Eating Bass-is it good now?

[sergv]

I have heard that bass meat is best in early spring and gets softer and not as good these hot summer days-what are your thoughts? If yes-what style cooking are you using?

[EatSleepFish]

bass are horrible tasting, and should never ever be eaten. if i were you i would try to catch some crappie or walleyes. THey taste much better. Let 'em go and let 'em grow!

[Ralph Wiggum]

We had some a week and a half ago that were pretty darn good. Now don't everyone go and jump on me. I was with my folks who like to eat bass, and they don't fish all that much. We kept them in the 1.5-2 pound range and dipped them in egg and cracker crumbs and fried them and they were great. They came out a an extremely clear lake, too. I think the taste will depend a lot on the lake that they come out of.

[Fever]

I don't eat bass but I'm pretty sure the taste will depend on how new your oil is, the type of breading you use, and how much breading you put on your fillet, not to mention if you like to dip into tartar or some kind of cocktail sauce. If you like to eat fish.... go PAN fishing. that's why their called pan fish. right? No offense intended to you all that LIKE to eat bass.

[Bobby Bass]

If you pull bass out of a 85 degree farm pond they are going to taste like fish taken from an 85 degree farm pond. If you are going to eat bass and I do. the 12 incher around a pound are a good choice. Taken out of cool water there meat is firm. Not going to get into a big spiel here about select harvesting and so on. But nothing wrong with eating some bass. I like cracker crumbs,some Mrs Dash original and dipping in milk and egg. If you do eat bass bigger then the 1# the fillets tend to be thick, just cube, roll and deep fry. There has been more then one trip to the BWCA saved with a smallmouth shore lunch

[dan2957]

I know a family that ate some bass once and two days later they started growing scales.... true story.

Bass will give you tape worm and West Nile virus, I would not take a chance.

[Slyster]

I have read that bass have an unusual ability to concentrate heavy metals.. they are estimated to contain more than 1 billion times more lead and mercury than any other freshwater fish.

[Bobby Bass]

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I have read that bass have an unusual ability to concentrate heavy metals.. they are estimated to contain more than 1 billion times more lead and mercury than any other freshwater fish.

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So if you do the math if a bass had a gram of heavy metal times a billion you could not lift it with a Crane. gezz you guys, just say you don't like eating bass and let it go at that.

[Mark Christianson]

Bass are edible????

[Slyster]

(shhhhh..... I am attempting to get him to release the bass for me to catch...)

I actually do like bass and keep a few good ones now and then. Tastes the same any time of year to me. Deep fried with Cajun Shorelunch.

[Fever]

How much is one billion grams in pounds? Anyone know how to convert that... My SCSU education is lacking. That's one heavy Bass. Like I said earlier... Panfish - Pan.fish. hint hint... Got a good laugh off of this post so far.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Fever- I used Google The answer is 2,204,622.62 Lbs

[Fever]

What do you figure the length is on that hog? Must look somewhat like a very very large Blue whale right? Figure 100 tons, thats 100 x 2000lb, that only gets us to 200,000lbs. Wow, nice work on the math Deitz... for a phys ed teacher... ha ha. Seriously now, Deitz, where do you pick up your Exude comedas? In my neck of the woods here in the west metro they seem difficult to find. I personally use senkos and 5 inch Gulp sinking minnows quite often. Do you ever buy them online? End of the season league championship on sept 9th. Would like to get some b4 then. Later...

Fever

[Deitz Dittrich]

Fev- I get all my Exude from the company online... if you order enough, they pay the shipping and its below retail if you use the page they made for FM.

[Fever]

Found it. Placed my order this am. Is this right? After $75 you recieve free shipping, at $100.00 you recieve 15% off as well? I loaded up big time by the way. Thanks Deitz. I appreciate the help. I didn't see anything refering to FM on that site though...

Fever

[TNFL]

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If you like to eat fish.... go PAN fishing. that's why their called pan fish. right?

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FYI Bass are in the pan-fish family! Its based on thier bone structure, I think.

