What do bass taste like?

[12poundbass]

Holy 12 year old thread! Welcome to Bassresource.

[billmac]

Absolutely filet them.  But after that, I don't have much of a palate for fish.  It all just kinda tastes like fish to me.

[Big Rick]

Water temp has a great affect on the taste. The cooler the water the crisper the taste. The warmer the water the fishier the taste. All in all, it a great fillet for grilling, frying, blackening, and broiling. It just requires some good cajun seasoning and a hot pot of oil. 

[dodgeguy]

Bbq with hot sauce. Bbq with basil sauce. Don't eat fish from murky ponds. Clearwater fish taste better.only keep 12 to 18 inch fish. Fillet them it's easy.Theow big fish back. I eat like 3 a year.

[waymont]

I have had SMB and LMB from really clean water lakes and do not enjoy them much at all. If I want to catch and eat I prefer Pike, perch and Sunfish.

[SeaCrow]

The only reason a bass doesn't taste good is if the cook screws it up..they can be scaled and cooked just fine without skinning them..ate plenty of them that way..

[WRB]

12 years ago BR had several very interesting members no longer active today.

In 12 years time the C & R crowd has grown the catch and eat group has demenished.

Catts 1st reply was spot on, if you want good tasting fish handle it and cook it properly.

My inlaws only ate walleyes and lake trout considered bass too soft and weedy tasting.

I grilled some LMB bass fillets caught from cool clear water, killed and iced the fish immediately after catching them, the result my inlaws ate the fish and liked it not knowing it was bass.

Tom

[Glenn]

https://www.bassresource.com/fishing/bass-recipe.html

[A-Jay]

A-Jay

[TnRiver46]

We eat the bass we catch in a muddy swamp in south Alabama from 90 degree water, flaky firm delicious white meat. A lot of misinformation on this thread. Then again if you asked 30 people if bananas taste good you would get varied responses 

[NYWayfarer]

 

They taste terrible. Throw them back and catch some Crappie and Yellow Perch for eating.

[roadwarrior]

Just like Bald Eagle, Whooping Crane and Passenger Pigeon.

 

[Big Rick]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

A lot of misinformation on this thread.

Not misinformation. OPINION. There's a big difference. Bass in water at 90 degrees have a propensity to have worms in the fillets. 

[clh121787]

large mouth under 2 or 3 pounds are really good im sure bigger is ok too but i wont keep any bigger than that. while still alive i bleedem by cutting the gills. and put on ice.  cleaning a cold fish is waay easier.  spots are even better! 

[dodgeguy]

6 hours ago, Glenn said:

https://www.bassresource.com/fishing/bass-recipe.html

It's cool that Glenn and this site are open minded about eating one sometimes.

[Bluebasser86]

The bass in our lakes are crawling with worms when the water temps get higher. They won't hurt you, but it's pretty gross imo. One of the nastiest tasting fish I've eaten, and I ate a lot of bass growing up out of necessity. 

 

Smaller ones out of clear, colder water are the best if I was going to eat them, but I turn crappie and walleye loose so what do I know. 

[Yumeya]

I've never tried one.

 

I know wiper taste pretty d**n good, I prefer trout, salmon and halibut.

 

When I was at work a couple years ago another employ came in, he brought in some smoked fish and 

d**n it was good, he asked everyone to guess what kind of fish it was....It was carp and it tasted awesome.

 

 

[TnRiver46]

https://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/fish_parasites.html

 turns out bass resource has a good article on the worms sometimes found in bass. In my area the fish with the most parasites come from remote clear cool water fisheries and are mostly in smallmouth. Therefore I don’t feel like the temperature of the particular body of water is a contributing factor. More likely that , as with most parasites and larvae, they are just more prevelant in summer than winter. The parasite’s life cycle is extremely complex and involves certain species of snails and fish eating birds. 

[RAMBLER]

I like fish and that includes bass.  One of the ways I really like LMB is fillet it, leave the skin and scales on.  Pat the meat dry, then sprinkle on a little olive oil, sprinkle with basil, put a few small strips of onion and tomato on the fillet.  Don't cover the meat in onion and tomato, just that few strips fro some seasoning.  Put them on the grill, skin side down (duh).  Close the grill lid and let them cook until the center flakes, with a fork.  The edges will be cooked dry and tight to the skin.  The rest will just slide off the skin.  Learned that from someone who said that was the only way to cook red snapper.

[Happybeerbuzz]

I fall in the category of bass fisherman that has no problem letting people harvest fish that are fishing with me.  They are welcome to take home my limit as well as their own.  I insist that anything about 3 pounds or more go back in the water for the tournament guys.  Although I like eating bass, I personally only harvest terminally hooked fish which happens.  In that instance, I do this except with bass fillets.  Descaling is too much work and messy.  

 

 

[Big Rick]

4 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

In my area the fish with the most parasites come from remote clear cool water fisheries and are mostly in smallmouth. Therefore I don’t feel like the temperature of the particular body of water is a contributing factor.

You may be correct in the statement concerning SMALLMOUTH. However, the largemouth I catch have a greater propensity to have worms in water temps above 85 degrees. The exact same fishery will not produce worm infested fish when water temps are cooler. Therefore experience and repeated test results prove that temperature of MY particular bodies of water are definitely a contributing factor. My bodies of water are in MS and LA. No smallmouth in my waters...

[GreenPig]

On 6/15/2007 at 12:59 PM, Del from philly said:

Largemouth are a very bony fish......and everytime iv cooked them they came out pretty greasy/oily...

not the best for eating, but it seems more like an aquired taste......

not my favorite freshwater fish as far as eating is concerned,

but yellow Perch are good eating, and even sunfish/blue gills can taste pretty good....cook em right over an open flame fire

Bony? Yeah just as bony as crappie, bream,stripers,hybrids, and yellow perch. I fillet my largemouth bass and they are boneless and delicious. 

[Deleted account]

2 hours ago, GreenPig said:

Bony? Yeah just as bony as crappie, bream,stripers,hybrids, and yellow perch. I fillet my largemouth bass and they are boneless and delicious. 

x2. Not very bony, and a breeze to fillet, with good yield.

[scaleface]

I usually keep enough to feed my wife , son and I . Several years ago the Mo,Dept of Cons. wanted to thin out a lake and made it 12 fish daily creel and no length limit . I accumulated 36 bass and 72 fillets . My brother had a hamburger bar b q and invited a good amount of people . I brought my 72 fillets and deep fried them . I had compliment after complement on how good they were . They disappeared fast and my brother had lots of hamburgers left .Kind of ticked him off . LOL

[N Florida Mike]

I keep some 12-16 inch LM bass every now and then .. I like bass  filets, although there are other fish I’d rather eat. I have never seen one worm in any bass Ive cleaned. We fry ours and they are good. I don’t like bass quite as good on the bone. It has a stronger taste, I think from the skin. Still pretty good though.