How Do You Eat Your Bass?

[200racing]

blackened: dry your fillets. rub a small amount of olive oil on them sprinkle a mix of {onion and garlic powder, lemon pepper,}equal proportions [black  pepper,and red pepper.] i would suggest 1/3 proportion in relation to the other 3. mixed this way it has some kick but not bad. place in hot black skillet and leave on each side for good bit you want it to burn.  

 

bass on the half shell: cut the fillets off the fish but leave the skin and scales on. 

place on a couple of layers of foil or in one of those fish cooking baskets skin down. sprinkle your seasoning of choice on them. i suppose you could bake them but i like a fire. the trick is getting the fire hot enough to cook but burn them. i use a indirect fire with my coal on one side and my fish on the other and cover them.

 

when done the meat is flaky. you can scape the meat off the skin or vise versa

[derekxec]

i used to keep and eat bass once in a blue moon when i was a kid and we only kept 1  and just fried it up along with some other finger foods but that was probably 15 or so years ago 

 

now i dont eat anything freshwater im not into eating fish that much unless its snook i could eat snook everyday hahaha and i cook my snook chopped into cubes and fried (i eat lobster, shrimp and clams/oysters/mussels etc)

[Curved]

C&R only when I dont feel like cooking. Bass are a great fish to eat. Mild flavor and bigger fillets than most freshwater fish. 3 fish feeds my family versus 10 or so bluegill. I fry them with house autry fish breader in canola oil. The trick is to get the temperature right so they cook before absorbing a lot of oil but not so hot that the oil burns. Hushpuppies or cornbread usually on the side.

Edit: for C&R advocates out there, if you fish a place with a slot limit it means the biologist managing there wants people to keep fish. If there's too many little bass they get stunted, so thinning the population is better for the sport.

[Hi Salenity]

I haven't kept any in a couple years but I like cutting them up in chunks and frying them with Andy's Red and serve it with tarter sauce.

A lot of the lakes I fish have a 18" length limit and wile I love bass especially the flakeyness of the bigger ones the last time I kept any it was 2 at 3+# and one at 5# to me those are tooooo good of a fish to keep and I wish you could take 17" fish instaid

[AK-Jax86]

I don't eat bass but if I do I prefer a knife an fork.... I am the most interesting fishermen in the world

[FD.]

I go to the store.

 

It's not because I see something wrong with eating keeper size bass, I'm just lazy.

 

I fully understand the benefits of people keeping bass and if they are of legal size, at or under the legal number kept and caught using legal means (including having a license) then by all means eat 'em up!

 

 

Bingo.  Publix has tilapia fillets ready to go.  No fuss, No mess.

 

I don't even hunt much anymore because I don't want to clean anything.

 

I'm getting really lazy in my "mature" days.

[rangerboy]

I almost all ways c and r, but while camping a few years ago I had roasted a large mouth over the camp fire with spicy bbq sauce. awesome .

[SwampLife]

Bass is the best fresh water fish to eat down here in south louisiana!

The best is deep fried fillets cut into nuggets with louisiana seasoned crispy batter! We can cook down here trust me..

[iabass8]

I don't - there are just too many other better tasting fish available up here, just depends what's in season.

 

A-Jay

agree. i never keep bass. have more than my fill of walleye and catfish from the spring/fall.

[GeorgiaBassBros]

The few times i ever eat bass they are cut into chunks and deep fried or pan fried. bass are pretty good eatin but catfish and bream are way better

[Kevin22]

You guys will not eat a bass because it tastes bad but you will eat a stink old catfish? To me bass is 1000 times better eating than a catfish. Catfish is the lowest of the low for me, just putting them in the same sentence with walleye regarding good eating fish makes me want to puke. 

[Hi Salenity]

You guys will not eat a bass because it tastes bad but you will eat a stink old catfish? To me bass is 1000 times better eating than a catfish. Catfish is the lowest of the low for me, just putting them in the same sentence with walleye regarding good eating fish makes me want to puke.

Ill have to agree, a nice clean filet isn't bad but the catfish "nuggets" are as bad as it gets!

Ill take generic fish sticks over nuggets any day!

[Tuckahoe Joe]

To each his own.  I like bass.  The wife just dips it in egg and then House of Autry's Fish Breader and fries it up.  I catch and release 99% of the time though.  I kept some last year when I first started fishing but this season I have yet to keep a bass.  Not because I'm die-hard C and R.  Mostly because I'm too lazy to fillet them.

[Loop_Dad]

I never ate bass.

