Smallmouth recipes

[glenn57]

next time add a few more seasonings like cajon, seasonall and or onion and garlic salt. just a bit.

[Big Tom]

tomuchfun, when you y-bone them nords i hope you dont throw them away. thats a lot of wasted fish IMO. pickle them. but then i never understood it when people hand issues eating fish with bones in, take them out, its really not all that hard.

Totally agree. I grew up eating Northerns and Sunnies. You learned to pull the bones. Really not that hard. My father in law used to make a stink about any pin bones he would find in my walleye filets. One day he had 3-4 of them on his plate and I grabbed them and swallowed them and asked him what the issue was.

[lient]

I would rank smallies right up with walleye. But the only time I have eaten them is out of lakes up north in or near the boundary waters. My inlaws have a cabin 20 miles north of Ely and they pretty much only fish smallies for a meal of fish.

As far as recipes go I have had them dipped in egg then battered with crushed cornflakes flour and some other spices, then fried.

Another way I have prepared them is on the grill with olive oil, butter, dill and capers on them. I really enjoyed eating them this way.

[riverrat56]

The way I look at fish is, they are all real close to same, and I use the same recipes for any of them...

[Craig Plummer]

Kevin, eating smallmouth bass should be outlawed. I would try upgrading your taste buds to liking a more desirable fish to eat like walleye. If you get really hungry for fish try bullheads, not smallies.

I would try upgrading your attitude and if your gonna be so negative try keeping your views to yourself.

[Sandmannd]

Originally Posted By: walleyefey

Kevin, eating smallmouth bass should be outlawed. I would try upgrading your taste buds to liking a more desirable fish to eat like walleye. If you get really hungry for fish try bullheads, not smallies.

I would try upgrading your attitude and if your gonna be so negative try keeping your views to yourself.

Why do folks have a problem with others eating bass but have no problem eating no other fish species? I've never got this. I don't keep pigs of any species. But smaller bass are tasty if you do them right. I just made some fish chowder the other night out of bass and it was awesome.

[charliepete2]

I fry them up with Cajun Shore Lunch, or batter them in semolina flour spiced with garlic and lawry's. They come out great. The only time I noticed they tasted fishy is when a buddy tried freezing them and thawing them out later. I should also mention that I eat most of them in the spring of the year when the water is cool and their meat is pretty firm. I've had plenty of buddies that at first didn't want anything to do with eating smallmouth turned into believers.

You might be able to tell the difference if you baked them, but in a fish fry most people wouldn't know the difference between walleye, northern, and smallmouth. Certainly any of them fresh is better than any store bought or frozen fish you could get. They aren't as easy to clean as walleye, but they are much nicer to deal with than a bony-slimey northern.

[Jim Uran]

yeah no doubt, when i was a kid, we lived up north and we ate smallies all of the time. Last time i made a trip up there I kept a few and fileting them was no harder than fileting a walleye or a crappie. They tasted just as good as the walleyes and I eat fish a lot. I treat them no different when cooking them.

[Wookiee]

Back when muskies didn't have a size limit. I would keep those and they tasted just as good if not better than a northern.

[Outfitter17]

Now you opened a can of worms.

[saml604]

Not sure what all the smallmouth hate is about, I really like 'em. Maybe they're better out of the clean northern waters, but I think most people just have preformed opinions about what fish are good table fare when the differences are usually pretty minute.

As far as preperation, simply pan-fried in butter is great, or with a light cornmeal batter. Smallies also have somewhat sturdier flesh, so I've found they hold up great to soups, curries, etc where a piece of walleye would just flake apart.

Also, I find bass similar or even easier than walleye to clean. Personally, I prefer my fillets entirely boneless so I slide the knife around the set of bones above the ribs, and bass have pretty solid bones so this is very easy to do. It leaves you with a nice little Y-shaped fillet, and I find it worth the extra time to get all the bones out.

[Sandmannd]

I've done smallies just with shore lunch on them and they are tasty.

[croixflats]

Originally Posted By: walleyes12

my opinon catch and release bass and then find some panfish or walleyes for a meal.

Why are bass treated any different than walleye or any other game fish? I have never tried smallmouth but am going to. I have never kept any smallies except for this one time, all the rest of them have been catch and release.

Trevor, if you have enough beer just about anything is good!!!

The best way to know if bass is any good is to try it. Thats how I learned. ones taste is differant from another. Heck some people like sheep head.

Fix as a walleye or crappie. Keep it simple that way later you can decide if there worth trying again with other methods.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Heck some people like sheep head.

Sheepies are actually pretty good!

[LABS4ME]

Blackened Sheepshead.... MMMMMMMM!

Actually a kissing cousin to salt water Redfish, and they are highly sought after!

Good Luck!

Ken

[Jarrod32]

If I keep bass, I'll tend to save them up and run 'em through the smoker.

I have a friend who likes bass; we usually end up trading some fish at the end of the day...I give him the bass, and he gives me the northerns.

I love fresh fried northerns...particularly cold water northerns.

But he is of the opinion that smallies fry up just fine...to each their own, I guess.

[Wanderer]

Blackened Sheepshead.... MMMMMMMM!

Actually a kissing cousin to salt water Redfish, and they are highly sought after!

Good Luck!

Ken

Now thats an eye opener right there!

They do seem to be predator fish instead of bottom scum suckers.

[macgruber]

it all depends on the type of water and the size of the fish.... big bass are gross..... so are big walleyes, big northerns, big anything, when compared to the tender, succulent fillets you get from the smaller fish.....

not sure why smallmouth are so revered..... as others said, up north they can be considered a scourge..... they are non-natives and many blame them for declining walleye populations on many lakes..... canada has gone so far as to encourage catching and keeping them because how much they've taken over.....

jackpine said it best-- walleyes are the keepers because of the ease of cleaning- no backbone to contend with, just a nice clean swipe of the knife..... it's not that they're that hard, but it is a noticable difference....

last bwca trip we did i claimed that nobody would be able to tell the difference between the walleye, northern, and bass..... not only could everyone taste a difference (they couldn't necessarily identify species but could taste a difference), everyone preferred the small bass we kept to the other fish..... they have a sweeter flavor.... just stick to icy waters and small fish.....