# Whitebass



## DHower08 (Nov 20, 2015)

Who here eats whitebass. How are they? I catch tons of them fishing for bass and saugeyes. Wondering if im throwing a good resource back in the lake or not


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## TJ Arfons (Mar 4, 2016)

where are you catching them?


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## Monark22 (May 25, 2015)

Soak them in milk and a little vinegar.. Taste like slabs. Bigger ones will have a red streak in them.


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## shorelineguy (May 3, 2014)

DHower08 said:


> Who here eats whitebass. How are they? I catch tons of them fishing for bass and saugeyes. Wondering if im throwing a good resource back in the lake or not



I eat white bass, they aren't as good as perch, walleye or crappie, but when prepared the right way they can be delicious.


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## DHower08 (Nov 20, 2015)

Thanks guys. I catch them at piedmont and clendening also catch them at tappan the few times a year ifish their


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## cowboy888 (Aug 24, 2015)

You have to cut all the red dark areas off the back of the fillet and they are good but not as good as walleye crappie bluegill


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## shorelineguy (May 3, 2014)

I was told by a few older gentlemen to bleed them out like you would eyes or steelhead and soak the fillets in salt water, this will eliminate unpleasant taste of the "red" meat


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## BIGEYURK25 (Apr 4, 2013)

shorelineguy said:


> I was told by a few older gentlemen to bleed them out like you would eyes or steelhead and soak the fillets in salt water, this will eliminate unpleasant taste of the "red" meat


That just sounds like too much work for white bass haha


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## StarkFisherman (May 17, 2008)

Most that I have caught don't have much redmeat.... just a bunch of picky eaters on here. Catch, scale, fillet, rinse, zatarans, hot oil, meal! Lol... if anything, let sit in some salt water over night.


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## shorelineguy (May 3, 2014)

BIGEYURK25 said:


> That just sounds like too much work for white bass haha



Lol I agree. I soak fillets in salt water. That's it


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## DHower08 (Nov 20, 2015)

I soak all fish in salt water oner night


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## Pagsjr87 (May 22, 2014)

White bass are delicious! Cook em like perch and you won't be disappointed. Anybody that says they won't eat them, feel free to give them to me! Lol


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## shorelineguy (May 3, 2014)

Pagsjr87 said:


> White bass are delicious! Cook em like perch and you won't be disappointed. Anybody that says they won't eat them, feel free to give them to me! Lol



Cook them like perch?


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## DHower08 (Nov 20, 2015)

??? Is their a special method to preparing perch im not aware of?


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## snag (Dec 27, 2005)

Last year guys talked of soaking white bass in 7 up overnight .


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## cowboy888 (Aug 24, 2015)

You got to cut all that red crap off watch the video they will taste better. It takes two seconds. Your not eating anything. All fish have that but older fish and white bass seem to have more. Then do what you normally do to your fish.


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## Pagsjr87 (May 22, 2014)

DHower08 said:


> ??? Is their a special method to preparing perch im not aware of?


I meant like cook them as you would cook your perch. Or really any panfish for that matter. Fillet and fry!


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## donny_k (Apr 16, 2015)

I have never had the oppurtunity to try them but several coworkers go for them somewhere in Alliance all of the time and love to eat them.


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## legendaryyaj (Nov 1, 2005)

They all taste the same deep fried to me. It's all about texture but white bass only are mushy when frozen and thawed out again to cook. I eat mine fresh and make fish tacos with them. I soak them in beer for an hour and then season however you want and slap them between some corn tortillas with some mango salsa and it's good to go. No need to cut out the bloodline as it's not that bad. To me, the fillets look kinda like tilapia fillets you see at the store.


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## Connman (Mar 24, 2016)

Me and my dad would catch them all the time in the 1970s on Lake Erie and they would fry them up just like Perch


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## PartTimeBasser (Apr 29, 2004)

White bass also aren't too bad baked with just salt, pepper, and Old Bay.


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## ErieBoy75 (Aug 4, 2009)

Trim red meat. Eat FRESH. Delicious. (As has been suggested before.)


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## DHower08 (Nov 20, 2015)

Ill keep some this year and give it a shot. We always vary how we eat our fish baked fried grilled so im guessing just throw it in with the rest of them and probably wont know the difference


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## Rembis50 (May 28, 2013)

My brother caught one this past summer and we fried it up. It was alright, not as good as the bluegill we also fried up


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## TClark (Apr 20, 2007)

We catch em all the time at Piedmont...in fact, we target them when nothing else is biting. Last year we caught 34 in 30 minutes just before dark one night.

They are delicious!! I never mess with the red meat, just had some from last year and not at all mushy. We catch and throw them on ice in the cooler.

Will try em without the red meat this year. 
Watch those dorsal fins, they will get ya.


