut the bigger pirece all to get the same size little pice all cook them together..........no one could tell me what was what.......all good .
i told them after that there was like more the 1/2 off the filet in there was crappy..........i dont think the crappy are safe anymore NOW ate the cottage,,
.
ITS fun to catch.delicious to eat.
there plenty,in a lot off water hole.
why not take a cople to eat..but even if there is a lot thos not meen to empty a spot.....like smaller lakes etc.,,,,please keep some for futur generation.
but there is so many place that nobody fish for them.
I got a little situation at are cottage,wen i was younger there was lique zilions crappy,it was hard to put a worm in the lake without a crappy hit it before anything helse........but now the bass took over,,,,almost not more crappy sunfish or minnows.....
.....the good old days.
joco
A lot off people wont even imagine to eat some....but i did a little test wit my familly 2 weeks ago...
i had a bit off walleye some perch and some crappy....clean them all...all in filet cut the bigger pirece all to get the same size little pice all cook them together..........no one could tell me what was what.......all good .
i told them after that there was like more the 1/2 off the filet in there was crappy..........i dont think the crappy are safe anymore NOW ate the cottage,,
.ITS fun to catch.delicious to eat.
there plenty,in a lot off water hole.
why not take a cople to eat..but even if there is a lot thos not meen to empty a spot.....like smaller lakes etc.,,,,please keep some for futur generation.
but there is so many place that nobody fish for them.
I got a little situation at are cottage,wen i was younger there was lique zilions crappy,it was hard to put a worm in the lake without a crappy hit it before anything helse........but now the bass took over,,,,almost not more crappy sunfish or minnows.....
.....the good old days.joco
Kpin,
At my cottage all the pumpkinseed/sunfish I catch are riddled with those black skin parasites as well. Literally too many to begin to count. I don't think it's your personal bad luck, just the body of water you are fishing. But I think that they along with rockbass are much more suseptible(sp?) to parasites then other fish.
At my cottage all the pumpkinseed/sunfish I catch are riddled with those black skin parasites as well. Literally too many to begin to count. I don't think it's your personal bad luck, just the body of water you are fishing. But I think that they along with rockbass are much more suseptible(sp?) to parasites then other fish.
I do tend to see more parasitic worms in fish coming out of shallower, warmer lakes. I don't mind the little black ones, I just leave them in the fillet and eat them. The white ones I do try to dig out with the tip of the filleting knife - but I don't get all of them. They are not parasites for humans, and I cook the fillets before I eat them, so I reckon they don't hurt me any...... 
Doug
Doug
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Kpin
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Ok, so my suspicions are correct. Doug, the black ones don't bother me as much either, it's the white ones that really bother me. I know they're not an issue and neutralized with cooking but it's more a mental thing for me. ****and God forbid, mom, g/f, wife, sister, etc. knows they're eating something that had parasitic worms climbing out the gills***
Ok I just grossed myself out.
Ok I just grossed myself out.
back to Kpin..........
No sweat, Doctor Doug has the remedy for what ails you.
Make a thick beer batter for the fillets. Use flour and/or seasoned bread crumbs, garlic powder, seasoning salt, dill seed (NOT dill weed), maybe a bit of onion powder or onion flakes if you have some, and enough beer to make a thick batter (slightly thicker than pancake batter kind of thing). While nobody is looking, place the fillets in the batter a few at a time, stirring well to coat them, until all the fillets are in the batter. I don't care how good their vision is, nobody can see a worm in a battered fillet!
Next, feed everybody several large glasses of very cold white wine with a good alcohol content. Make sure they have at least two glasses apiece downrange (and maybe you too).
Now get your frying pan or whatever you are going to use, and melt just a whiff (tbsp) of bacon fat - just to tease the guests and get the old taste buds going. Top up the pan with oil (I prefer canola, but absolutely anything works) (COOKING OIL, not 10W30, right?). Get the heat going to the pan or pot (if you have a thermometer, 325 F is about perfect) and start dropping battered fillets into the oil with a fork. They cook VERY quickly, so if you can enlist some help this is a good thing. Remove the cooked fillets with a slotted spoon or similar when they are golden brown, onto paper towel to allow them to drain. Each time you remove a cooked fillet or three, your helper is adding another battered fillet or three to the oil.
