Bass Recipes

[Scud_Muffin]

I cook for a living so I got excited seeing this topic. So I like a lot of different techniques but feel that SE Asian methods are my preference for most freshwater fish. 
 

I have one in particular that I like best. I make a marinade with coconut milk, Red Boat fish sauce, minced chili, ginger, cumin, and coriander. Marinade filets for at least 1 hour. Dredge in seasoned cornstarch, rice flour, and/or white flour pending your preferences and shallow fry in a hot pan with a little layer of your preferred neutral oil.

 

For the sauce, mince ginger, garlic, chilis, shallots, lemongrass (ultrafine minced) and scallion whites. Sauté in a little oil and add 1:1:0.5 ratio of fish sauce:brown or palm sugar:lime juice. Simmer for a minute or two until it’s thickened from evaporation, finish with sliced basil and scallion greens, maybe some cilantro. Top over the fish. 
 

I find it works best with spotted bass over largemouth, but it’s also great with catfish. Too far south for Smallmouth so no experience preparing those. 
 

I also like to blacken or fry whole with skin on after scaling—paired with a number of sauces ranging from Mexican Chile sauces to sauces like the one above. You can also roast some garlic and fold it into room temperature butter with some breadcrumbs and herbs, top it over the fish, then bake and enjoy as is of paired with a lemon cream sauce. 
 

Freshwater fish is an underrated resource IMHO. I really enjoy using it. 

[PressuredFishing]

20 minutes ago, the reel ess said:

I think he's right though. I've heard it explained this way. A trophy bass is a freak of nature. The odds are overwhelmingly against any single bass getting huge. They have to beat the odds regarding predation, nutrition and genetics to get there, not to mention environment. When you take a big one one out it might not be replaced for a long time if at all. Smaller fish stand very small chance of getting to trophy size. They're the ones who have not yet beaten the odds. Once a fish reaches say 5 lbs. it stands a much better chance of reaching 8 or more than does a 2 pounder. Just because you take a trophy out of a fishery doesn't mean another will take its place. There are many variables that come into play though. The biggest key to growing lots of big bass is most likely unlimited forage.

 

Also, smaller fish taste better IMO.

true I agree, However I thought the conservation efforts where based on keeping populations of bass healthy, not creating freaks of nature, maybe im wrong, but when japan tried to kill all their bass because they considered them "invasive" it created a few freaks of nature. freaks of nature sometimes mean the population of bass isnt as healthy, other times it means there may just be too much food in the ecosystem

[QED]

7 hours ago, Scud_Mufffin said:

I cook for a living so I got excited seeing this topic. So I like a lot of different techniques but feel that SE Asian methods are my preference for most freshwater fish. 
 

I have one in particular that I like best. I make a marinade with coconut milk, Red Boat fish sauce, minced chili, ginger, cumin, and coriander. Marinade filets for at least 1 hour. Dredge in seasoned cornstarch, rice flour, and/or white flour pending your preferences and shallow fry in a hot pan with a little layer of your preferred neutral oil.

 

For the sauce, mince ginger, garlic, chilis, shallots, lemongrass (ultrafine minced) and scallion whites. Sauté in a little oil and add 1:1:0.5 ratio of fish sauce:brown or palm sugar:lime juice. Simmer for a minute or two until it’s thickened from evaporation, finish with sliced basil and scallion greens, maybe some cilantro. Top over the fish. 
 

I find it works best with spotted bass over largemouth, but it’s also great with catfish. Too far south for Smallmouth so no experience preparing those. 
 

I also like to blacken or fry whole with skin on after scaling—paired with a number of sauces ranging from Mexican Chile sauces to sauces like the one above. You can also roast some garlic and fold it into room temperature butter with some breadcrumbs and herbs, top it over the fish, then bake and enjoy as is of paired with a lemon cream sauce. 
 

Freshwater fish is an underrated resource IMHO. I really enjoy using it. 

Sounds good.  For the more elaborate SE Asian preparations, banana leaf wrapped steamed fish would be my preference.

[TnRiver46]

10 hours ago, Scud_Mufffin said:

I cook for a living so I got excited seeing this topic. So I like a lot of different techniques but feel that SE Asian methods are my preference for most freshwater fish. 
 

