Prepare it like they do at this restaurant in Omaha. They make a series of cross hatched cuts straight to the backbone, it makes the tiny peripheral bones edible when breaded and fried. Of course the flavor part is a different story but I used to put mine in a clean kiddie swimming pool and feed them corn for a couple of weeks and then eat them, makes them almost neutral in flavor.
I usually just huck them up over the bank LoL
But I would eat it if some one served it to me.