 

I'm C&R guy, but I'm prepared to keep one if one die on me which hadn't happen yet. Well actually one died after I let go, but couldn't get to it. A couple of months ago one was bleeding a lot. I was never able to figure out where it was bleeding from, but it didn't appear to be from gill. I unhooked and let go. It swam away very fast. If it was floating or anything I was planning on keeping it. 

 

Anyhow, I live in a city that Chinese is actually majority (I think). They have a Chinese market and in there they have pretty large fish department. I go there time to time. They have tanks of live fish and they have bass in one of the tanks often. It says farm raised bass. They were all around 12 inch size. They must taste good.

 

To me catfish taste bad. Taste like mud. Bass probably taste better depending on the environment they grew up.

[Fish Chris]

I'm picky about the fish I eat, and don't care for bass. I ate a whole school of Tilapia's last night though

 

This was my awesome, 2500 cal dinner Had to bump it up a little, as my weight has been trying to dip below 210..... and I'm shooting for 225

 

 

The baked beans are kind of a trial thing. Normally, the only carb dense thing I eat is my oatmeal... no bread, pasta, rice, or potatos.

 

Peace,

Fish

[SirSnookalot]

The smoker is great for oily fish, here in Florida they smoke the mackerel species.  Being ethnic I was weened on several kinds of smoked fish, ocean salmon better known as lox or nova.  Sable which is smoked cod and my personal favorite. In freshwater smoked salmon which are entirely different than ocean but pretty darn good too, smoked chubs and whitefish.

Make sure you take the skin off that snook or you'll be eating soap.

Interesting enough are the scavengers we eat, shrimp, crab and lobster, considered an unclean fish and against the kashrut laws( kosher), but so d**n good.

[SPEEDBEAD.]

do you scale them and leave the skin on or do you cut out filets and smoke them like that?  i ask because if i filet them it will surely dry out, but skin on can manage to keep them moist

 

The skin was still on it.

 

I don't drink any more but I believe I tried to accomplish this when I did. That may have been a factor.

[buzzed bait]

The skin was still on it.

 

I don't drink any more but I believe I tried to accomplish this when I did. That may have been a factor.

 

you may be on to something there!  i'd say just watch them closely and don't let them go too far...

[Curved]

Pics from last night:

 

Some 12"ish SMB

 

Plus some breader and hot oil

 

Personally, I taste a big difference between store bought fish and fresh fish. Store bought fish tastes considerably stronger and more rubbery to me. There's no going back haha.

[tallydude]

I don't. LMB is catch and release only for me. Like some of the other guys here have said, there are too many other fish that taste better that I'd rather eat.

[bigbill]

We fInally have slot limits. But I do practice c&r most of the time. But my rescued kittens

and cats do enjoy some fresh fish time to time. Just maybe twice a year they get a break

from dry and canned food.

 

I like all fish but my favorites are cod, Pollack and catfish. The misses does stuff the  cod and Pollack with a Ritz cracker stuffing with crab meat. I prefer my catfish cleaned, gutted and tossed on a wood fire. Just some salt and butter when it's served.

 

For blue fish and weak fish my mom would bake them but drain the oil off the blue fish once then add basil, oragano, garlic salt and tomatoes and bake till done. Black fish taste good too this way.

 

I know some who eat every fresh water fish even the boney ones. They make fish cakes from them.

 

On Christmas eve we have mostly seafood from king crab legs to stuffed clams. Don't forget the spagetti with the anchovies, garlic and olive oil. It's a non stop buffet. What a family tradition.

[Bankbeater]

I have never really had a taste for bass.  IMO, Bluegill is the best tasting fish.

[Nice_Bass]

I have never really had a taste for bass.  IMO, Bluegill is the best tasting fish.

 

Same taste...less work.

[Kevin22]

I have never really had a taste for bass.  IMO, Bluegill is the best tasting fish.

 

 

Soak the bass for 2 days in water, changing the water daily. Cut into strips about 1" wide and 2" long and fry the same way you would bluegill. If you are cleaning a big bass, you may have to plane the meat so it is not so thick. Prepare them correctly and you will not taste a difference between bass and bluegill. If you try and fry a whole bass fillet right out of the lake it will likely taste bad. 

 

12-15" fish are eaters. Bigger are breeders! 

[Kevin22]

Pics from last night:

 

Some 12"ish SMB

 

Plus some breader and hot oil

 

Personally, I taste a big difference between store bought fish and fresh fish. Store bought fish tastes considerably stronger and more rubbery to me. There's no going back haha.

 

 

 

Those look really good! 

 

I have never eaten SMB, mostly because they are a pretty rare catch here and I'd like to see them take off. But I hear they are fantastic eating. 

 

Nice to see someone else that keeps the smaller fish for eating and lets the bigger ones go!