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## 1MoreKast (Mar 15, 2008)

I would only catch as much as you would plan to eat that night. Not horrible if you eat them fresh but I'm not a fan of them after a week or 2 in the freezer. Just my 2 cents.


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## c. j. stone (Sep 24, 2006)

BIGEYURK25 said:


> That just sounds like too much work for white bass haha


Not at all with a sharp filet knife. Filet, turn over skin side down on the table. Start the "skinning" near the tail. Instead of laying the knife at an angle towards the skin, turn it flatter(maybe even with the edge slightly upward to make the cut. In doing this, you are leaving some of(most of) the red meat on the skin as you move forward. Throw the red meat away attached to the skin. With a couple for practice, you'll quickly become quite skilled at it. I do the same with trout/salmonoids to get rid of the "strong" fishy tasting meat next to the skin.


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## REY298 (Apr 3, 2014)

DHower08 said:


> Who here eats whitebass. How are they? I catch tons of them fishing for bass and saugeyes. Wondering if im throwing a good resource back in the lake or not


You're making a mistake! They are excellent table fair! Some people complain about a "oily or gamey taste", not so, if handled correctly after caught:
1. Place on ice as soon as possible.
2. In dressing the fish to go out, that is, out into the skillet, "LOL", try not to hit the heart, as this causes bleeding into the flesh and a not so pleasant taste.
3. Cut your filets, then skin em'.
4.Add a teaspoon of salt to a bowl of clean water, then add your filets.
5. Let set for about 15 minutes. Then rinse and towel dry.
6. Change water if you have more filets and repeat.

Some people suggest that you cut out the lateral blood vein for the larger bass, 12-15 inchers and larger, but after cleaning hundreds of white bass, I have not found this way to be very effective and you tend to lose a good portion of your filet.

Treat their cousin, the white perch, in the same manner and enjoy.


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## DHower08 (Nov 20, 2015)

Thanks guys i usually just bitch about catching them. They fight good at first to get you excited then 30 seconds in you know its a white bass


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## StarkFisherman (May 17, 2008)

Giant Eagle sells them... and they are fozen previously and taste just fine.


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## shomethacrappies (Mar 26, 2009)

I bleed mines like I do walleye, taste pretty good that way


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## breynolds926 (4 mo ago)

DHower08 said:


> Who here eats whitebass. How are they? I catch tons of them fishing for bass and saugeyes. Wondering if im throwing a good resource back in the lake or not


If you want to throw them back, see if you can throw a few my way...Iove'em.


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## c. j. stone (Sep 24, 2006)

Since we’ve revivved this thread, I’ll add this aside. While fishing for walleye thru the ice at Pymatuning, I caught some Huge white bass. Typically, they are 12”, or less but that evening these guys were in the upper teens in length and pushing 2#. Laid out on the ice, they froze stiff while we were catching them, along with the occasional walleye, for a couple hours, all caught on our jigged blade lures. Put into a standard 5/gal bucket to carry off the ice, their tails extended abt two inches above the rim of the bucket. We kept them iced over night, filleted them the way I mentioned in my post above(“a few years earlier”!) and fried them up with some of the walleye. All these fish were great eating!


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## WISH IT WAS YOU (Jul 25, 2006)

Who ever thinks white bass taste bad has ether ate them when it’s really hot out or doesn’t know how to cook fish.
They are not as mentioned as flakey as eyes but they have a good flavor and you can sometimes fall on a mess of them. I’d say give them a shot.


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## Mickey (Oct 22, 2011)

Well, I've read all the posts and have an idea. I've tried white bass at least 3 times. I have kept it iced, trimmed all the red meat and eaten it the same day. It still tastes strong to me. The key words are "to me". We all have our own taste buds and they can differ greatly. Millions of people love Miller Lite beer but it tastes like skunk water to me. So I'm not saying white bass or Miller Lite are bad. They just don't taste good to me. The white bass hit and fight hard and I enjoy catching them. I wish they did taste good "to me".


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## twistedcatfish1971 (Jul 21, 2013)

Hmmmmm...maybe a Miller lite beer batter with the whitebass?


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## BASS_ANGLER (Apr 9, 2008)

I'm not a fan they have a real fishy taste


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## MrDingleBerry (4 mo ago)

BASS_ANGLER said:


> I'm not a fan they have a real fishy taste


Fish taste fishy 

They're not bad imo... Granted I've eaten largemouths and thought they tasted "good".


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## c. j. stone (Sep 24, 2006)

BIGEYURK25 said:


> That just sounds like too much work for white bass haha


Really no more work than any other fish! Just exactly the same really.


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## Moo Juice (Jan 20, 2021)

twistedcatfish1971 said:


> Hmmmmm...maybe a Miller lite beer batter with the whitebass?


They're trying to improve the taste, not make it worse!😂


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## snag (Dec 27, 2005)

Out this morning and got into some white bass and a few crappie, biggest was 14 inches, most were 10-11 . Nice fighters.










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