With all the discussion on sardines and salmon, my thoughts turned to the bluegill we have in the freezer and out in our ponds. We have about 5 acres of water near the house stocked with bluegill, redear sunfish, large mouth bass and small mouth bass and channel catfish. Two years ago we harvested over 400 bluegill and I don't remember how many channel cats. Probably 50 at least. We ate lots and gave away lots. Last year over 200 bluegill harvested. Probably will need to start harvesting some bass this year. So we have access to LOTS of fish and in fact to keep the fishery good we need to harvest quite a few each year.

We have always fried or baked the fish mostly in a traditional way. Having been eating sardines pretty much daily, I wondered how the bluegill would taste fixed more like sardines. So today Carolynn got out a bag of bluegill fillets out of the freezer. She dumped them into the Instant Pot and pressure cooked them 4 minutes. When they cooled she chunked them up into something that resembled tunna out of a can. Mixed in diced boiled eggs, dill pickle relish, chipotle mayo, onion power, chopped onion, mustard and salt. Turned out darn good. Similar to my sardines but a much milder taste. Like tuna salad but milder.

I like it. Never even thought about preparing it like that before.

John