I have one in particular that I like best. I make a marinade with coconut milk, Red Boat fish sauce, minced chili, ginger, cumin, and coriander. Marinade filets for at least 1 hour. Dredge in seasoned cornstarch, rice flour, and/or white flour pending your preferences and shallow fry in a hot pan with a little layer of your preferred neutral oil.

 

For the sauce, mince ginger, garlic, chilis, shallots, lemongrass (ultrafine minced) and scallion whites. Sauté in a little oil and add 1:1:0.5 ratio of fish sauce:brown or palm sugar:lime juice. Simmer for a minute or two until it’s thickened from evaporation, finish with sliced basil and scallion greens, maybe some cilantro. Top over the fish. 
 

I find it works best with spotted bass over largemouth, but it’s also great with catfish. Too far south for Smallmouth so no experience preparing those. 
 

I also like to blacken or fry whole with skin on after scaling—paired with a number of sauces ranging from Mexican Chile sauces to sauces like the one above. You can also roast some garlic and fold it into room temperature butter with some breadcrumbs and herbs, top it over the fish, then bake and enjoy as is of paired with a lemon cream sauce. 
 

Freshwater fish is an underrated resource IMHO. I really enjoy using it. 

[the reel ess]

10 hours ago, PressuredFishing said:

true I agree, However I thought the conservation efforts where based on keeping populations of bass healthy, not creating freaks of nature, maybe im wrong, but when japan tried to kill all their bass because they considered them "invasive" it created a few freaks of nature. freaks of nature sometimes mean the population of bass isnt as healthy, other times it means there may just be too much food in the ecosystem

It can be a delicate balance. Yes, most state regulations are based on maintaining a lot of smaller fish for people to catch, but also to take. The less we harvest, the smaller the average will be. This is most noticeable in a smaller ecosystem like a pond. But, as I said before, there are many other variables that can affect a fishery's average.

[Scud_Muffin]

8 hours ago, QED said:

Sounds good.  For the more elaborate SE Asian preparations, banana leaf wrapped steamed fish would be my preference.

We need more banana leaf cooking in this part of the world, for sure. 

[the reel ess]

I have tried to do bass in the air fryer twice. While it did taste good, it didn't look great. It's not really fatty enough.

[QED]

19 hours ago, Scud_Mufffin said:

We need more banana leaf cooking in this part of the world, for sure. 

I can't tell if your remark is [admittedly funny] deadpan humor or in earnest.  But either way, I agree.

[thunderblack]

When I was young all I ever caught and ate were bass. The last 25 yrs or so just catch and release 99% of what I catch. A couple weeks ago I caught a ton of nice crappie and some nice bass (14"-16") and after cooking with a little salt, butter, and rice I preferred the bass. I guess ditch pickles are back on the menu here and there. Walleye is the best though no doubt. 

[Vilas15]

On 10/26/2021 at 3:14 PM, gimruis said:

Your opinion is clearly tainted.  You actually eat a goose LOL

 

Not a big fan of eating bass.  There's much better palatable options of freshwater fish here than bass, including northern pike which are more abundant and easier to catch.  Plus the daily bag limit is 10 and they NEED to be removed considerably from many or our lakes and rivers here.

 

Bass take a long time to reach quality size up here in the north.  A biologist once told me in person at an Elite AOY event that they take 10 years to reach 5 pounds/20 inches this far north.  That's not a renewable resource here.  If we started harvesting them regularly up here, they'd get decimated very quickly.  Plus they are not stocked here at all either and we rely solely on natural reproduction to keep their population healthy. That being said, selective harvest of a small bass of about 12 inches here and there is not going to make a dent in their population.

I would argue that largemouth need to be removed from some of the lakes around me. Based on what ive read more lakes are seeing bass populations grow and walleye are shrinking (Minocqua chain). And thats with extensive walleye stocking. There are some lakes with 18" minimums on bass during a limited time where theres trophy potential and i like that. The DNR seems to do a good job of managing each of the thousands of lakes for what species it can support best.

 

Where i fish largemouth are probably #5 or #6 on the list of desired/targeted species which matches my own interests.

 

Regarding recipes: ive had smallmouth fried in shore lunch batter and it was great. Remember smallmouth and largemouth are both black bass in the sunfish family related to bluegills!

[TnRiver46]

56 minutes ago, thunderblack said:

When I was young all I ever caught and ate were bass. The last 25 yrs or so just catch and release 99% of what I catch. A couple weeks ago I caught a ton of nice crappie and some nice bass (14"-16") and after cooking with a little salt, butter, and rice I preferred the bass. I guess ditch pickles are back on the menu here and there. Walleye is the best though no doubt. 

