How To Fillet A Bluegill

Have you recently caught a bluegill fish, and not known how to fillet it properly? In this article, I am going to show you a breakdown using simple steps on how to fillet one of these fish. In addition to that, I am going to go over this kind of fish, so you can learn a bit more about them and their habits.

What Is A Bluegill?

These fish can be found throughout the United States in freshwater sources; they prefer calm water like ponds, lakes, dams, reservoirs, or even a slow-moving stream. They like their homes to have sandy or gravelly bottoms and enjoy thick aquatic plants, so they can hide from predators. 

Bluegill is usually a greenish or bluish color with a typical dark marking at the rear of the gill and dorsal fin and a characteristic trait of this kind of fish. 

This type of fish is one of the most popular small fish to eat, because of this, the bluegill is often raised in small farm ponds for later consumption once they have fully grown. 

Despite its size, the bluegill is a fighter when they are hooked, that is why this spirited little fish is one of the most popular hook-and-line fish in Northern America. 

Some basic information about this fish:

• Latin Name: Lepomis Macrochirus
• Family: Sunfish
• Common Names: Bluegill, Blue Sun Fish, Copperbellies, Copperheads, and Bluegill Bream
• Native Origin: This fish can be found in their native homes throughout Mexico, the United States, and Canada.

Now, that you have caught one of these feisty little fish, you might be wondering how you can fillet them, so you can enjoy frying up a fish you caught yourself. In the next section of this article, I will be showing you in simple steps how you can do this. 

How Do You Fillet A Bluegill Fish?

The first thing you will need to know is, what tools you will need to fillet bluegill. You really don’t need much, the following items should do the job adequately:

• Fillet Knife
• A spoon or knife to scale if needed
• A cutting board

As you can see, there is really not a lot that you need to be able to fillet bluegill, if you wanted you could purchase a fish scaler, but a spoon or knife will pop those scales off just as quickly and easily, especially since these fish are so small. 

Step 1: The first decision you will need to make is whether you want your fish to be scaled so you can eat the skin, or if you want your fish to be skinless. If you have decided that you want to enjoy the skin with your fish, you will need to use a knife or a spoon so that you can scrape the scales off the fish.

Hold down on the tail and scrape your tool against the fish, make sure that you are pushing away from yourself as you do this. Because this process can be a little messy, you might want to do this job outside to avoid scales flying all over your kitchen. Once you have all the scales off of the fish, you can move on to the next step. If you want your fish skinless, you can skip this step and go directly to step 2.

Step 2: You will need to start by making an incision right behind the pectoral fin of the fish, just behind the gills. Cut downwards until you are just behind the pelvic fins on the belly of the fish. Make sure to cut to the center of the belly and then, using not much more than half a blade, make shallow cuts down to the center of the fish.

Be sure to pull back from any kind of tension against the knife, you will want to avoid cutting through bone if you do not want to have your fish fillet to be riddled with rib and spine bones. 

Step 3: Once you have done those incisions, and you have a cot down to the center of the fish, you can use your thumb to open up the fish a little, this is so that you have a little more room to see what you are doing, because of this you will be able to make the next cuts much easier.

Use the tip of your knife to cut upwards, make sure to back out any time you feel pressure, continue this motion until the knife tip pops out of the top of the fish near the dorsal fin. With a little downward pressure, you can push along until you have cut through the back of and free that side of the fillet. 

Note: If you want to skin your bluegill, you will need to stop a little earlier, so you have an easy point to cut that skin free later on. 

Step 4: Next you will need to go back to where you started, just under the pelvic fin by the head of the fish. From the incision, you have already made, cut a crescent-like line up to the head. There is a lot of meat just above the eye of the fish.

Use your knife to shallowly cut along this line, only inserting your knife about an inch into the fish, make sure not to hit any bones along the way, remember, when you feel pressure back away until you feel a nice smooth cut. 

Step 5: At the top of the fish, along the back, you can insert the knife, just about an inch again, and follow the spinal column and vertebrae all the way down along the top fins and spine. Make sure to keep your knife shallow and try not to cut through the bones. Cut all the way through to the tail, you should now have both sides of the fish free, the center is the only part of the fillet that is still attached. 

Step 6: Open up one side of the fish, so you can see inside the cavity easily. Gently cut through until you get to the bone, making sure to avoid slicing through them. Next, you will need to cut around the bone. So, once you see the ribs and spine you can cut down above them, curving your cut to avoid these bones.

The basic motion after that should be down and in. You might see a thin gap if you have scaled the fish, this is because the intermuscular bones you have cut around are very close to the skin. Once you have cut around that central section of bone and muscle, you will need to cut down along the rib bones again. Be careful to follow the bones down, do not cut through them. You will cut down over the ribs to free your fillet

Step 7: The final step is for the people that want to cut the skin off the fish, what you will need to do is place your finger on the flap of skin at the end of your fillet, with your fillet knife blade facing away from you and holding the blade horizontal so that it can easily cut between the skin the meat of the fish. You will need to carefully cut all the way down the fish, leaving behind the scales and skin you do not want. 

Final Thoughts

Filleting bluegill can be a little tricky because of the size, but if you follow these simple steps, you will easily be able to fillet your catch for a delicious fish feast. Many of these same steps can be applied to different kinds of fish, like bass, for example. There are some obvious differences in preparing different kinds of fish, but as a whole, you should have the basics to be able to fillet a fish of your own.

That is all for this article, now, get out there and fillet your own and fillet your bountiful bluegill catch.