Who eats bluegill?

[A Wood]

I ask this as it seems this is more of a regional thing. I eat crappie/perch and cold water species but never have eaten a bluegill. Yes I know it's not a far stretch from a crappie but I literally know zero people that that have ate them.
Move forward to this past weekend and my new neighbor down the street who just moved in a few months ago from Minnesota was asking if I knew of any good bluegill spots. I kind of giggled and thought he was taking his kid out fishing. He looked at me and said no I eat them their delicious.
Are they as good as crappie, better than perch? Is this truly more than a regional thing?

[g-string]

Better than crappie but not as good as yellow perch. I never ate them growing up in Jersey but when I moved to SC. Everyone was eating them so I tried. Very good . I like to fillet mine most people here gut them and cut head off. And they even eat the tail��

[Ryan]

They are great

[5 BASS ASSASIN]

I believe they are better than both crappie and perch.. they have a better texture and flavor than crappie..perch is knot far behind them in my opinion. But everyone has different tastes..

[Bigrod]

In KY we eat them all the time. Not quite as good as crappie although many will disagree. I love them and btw, they are better than perch. I put bluegill a small notch below crappie.

[bdog7198]

Love them, a lake here in MD has what they refer to as bull bluegills. They are large and think, a mess of them is some fine eating.

[okhawg]

I don't think they are as good as crappie, but bluegill are a very good fish.

[VicLynn]

To me they are just as good as crappie. Never ate yellow perch, don't have them in this area. About all I fish for anymore, bluegill and crappie.

[bdog7198]

Found a pic of a bull bluegill

rch3.jpg

[Bearetta]

Found a pic of a bull bluegill

rch3.jpg

That’s a bigun.

[A Wood]

Found a pic of a bull bluegill

rch3.jpg

Holy crap does that thing have tenderloins..... okay so our bluegill are not those bluegill...

[mean_dean]

Annual ritual when I was younger, go to our private fishing club and catch a mess of them off the beds to bring home usually in June. Restock the freezer and a fresh fish fry.

[11pounder]

They are very good, I haven't had any in a long time though. They have to me an almost nutty taste.

[Doorman1]

Bluegill are the only fresh water fish that I actually like. As stated above if fried correctly even the tails are delicious.

[1Holeshot]

Crappie#1

Bluegill & Red Ear/Shellcracker #2

I love Bluegill but find Crappie so much easier to scale and eat.

[ANDYE]

Love em, lots of fun on 4lb line. Trick is finding big enough gills worth cleaning. Table Rock lake in Mo. has some big ones.

[Axkiker]

Holy crap does that thing have tenderloins..... okay so our bluegill are not those bluegill...

Probably hybrid. I dont think they get that big naturally.

[Dave75]

I would take a bluegill any day over a crappie for the table. We fish for them year round, fun through the ice.

[2500]

Best to me cold weather,
Yellow perch or we call them Eisenhower’s
Crappie good if cold water

Summer time Warmouths and red breast
shell crackers too

[ECobb91]

Love panfish especially catching them through the ice. They’re what I basically all target when standing on hard water with the occasional lake trout thrown in. Perch, sunfish, bluegill, crappie they all taste good when baked in the oven