My wife won’t eat a crappie but she loves white bass, LM and SM bass, walleye, and yellow perch 

[gim]

9 minutes ago, Vilas15 said:

I would argue that largemouth need to be removed from some of the lakes around me. Based on what ive read more lakes are seeing bass populations grow and walleye are shrinking (Minocqua chain). And thats with extensive walleye stocking.

I don't disagree at all.  There are some instances in which smaller sized bass can be removed and consumed.  The example you gave is likely a good one.  Bear in mind that as the climate continues to warm up, cold or cool water species such as walleyes are in trouble.  Warm water species such as largemouth bass will benefit.  A perfect example here is Mille Lacs lake.  Used to be a walleye stronghold for many, many years.  It could handle a tremendous amount of pressure and harvest of certain sized walleye.  In the last 15 years, the lake has completely changed and walleye has not benefited.  Smallmouth bass and northern pike have.   Are there still walleyes in the lake?  Of course.  But the recruitment and capacity is now much more limited with other predators present in larger numbers.

[OldManLure]

On 10/26/2021 at 9:07 PM, gimruis said:

 

Holy Hannah dude calm the f down.

Pretty much everything you just typed is inaccurate here based on the harvest restrictions of game fish in Minnesota. Harvest of large trophy fish is very restrictive here. In fact, you can’t harvest ANY smallmouth bass on Mille Lacs Lake over 17 inches, period. Most of our bigger walleye lakes do not allow the harvest of larger fish either. The small fish are not protected here and those are the fish that are being primarily harvested here. Walleyes are highly sought after here to eat, and they heavily restrict the harvest of them over 20 inches. Very few restrictions with minimum size fish here. Before you attempt to cut my balls off here, I do not make the laws. I only abide by them. What they’re doing here is protecting spawning fish NOW. Not future spawning fish. If you don’t protect mature spawning fish, you will have no more reproduction. Over harvest of large northern pike by anglers here is the primary reason our lakes are full of small aggressive ones. I worked on this when I worked for the DNR and helped gather data in the field.

 

I recently joined the Mille Lacs Smallmouth Alliance which is a conservation organization that is dedicated to preserving the fishery with large, trophy caliber fish and limiting the harvest of all brown bass in the lake. It’s working too, as it was recently ranked as the top bass fishery in the entire country by BASS.

 

I actually do shoot fawns when I deer hunt. The reason is that they taste a lot better than the bucks do that are pumped full of hormones during the rut and peeing on themselves. Would I shoot a big buck? Yes, of course. But no way I’m eating that piece of leather. I’ll donate it. Here in Minnesota there is a voluntary donation program for unwanted deer so someone will make use of it. Just not me. I keep the head and the antlers.

Is it legal to harvest fawns in Minnesota?

[gim]

5 minutes ago, OldManLure said:

Is it legal to harvest fawns in Minnesota?

Yes.

 

There's 2 classifications of deer here: antlered buck and antlerless deer.  If it does not have at least 1 antler that's 3 inches long, its classified as an antlerless deer.

[tander]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

My wife won’t eat a crappie but she loves white bass, LM and SM bass, walleye, and yellow perch 

That is just not right!! I prefer crappie over any fish fresh or salt.

[TnRiver46]

12 minutes ago, tander said:

That is just not right!! I prefer crappie over any fish fresh or salt.

I just look at it from a “more for me” perspective haha. She’s one of those texture people when it comes to food, likes fish firm and flaky 

[Chris Catignani]

On 10/27/2021 at 8:05 PM, Scud_Mufffin said:

Freshwater fish is an underrated resource IMHO. I really enjoy using it. 

I agree 100% they are all good...the fresher the better. 

Even stripper (aka Rock fish) and hybrids are delicious fresh.

[N Florida Mike]

On 10/25/2021 at 11:17 AM, Smells like fish said:

God made chickens, pigs, beefs and McDonalds to eat. Bass are for forums, empty wallets and pics on social media, duh

Not so sure about Mcdonalds on that list…

[N Florida Mike]

Fried bass filets  are great. Would rather have it than a speck.

Old bay, garlic, salt- mix with flour. Add fish filet. Add filets to veg. oil in fryer. 4-6 minutes filet will float.

Done - Sampling them before my wife comes in!