Cool!
Panfish still taste better, though.
At least I hopes you eats 'em. Never understood "catch-and-release." Love fishing, but I can't imagine fishing without cooking and eating what is caught.
Well, except for bullheads, I suppose. But I can't say I believe in releasing those bastards back...only good bullhead is a dead bullhead.
But other than that, if it's not too small in the "illegal" sense (gotta be law-abiding), it's not too small to eat.
And, to answer Smokey's question...
I love fish cooked so many different ways, but if it's freshwater, it usually ends up being one of the following:
1A. (Panfish) Filleted and dipped in corn flake crumbs, then pan fried
1B. (small panfish, smelt) Beheaded and gutted, dipped in flour, pan fired
1C. (panfish) Filleted and grilled. Charcoal or just about any wood.
2A. (walleye, bass, small northern) see 1A or 1C
2B. (walleye, bass, small northern) blackened, cajun-style.
3A. (northern, if bigger) Cut into steaks and grill with lemon or pineapple.
3B. (northern, if bigger) See 2B.
3C. (northern, if bigger) Filleted, and stuffed with chopped crab/shrimp, cayenne-based seasoning, diced celery, baked, served with a bourbon-and-smoked poblano cream sauce
4A. (Trout) See 1B.
4B. (trout) Grilled with hickory and/or apple wood
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Romans 12:2 (NKJV)