[Fever]

I don't want to get overly technical here but I do have a bit of an ichthology background and no, bass are not in the pan-fish family. Bass are in the Sunfish family which is made up of sunfishes, crappies and black basses. They are in this group because the spinous and soft portions of the dorsal fin are united and confluent, except in the largemouth where a deep notch almost separates the two parts. They are also so grouped because of reproductive tendencies... The males scoop out a depression where one or more females deposit eggs. Then typically (but not always) the males gaurd the eggs and the newly hatched young. There's my Bio lesson for today. School doesnt start for a few weeks yet.

[Deitz Dittrich]

fever did you use this site?

www.mistertwister.com/minnesota

or just www.mistertwister.com

the one with minnesota after it is our sight that we get the discount.. it should read this at the top.

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Welcome to Mister Twister

Welcome to MisterTwister.com / FishingMinnesota. Mister Twister is proud to be a member of the FishingMinnesota.com family. To show our appreciation, you will receive a 20% discount on anything you order today. You can earn up to 30% by adding items to your cart. This offer is good on All Mister Twister products - not just a few select items. Don't miss the boat on this one. It's a great opportunity for you to get ready for the season opener.

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[BillP]

Some past experiences I had made me think LM bass were not very good to eat. However, since our lake has become over-run with them I have been doing some expirmenting. I found they can be quite good even this time of the year. I have come up with some practices that seam to work for me. I am sure you don't have to do all this when conditions are good but it's working for me even with the warm water and warm weather.

1. Keep only the smaller fish. I'm thinking about 2 lb is the upper limit at least in this warm weather. These are almost all males.

2. Don't use a live well or basket,(at least not for long). Kill the fish and bleed it by cutting into the gills from the bottom. Put it on ice.

3. The ice will firm them up good and make it easy to filet them. Keep filets cold and cook them up the sooner the better.

I have not yet tried freezing them but my favorite fish are sunfish and they keep frozen very well in a zip lock bag. Add enough water to cover the fish and squeeze out the air as you seal the bag. Use the quick freeze feature in your freezer. I spent a lot of time looking for a bass recipe but am beginning to think the secret is in how you deal with them after you catch them and just cook them as you like other fish.

[Ole the Guide]

BillP,

It really hurts to read #2.

Ole

"Please release them, let them go!

[Jackpine Rob]

Good tips Bill. Bass should be promoted as a delicious alternative to walleyes or panfish. They are plentiful, dumber than a box of rocks, and can fill the protein requirements of hungry fisherpersons.

Release the sunnies and walleyes! Eat bass.

[river rat316]

trolling.......

why would you release a fish that:

a: fights like a wet noodle

b: doesn't reproduce naturally in most lakes

c: do I have to say it again.... fights like a wet noodle

At least bass give ya a little sport and fight back, there also not dumb, its called aggressive, and I suppose if you eye fisherman would put down the live bait for a second, you'd see the true sport in our ummm... sport

[Fever]

I'll have to second that. I've landed 19.5 inch small mouth that fought like crazy, breached the water and put my equipment to the test. Caught 21.75 inch large mouth that made my heart skip because of the deep hard runs, hard head shakes and jumps. Can't even honestly say close to the same about the 30 inch 9 lb 12 oz walleye I have on the wall. Beautiful & respectable fish, but when it comes to comparing what is more fun to catch... The walleye came in like a heavy clump of weeds. I'm wasting my own time even typing this. People, let the bass go. They are sport fish. And yes, fishing is a sport.

[river rat316]

I landed a 28" eye on the river up north of here and it took all of 25 seconds to get to the net, and it was fat and healthy, if that would have been a 19-20" smallie you could bet it would have put my crankin rod and 10 pound test to the test and would have been at least a couple of minute fight in the heavy current I was in!! I wasn't upset to catch the eye, but they are not the same class of sport fish, and yes it was released alive and healthy.... I should have clubbed the dam thing and fed it to the eagles though darn roughfish

[BillP]

Any fish that is so plentiful that you can catch 15 or 20 in an hr. isn't going to be thinned out to any extent by eating a few little ones. I catch a few bass while I am sunfishing (a big one once in a while) Throw most of them back and keep maby 2 little ones. You, fishing for bass catch 50 and throw them all back. Mortality figures indicate that several of your fish will die. Probabily big ones. I feed my family, you feed the turtles. By the way I throw the big bluegills back too.