Recipe: Old-Timey Whole-Fried Sunfish

I remember my grandma, Isabelle, hoisting a bucket of panfish from her little boat onto the Northern Minnesota cabin dock. Filled with crappies and bluegills, she kept pretty much everything she caught, all of which became table fare.

The lake was filled with panfish—and all sizes—but she didn’t discriminate for size. In fact, most of sunnies she caught were 6 to 9 inches. While she would fillet the larger crappies, the bulk of her sunfish were simply be-headed, gutted, scaled, and set to dunk in ice water until the evening fish fry.

The same could apply today, but most people have forgotten the art of frying smaller panfish whole, which provides all the meat, not just what you can carefully fillet off the bone. Coated in a milk/beer and egg wash, dredged in rolled-out saltine cracker crumbs or store-bought fish breading, and then fried, the result is absolutely spectacular. Once cooled, each of us would get as many as we could eat. And the process was fun. You separate the skeleton (spine and rib bones) from the fish and everything left behind—meat, crispy skin, and breading—was super delicious. And the fins? Well, they’re like potato chips, crispy, salty, and tasty.

The point is: You can keep smaller panfish for the table if you prepare them this old-timey way. And you’re doing a good deed conservation-wise. Release the bigger bluegill and crappies to grow even larger for others to catch and eat everything that’s undersized! You’ll be pleased with the results.

Preparation and Cleaning

Although boat livewells are great, not every boat has one, and even at the end of the day you have to drain it and do something with the fish. So, best thing when searching out sunfish is to bring a cooler and ice to keep the fish as fresh as possible. Plus, once chilled in a slurry of ice and water, the fish are that much easier to clean their bodies turned semi-rigid from the temperature.

• Cut heads off with a standard or electric knife.
• Slit belly open and remove entrails
• Optional: Cut all but tail fin off with a sharp scissors or braid cutter
• Scale fish with a spoon or small, locking knife
• Rinse and place in a large Tupperware or metal bowl with ice water
• Re-rinse, add salt to water, and let the fish sit in the refrigerator overnight

Cooking

• Heat up Canola oil in a cast iron pan or electric frying pan to 360 degrees.
• Dunk fish in egg/milk or egg/beer mixture and then drop into a bag of whatever breading you like. Shore Lunch, Andy’s, and Catch & Cook Crunchy all work great if you don’t want to create your own out of saltines like grandma used to.
• Transfer fish to the frying pan and fry on each side until brown
• Lay out fried fish on paper towel and keep warm in the oven at 200 degrees
• Serve with a fresh salad and baked beans

Note: It does take some practice eating whole-cooked sunfish. The best first step is to pull out the spine and pick away the rib bones with the fork. Once you get this down, the rest should be good eating and bone-free! You might want to keep a salad bowl next to your plate to deposit the bones from each fish as you devour a bunch!

Sunfish Conservation

We all love catching big sunfish (and eating them), but not all waters can support trophies if the population isn’t managed correctly. We’ve all seen it: many lakes have been fished out of large specimens. Without the big sunfish in the fishery, the overall population will start stunting and the overall size of the sunfish population will decrease.

So do your part—catch some big ‘uns, grab some photos, but let ‘em go. Keep medium-sized fish for dinner and you’ll ensure anglers like yourself have the opportunity to marvel at giant sunfish, too. They truly are a gift. Cleaned and cooked whole like my grandma used to do (and probably yours, too) is one of the best ways to maximize your catch of just about any size sunfish.

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