Can you fillet bluegill

Leave the remaining fins, the tail and skin on. These are delicious and enhance the already wonderful flavor of the fish. Everything you need for filleting and pan-dressing panfish. Bass Pro Shops Rubber Handled Fish Scaler After the fish are cleaned, they can be cooked and eaten, or you can store the fillets or pan-dressed fish in the freezer until you're ready to prepare them.

Tip: Watch video: How to Fillet a Panfish by Cabela's Cooking How to Fillet a Panfish Nowadays it seems most people prefer to fillet their catch to produce boneless, skinless pieces of meat ready to cook. Step 1 Lay the fish on a cutting board, fillet board or other flat, hard surface.

Step 2 Turn the knife blade toward the tail and continue cutting, staying on top of the back and belly fins. Step 3 With the fillet barely attached to the tail, flip it away from the fish. Step 4 To finish, take each fillet, and with the tip of your fillet knife, carefully cut out the rib cage. How to Pan-Dress a Panfish Some connoisseurs prefer their fish pan-dressed — with skin, tail and bones intact — to facilitate the most thorough enjoyment of these scrumptious wild treats. Step 1 Begin by placing the fish on a cutting board, fillet board or other hard, flat surface and scraping away all its scales with a regular table spoon or scaling tool.

Or use a scaling tool. Step 2 Using a sharp, heavy knife, remove the fish's head. Step 3 Remove the entrails, rinse thoroughly with clean water inside and out, and you're finished. They can cause nasty puncture wounds. Always cut away from you when dressing a fish. If the knife slips, then it's less likely to cut you. The common saying "A sharp knife is a safe knife" is true.

The less you have to struggle or force the knife, the less likely the chance of an accident. For your safety, consider wearing a filleting glove, which protects your hands. The waste created from cleaning fish can get smelly if you clean your fish on Saturday and your garbage pickup is on Tuesday. Follow the skeletal structure closely to avoid waste, and slice gently until you reach the top of the rib cage.

Carefully using your knife tip — or just pulling with your fingers as shown — work the filet over the tiny pectoral bones and ribs. Related: Catch more crowded crappies. With your finger tip, feel the filet above the front of the ribcage. If you were hasty, you may have trapped small pectoral bones in the filet. These are easily removed by cutting a small wedge out of the filet as shown.

Beginning at the tail end of the filet, slice through the meat to the skin, but not through the skin. In a sawing motion, slide the knife forward, parallel with the table, as you hold the skin stationary with your free hand. This will separate the filet from the skin. Note: You may encounter small parasites in the flesh of panfish. Small black mites look like grains of pepper in the filet. I generally leave these alone, since they are destroyed by cooking, anyway.

Small cream-colored grubs would also be destroyed by cooking, but their presence appears more objectionable to me. The point at the end of the dorsal fin is approximately where the rib cage stops.

Now push the knife blade all the way through the fish and out the belly side. Maintaining downward pressure on the flat side of the knife, continue cutting back toward and finally through and out at the tail. At this point, the fillet is only attached at the rib cage and the belly. Now, lifting the small slab of the fillet, use the tip of the knife to begin to separate the meat from the rib cage.

Cut downward, following the curve of the rib cage, and gradually working your way forward towards the front of the rib cage. The curve of the rib cage is rather steep and therefore somewhat difficult to follow — as always, a sharp knife is a must and practice makes perfect.

Larger bluegills make this process a bit easier. The last cut to make will be through the belly: the one that allows you to detach the fillet from the carcass.

Repeat the process for the other side of the fish. You may find as I do, that one side always seems to be a bit easier than the other — especially at first. Slide the knife between the skin and meat to remove the skin see my article on Removing the Skin from Fish Fillets and what is left should be a nice little boneless fillet.

Kab Cakes are a great way to use your catch of bluegills but can be made with any combination of fish.