This weekend the family was up at Bemidji State Park. On Monday night my dad went to the fish shack to clean a few perch we kept. When he came back he said that among other fish, there were quite a few 10″ sunfish in the garbage. The only meat removed from them was the backstrap. They didn’t take any ribmeat and they did a poor job on the backstrap. Is that want and waste? I certainly think so. I really makes me 
I still like ‘gills on the bone too. That’s how we used to eat em when I was a kid. Eating around those bones forced us to slow down too and enjoy the meal instead of shoving it in.
JP
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I love bluegill skin!
YEAH! Me too!
I know I’ll get in trouble here…but I’ve notice more and more folks just taking the breast out of ducks and geese.
Then again, I don’t know any other way to clean a walleye besides filleting them…except for eyes over 25 inches. They get baked.
Who was the guide that kept the left overs of their customers walleye fillets? That’s what his family ate…basically the flesh between the bones.
I guess the bottom line is that it’s their fish. I sure wouldn’t do it that way, they are missing the best part!
Although it is sad to see waste, it could be a casual fisherman who doesnt know what they are doing and trying to take care of some of their kid’s catch.
My family and friends have always cleaned fish and I release whatever I catch on my own. On the rare occasion when I do clean fish, I am the only person I know who gets 3 fillets from a 15″ walleye. 
I personally breast out pheasants, ducks, geese and turkeys—got sick of the other parts, my jaw gets extremely sore from chewing on a turkey leg that is tough as nails and 1/2 tendons.
Maybe the guy was just a bad fish filleter-plenty of those around. don’t ask me to clean a northern!
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I know I’ll get in trouble here…but I’ve notice more and more folks just taking the breast out of ducks and geese.
What else is there? Don’t tell me the legs either. There isn’t anything there worth messing with. Besides, they make great bait piles for coyote shoots.
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I agree. I wonder what was going through their mind? I feel bad filleting fish, but it sure is nice for eating. I was raised to just gut ’em. Sometimes grandma would use the heads for soup. Sometimes I’ll scale them and then fillet them. I love bluegill skin!
Bluegill head soup? I need to learn more about this.
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I know I’ll get in trouble here…but I’ve notice more and more folks just taking the breast out of ducks and geese.
The breast is enough bad meat for most.
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What else is there? Don’t tell me the legs either. There isn’t anything there worth messing with.
That’s my point Ruger. What is a waste to some isn’t worth messing with to others. 
put those duck and goose legs in a crock pot and cover with chicken broth, let cook on low 6-7 hours, drain off the liquid, pull meat away from the bone and shread the meat with a fork, add some thin sliced onion and mushroom with your favorite BBQ sauce and a dash of liquid smoke to the crock pot of shredded meat and set on high for one hour. I usually just have a large zipper bag in the freezer where I keep adding the legs and during a football party I’ll get rid of all the legs.
Chomps, that was just cruel! Unless, that is, you’re inviting me and my wife over for BBQ duck legs.
I wish there was a drooling graemlin. 
I am with you Chomps.
Step No. 1 with legs and thighs from any wild fowl is a slow stew in the crock pot.
After that, the meat falls off the bones and the recipe possibilities are endless.
Like … turkey and noodles, turkey salad, turkey casserole, turkey soup …
Just too much meat there for me to pitch, and everytime I have one of the aforementioned, it brings back memories of that big ‘ol tom I blasted. 
Chomps and IlliniWalli, that’s nasty. I’ll send all the legs your way. I’ve tried messing with grouse and pheasant legs. Too much work for what you get. Not to mention those are high quality good meats.
Although for those that want to try. The crock pot is an excellent technique.
I save grouse and pheasant legs if they aren’t broken. Seems like upland birds are usually flying away and a pretty high percentage take pellets in the legs. Thos sharp, splintered bones are a big enough hassle, that if the legs are broke, I pitch them.
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…I am the only person I know who gets 3 fillets from a 15″ walleye.
I am pretty good at getting 2 fillets with about 5 or 6 fish sticks the size of pennies. Oh, and the fillets usually have a dangler and are scored many times for faster cooking.
When bugs permit, I try to fillet my fish in the garden and always use the wash waters on plants. Heads and guts get buried around the rhubarb–be sure to dig deep unless your patch is well-fenced. When limits allow, generally take home wounded small fish though I suppose it’d be okay to release them for the eagles and turtles.
Oh, yeah, grew up on boiled chicken feet–poor man’s lobster, easy to crack open-YUM! 
A crock pot, with the right gravy & spices, can make an old leather boot taste good 
big G 
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A crock pot, with the right gravy & spices, can make an old leather boot taste good
big G
I need to point that out to my wife and find out what the problem is… 
RUN AND HIDE!
Getting gils bones in my throat as a kid prevented me from eating fish until I was old enough to teach myself to fillet them. I love the skin and filet around the rib cage. If this is wastefull I will keep the heads and guts for whoever would like to eat them. My mom and aunts comment the same way every time they help me clean fish but they have yet to take the head/guts/skeleton with them after I offer them up. 
I guess some things from the good old days are left in the past
I find that on most fish the belly flab cooks away. So most of the time I cut around the ribs and leave the belly.
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We always scaled and gilled pan fish.
After they are cooked I really don’t think there is a better way to pull the fins and the bone from them.
Too many people try to fillet panfish that are too small to begin with.
ehhh, I might be guilty of this. Tell me more, there’s maybe 1 or times a year where I keep sunnies and I’m sure I could be doing a better job. Cut the heads and tails off, then scale and gut, then to the batter??
Growing up that is how I ate them and will still do it that way once in a while. Scale them and nip off the heads and gut them. I like the skin too and will even eat the tail fin up until it gets to thick at the base. It’s like shrimp. I am one of the people who eats the tails too. Filleting sunfish is almost not worth it, yet I still try filleting off the rib meat, even though it is about 1mm thick and is going to basically disintegrate.
I love fish, but I hate feeling bones when I eat them. It’s also a very big turn off to somone new to eating fish (my g/f) so I fillet every fish I keep, even trout. Leave the skin on the trout but slide a knife under the rib cage and zip out the bones 2/3 of the way up the back. I do the same with walleye but I do not leave the skin on.
I do a great job of getting the fillets off all my fish, but I’d be interested in seeing what other parts of the fish contain edible meat.
How big does a walleye have to be to get edible cheeks?
all of my ducks and geese get breasted, and then i have sticks, brats, and sausage made.
i haven’t cooked a duck breast in years.
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How big does a walleye have to be to get edible cheeks
15 inches on the Mississippi although they are a little bigger than the size of a nickel. There are some that just keep freezing them and when they have enough they make a meal out of them.
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