JoeV, nice 'eyes! While I lived up in MI, we had a walnut-breaded walleye fillet on the menu. Unfortunately, while we lived there, I wasn't into fishing. Now that I'm down here in OK, I got into fishing. Luckily, I can still catch walleyes in some lakes or tailraces. I think the tailrace I normally fish has 'eyes, but I've never fished for them.
Normally I think of 'gills like that as flathead catfish bait. PeppA, on the other hand, wants to eat them. I remember a LOT of folks up in MI eat 'gills.
When I was a kid, I would occasionally clean and cook some 'gills. However, I didn't go to the trouble to fillet them. Just scale the, cut off the head, pull out the dorsal and bottom fins with pliars, clean the innards out, rinse, bread, and cook. Once cooked, pull the fillets off with a fork; they'll slide right off the bones.
I also agree with getting a pair of small pliars to remove pin-bones with. I have a small pair of jeweler's pliars that I keep in my drawer at work to remove pin-bones. I rarely find any in the fish we get, but when I do, it's easily taken care of.
I think cod fillets rarely have bones in them. Whiting fillets don't usually have bones either.