In the meantime, your guests have the munchies in a serious way. Now what you do is enlist the aid of another person, especially a kid, to take around a plate of the first cooked fillets as "QUALITY CONTROL" and allow everybody to have a fillet or two. They are delicious, everybody will rave about them, and as long as you are cooking fillets they will eat them.
Never, ever, tell anybody about the little white worms they ate. Your reputation as an outdoors chef is assured. TRUST ME.
Doug
No sweat, Doctor Doug has the remedy for what ails you.
Make a thick beer batter for the fillets. Use flour and/or seasoned bread crumbs, garlic powder, seasoning salt, dill seed (NOT dill weed), maybe a bit of onion powder or onion flakes if you have some, and enough beer to make a thick batter (slightly thicker than pancake batter kind of thing). While nobody is looking, place the fillets in the batter a few at a time, stirring well to coat them, until all the fillets are in the batter. I don't care how good their vision is, nobody can see a worm in a battered fillet!
Next, feed everybody several large glasses of very cold white wine with a good alcohol content. Make sure they have at least two glasses apiece downrange (and maybe you too).
Now get your frying pan or whatever you are going to use, and melt just a whiff (tbsp) of bacon fat - just to tease the guests and get the old taste buds going. Top up the pan with oil (I prefer canola, but absolutely anything works) (COOKING OIL, not 10W30, right?). Get the heat going to the pan or pot (if you have a thermometer, 325 F is about perfect) and start dropping battered fillets into the oil with a fork. They cook VERY quickly, so if you can enlist some help this is a good thing. Remove the cooked fillets with a slotted spoon or similar when they are golden brown, onto paper towel to allow them to drain. Each time you remove a cooked fillet or three, your helper is adding another battered fillet or three to the oil.
In the meantime, your guests have the munchies in a serious way. Now what you do is enlist the aid of another person, especially a kid, to take around a plate of the first cooked fillets as "QUALITY CONTROL" and allow everybody to have a fillet or two. They are delicious, everybody will rave about them, and as long as you are cooking fillets they will eat them.
Never, ever, tell anybody about the little white worms they ate. Your reputation as an outdoors chef is assured. TRUST ME.
Doug
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slushpuppy
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OOPs, sorry guys, just finished supper.
I actually would never have believed this if I had not seen it with my own eyes. I was rooting around for a package of bluegills (this thread is working!), and there in the bottom of my freezer was a package of bass fillets from opening weekend 2005. Yes that is correct, June 2005, like nineteen months ago. I had frozen them in water, as I usually do for fillets going into the deep freeze.
I did them up in seasoned bread crumbs with a little bit of parmesan cheese and deep-fried them. Served them with hand-cut fresh french fries, man it was sure good!!!!
The folks that let all their bass go back in the water are missing out on a TREAT! Not as good as the little panfish, but still absolutely scrumptious! And BTW I found two packages of bluegill fillets, so I have two more feasts even if we don't get the hard water to put some perch fillets in the freezer!!!!
Doug
PS) Yes, I used to write for the Cronz, and we both agree that fish is good to catch AND EAT!!!!!!
OOPs, sorry guys, just finished supper.
I actually would never have believed this if I had not seen it with my own eyes. I was rooting around for a package of bluegills (this thread is working!), and there in the bottom of my freezer was a package of bass fillets from opening weekend 2005.
Yes that is correct, June 2005, like nineteen months ago. I had frozen them in water, as I usually do for fillets going into the deep freeze.I did them up in seasoned bread crumbs with a little bit of parmesan cheese and deep-fried them. Served them with hand-cut fresh french fries, man it was sure good!!!!
The folks that let all their bass go back in the water are missing out on a TREAT! Not as good as the little panfish, but still absolutely scrumptious! And BTW I found two packages of bluegill fillets, so I have two more feasts even if we don't get the hard water to put some perch fillets in the freezer!!!!
Doug
PS) Yes, I used to write for the Cronz, and we both agree that fish is good to catch AND EAT!!!!!!
Many thanks
Thanks so much guys. Appreciate all the comments and great recipes. I will definately keep some now that I know they are edible.