OutdoorMissouri.com

...bass?

I've had it. There's too many of them. I'm gonna start keeping them. How to cook 'em so they don't taste like their first cousins (carp)?

OK, just kidding. Gotta admit, without 'em, some walleye fishing days around here would get pretty loooonnnggg.

PD
I cleaned and ate one yesterday. Fillet the critter. Salt both sides, roll it in yellow corn meal and deep fry it. If you want to kill some of the fishy taste and this goes for all fish that are fishy ( catfish, trout etc) use seasoning salt on both sides (lowerys or the cheap stuff from WalMart) then the yellow corn meal. None are as good as Walleye and crappie but good luck.

I just love to yank the bass chain. Actually, my dad was a Mississippi River rat in his younger days, so we grew up eating carp. Done right, you'd never know the difference.

Hard to beat a meal of FRESH fish, of any kind.

powerdivehome said:
...bass?

I've had it. There's too many of them. I'm gonna start keeping them. How to cook 'em so they don't taste like their first cousins (carp)?

OK, just kidding. Gotta admit, without 'em, some walleye fishing days around here would get pretty loooonnnggg.

I use to eat them all the time----just got burned out on the taste for a while.

One of my all time favorite was on the grill with them wrapped in foil--covered with onions and sprayed with the juice of a lemon------Not bad--especially if your hungry.

Right up there with boiled liver, eh, Pman???

Lakebumb... I respestfully disagree with the "fishy / catfish" statement. FLATHEAD catfish, cleaned properly is one of natures greatest gifts. Tied with Walleye's for 1st place. Now, I won't disagree with those "other" catfish species..... But those "flats" are very, very hard to beat.
On another note: Since my yellow perch didn't break Lakebumbs STATE RECORD yellow perch, I brought it home and cleaned it. Tonight, I will feast on those 2 potato chip sized perch fillets.... I can hardly wait...
Good thing we still have a few crappie and walleye fillets to go with it though....

powerdivehome said:
Right up there with boiled liver, eh, Pman???

I would rather have it fried instead of boiled--but both are fine------------------------------------with enough onions covering them!

TR
Your right about the flat heads. I just don't have the luck to catch the good catfish. As for yellow perch, If it wasn't for Hunter91 keeping after me the 2 hours we fished after I caught the new state record, I too would know what yellow perch tasted like. That poor fish almost didn't get his happy home at WOW. He almost retired into the frying pan.

Watch it with the green fish. I tournament fish for those things, but I do know how they taste. I release almost every one for the simple fact that they are green!! The same color as money

I keep us supplied with crappie filets, so my wife and I are spoiled when it comes to eating fish. Walleyes and spring suckers are close seconds to crappie and perch for eating, in my opinion. Bass and catfish are just OK.

Does anyone here know how to take the fishy taste out of white bass? I love to catch them, but I usually throw them back if they're over 12" because the bigger ones are so strong tasting. I've tried shaving that red meat off the outside of the filets, soaking them in salt water, and a few other things with no success. My theory is that the white bass taste just like a shad smells - because they eat so many shad.

Does anyone have any suggestions about how to fix them?

Ozark said:
I keep us supplied with crappie filets, so my wife and I are spoiled when it comes to eating fish. Walleyes and spring suckers are close seconds to crappie and perch for eating, in my opinion. Bass and catfish are just OK.

Does anyone here know how to take the fishy taste out of white bass? I love to catch them, but I usually throw them back if they're over 12" because the bigger ones are so strong tasting. I've tried shaving that red meat off the outside of the filets, soaking them in salt water, and a few other things with no success. My theory is that the white bass taste just like a shad smells - because they eat so many shad.

Does anyone have any suggestions about how to fix them?

Ozark-----That will give me an excuse to get over your way for some fishin. The biggest part of making them ateable is all in the cleaning. I just learned the correct way a couple of years ago---Up until then I would not put one in the boat.

After cleaning----cook them just as you would a nice crappie filet-----very good.....

If you interested in a trip up top side (The Rock)--give me a yell.........

Sam....talk to BB about preparing the white bass. He catches a lot of the larger ones (17") and the first thing he does is filet them right after he gets home and also removes the red line meat. After that, I don't know what he does, but it must be something to make them tasty. When I was a kid (Roosevelt was president...Teddy...not Franklin) there were no impounded lakes close by, so we fished in the creeks (they are known as bayous in Louisiana), and it was
perch (bluegills) or largemouth bass unless you ran trotlines for catfish. My father and I would take a 12 ft wood vee bow boat with a 12 hp outboard and float maybe three or four miles of Corney Bayou fishing with fly rods and crickets and catch maybe 30 or 40 nice size bluegills. A largmouth bass was something special to catch back then, and were table fare for royalty. As I grew older, I was given a new Zebco 33 rod/reel set for a birthday present and started the chase for bass that has continued for some 45 years....although I do not keep bass for eating any more, back then when I brought home a stringer of five or six keeper size bass, it would be "fish fry night" for our family. I never thought they had a fishy taste, but will readily admit that bass do not begin to compare with crappie and walleye in taste.

Ozark said:
I keep us supplied with crappie filets, so my wife and I are spoiled when it comes to eating fish. Walleyes and spring suckers are close seconds to crappie and perch for eating, in my opinion. Bass and catfish are just OK.

Does anyone here know how to take the fishy taste out of white bass? I love to catch them, but I usually throw them back if they're over 12" because the bigger ones are so strong tasting. I've tried shaving that red meat off the outside of the filets, soaking them in salt water, and a few other things with no success. My theory is that the white bass taste just like a shad smells - because they eat so many shad.

Does anyone have any suggestions about how to fix them?

White bass are actually pretty good if fixed right. My wife does not like catfish or black bass but likes white bass when I fix em right.

Fillet them and put the fillets in ice water and in the refridge. In a couple hours the meat will be very stiff which will allow you to remove the red meat. When I say remove I mean remove. You end up with 2 fillets out of each fillet. The red strip must be cut out which includes all the way through the middle of the fillet and the thin strips on the outside.

Use seasoning salt on both sides of the fillet and roll in yellow corn meal and deep fry. The fish fry mix from BPS will also kill any remaining fishy flavor.

Try it

Ozark,

Just had a mess of white bass Sat nite that we caught at Stockton last fall and they were pretty darn good. I'd venture to say you're not getting enough of the red meat off the filet. Here's the way I do it. After getting the filet off both sides but BEFORE cutting out the ribcage use an electric filet knife and beginning at the big end of the filet shave off the red meat. You can get most on the first pass but sometimes another pass is required. Then go ahead and cut out the rib cage. Now make two small cuts on the small end of the filet, one on either side of the center line of the filet. Then just pull forward from the cuts separating each side from the center line and you'll wind up with two separate smaller filets with none of the small "y bones" in the center line. I think some of the "fishy" taste comes from the center line. Then usually freeze them in water until a "fry" is held. Granted they're not as tasty as walleye or crappie but really not bad. By the way, I clean walleye the way I described above cause I don't like diggin them little "y bones" outa my teeth

I like to fridge' all fish in heavy salted water for a few hours. Then rence, batter and fry.

By whatever direction and method you choose when cleaning a "white", you HAVE to cut out that middle strip totally.
(Like Lakebumb and Bumps say). Then we shave off any "surface" red. You'll like them.