So I met this guy fishing from for Bluegill from shore at a local lake. We got to talking about Bluegill (one of my favorite fish), and after I told him that I love to eat them, but they have to be large enough for me to fillet because I hate getting little fish bones in my mouth, he said, "no, keep the smaller ones because if you cook them the right way, you can crunch and chew up the bones without worrying that they will get stuck in your throat!" He told me that after I try them this way, I'll never throw back a little Bluegill again!
He said that after you gut and remove the head, make several slices with your knife across the body, not cutting all the way thru it, so the flavored coating and the hot grease will get into the meat. He said to buy Louisiana Brand crispy fish fry breading mix and after wetting the fish in water or milk, coat it with the mix and fry in hot oil or grease until the fish is golden-brown, about 4-5 minutes on each side, then place on a paper towel to absorb the excess oil. He said you can just eat the bones, the entire fish is crunchy and tasty. I ask him what size is good and he showed me what he had on his stringer. They were about 4 to 5 inches long. Much bigger than that, he said, and you won't be able to fry up the bones to be crunchy and edible.
I've done this with small Golden Trout we've caught from the sierras and they were really good. Almost like eating crispy fried bacon. So now we are going to try this. Small Bluegill tend to over populate and spawn when they are little, you see the bright colored spawning males in some lakes and parks that are just barely 4 inches long! So keeping these little fish will help with the stunted Bluegill problems that most of our little lakes have..