When we were kids we'd scale 'em with a spoon, gut 'em and cut their heads and fins off and fry 'em up skin, tail, and all. Man that was sure some good eating close to the bone too. Fileting sure saves time in both ends of the process but I'm not sure we don't lose a lot of flavor doing it that way sometimes. Fiddler channel cats are also better with bones in 'em too.

BKB