Eating White Bass

[scaleface]

My home  has a tremendous population of white bass . I catch them by the hundreds , decent sized ones . Does any one know how to remove the strong fishy taste without cutting out the red meat ?  

[Bluebasser86]

Never heard of any way other than removing the red meat. One of the local guys soaks them in Sprite and says that helps, but doesn't get rid of it altogether. 

[mrpao]

Eat chicken  

[scaleface]

4 hours ago, mrpao said:

Eat chicken  

We dont have those around here .

[whitwolf]

Soak them in buttermilk. I personally like them thee way they are but soaking them In buttermilk will take some of the fishy taste out.

[slonezp]

I just eat the backstraps

[Jig Man]

Just cut the red out and have a nice boneless fish stick.  I've been eating them for over 30 years and that is the only way I have ever found to get them to taste fit to eat.

[IndianaFinesse]

I don't have any problem with them tasting fishy, I actually think they are firmer and milder tasting than crappie.  And I don't do a thing about that "mud vein" people talk about, and I have yet to have that ruin a fish.

[scaleface]

23 hours ago, IndianaFinesse said:

I don't have any problem with them tasting fishy, I actually think they are firmer and milder tasting than crappie.  And I don't do a thing about that "mud vein" people talk about, and I have yet to have that ruin a fish.

I dont like the red meat and cut it out and get puny little fillets .I'm going to try different soakings to try and draw that strong unagreeable taste out . I saw one on Youtube where a guy soaks them in water and lemon / lime juice and he states they come out real well .

[IndianaFinesse]

5 minutes ago, scaleface said:

I dont like the red meat and cut it out and get puny little fillets .I'm going to try different soakings to try and draw that strong unagreeable taste out . I saw one on Youtube where a guy soaks them in water and lemon / lime juice and he states they come out real well .

Sometimes I like to soak them in cold salt water for a little bit before I deep fry them (a half an hour to an hour will do it) if I've caught them in warm water or expect  some fishy taste or if they feel a little soft.  Don't know how it works, but it seems to firm them up and get rid of any fishy taste pretty well, and it doesn't leave any salty taste at all.

[Jig Man]

9 minutes ago, scaleface said:

I dont like the red meat and cut it out and get puny little fillets .I'm going to try different soakings to try and draw that strong unagreeable taste out . I saw one on Youtube where a guy soaks them in water and lemon / lime juice and he states they come out real well .

Please post your results.  I eat a bunch of them in the winter and would keep bigger pieces if it were possible to eat them.  With the red still in they are just plumb nasty.

[JustJames]

Are these the same as stripers? If yes I dont taste any fishy at all and you know, asian, we cook them whole with skin and bone.

how about prep like catfish where you cut it gill or tail part when it still alive to let blood out of its vain?

[Bluebasser86]

2 minutes ago, JustJames said:

Are these the same as stripers? If yes I dont taste any fishy at all and you know, asian, we cook them whole with skin and bone.

how about prep like catfish where you cut it gill or tail part when it still alive to let blood out of its vain?

No, these are the much smaller cousin of the striped bass, usually less than 2 pounds.

It isn't the blood or "mud vein", is the issue. There's a large amount of red meat (literally exactly what it sounds like, red/pinkish colored meat attached to the white fillet in a large portion of the fish). This has to be cut out to leave just the white meat as it has an extremely strong and unappealing flavor. The problem is, it's mixed in with the white meat, so once it's cut out there is very little left. 

This is a picture where you can see the red meat still on the fillets. As you can tell, cutting it out is problematic and does waste a lot of the fillet.

[everythingthatswims]

21 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

No, these are the much smaller cousin of the striped bass, usually less than 2 pounds.

It isn't the blood or "mud vein", is the issue. There's a large amount of red meat (literally exactly what it sounds like, red/pinkish colored meat attached to the white fillet in a large portion of the fish). This has to be cut out to leave just the white meat as it has an extremely strong and unappealing flavor. The problem is, it's mixed in with the white meat, so once it's cut out there is very little left. 

This is a picture where you can see the red meat still on the fillets. As you can tell, cutting it out is problematic and does waste a lot of the fillet.

Though I have never cleaned a white bass, with fish that have a lot of red meat like this picture, I find the best way to do it is leave a little breathing room between the skin and the knife when you cut the filet off of the skin, and most of that red meat will be attached to the skin when you're done, normally not more than an 1/8" thick, then the only dark part is right along the lateral line.

[JustJames]

Those dont look very bad of the red. Look the same as fillet tilapia which I eat all the time here(market bought). I just use a lot of lime juice, crushed garlic and fresh pepper for dipping sauce.

[mrmacwvu1]

I never understood people that wanted to eat fish that didn't taste fishy. To me that is like me saying I want my ribeye to taste less like cow.

[J Francho]

34 minutes ago, mrmacwvu1 said:

I never understood people that wanted to eat fish that didn't taste fishy. To me that is like me saying I want my ribeye to taste less like cow.

I think "fishy" compares to "gamey."  More like some like a steak, but don't like venison because it's gamey.  Some like Haddock, but not catfish because it's "fishy."  I personally prefer lighter, lightly flavored fish, like pike, walleye, perch.

[mrmacwvu1]

1 hour ago, J Francho said:

I think "fishy" compares to "gamey."  More like some like a steak, but don't like venison because it's gamey.  Some like Haddock, but not catfish because it's "fishy."  I personally prefer lighter, lightly flavored fish, like pike, walleye, perch.

I know I was just making a joke

I love all types of fish actually like the fishy ones better

[J Francho]

3 minutes ago, mrmacwvu1 said:

I love all types of fish actually like the fishy ones better

There's some "fishy" ones I like too.  Gotta be a certain kind of "fishy" though.  Smoke eel is one.  Love it in sushi.

[Jig Man]

I really believe some of you have the term "fishy" confused with "nasty" because that is how white bass with the red left in tastes.  I'd never keep another one of them if I knew how to catch walleye or crappie when I want to eat fish.

[scaleface]

16 hours ago, Jig Man said:

I really believe some of you have the term "fishy" confused with "nasty" because that is how white bass with the red left in tastes.  I'd never keep another one of them if I knew how to catch walleye or crappie when I want to eat fish.

They are so prevalent on my local reservoir that they should  to be taken advantage of . They are also fun to catch . Generally the giant  schools will be deeper  on the flats and there will be other species mixed in . I catch lots of catfish and an occasional walleye but hardly never crappie or largemouths  . They save my day many times . No one in my family likes them though . I think they are "nasty " too . I'm going to try different recipes and ways to cook them . I roasted one on a stick over an open fire one day when I was tight-lining on a small river and it was pretty dang good  .

[TnRiver46]

White bass is my favorite food fish. My girlfriend won't eat a crappie but looooves white bass. Two ways to get that red meat out (although I don't even bother unless they are huge). 1) exactly what eveythingthatswims said 2) shave it out with the knife instead of slicing it out, Otherwise you will waste all the meat. I cook big bunches of white bass for people (non fishermen) at parties and they gobble up every last bit. The only way I have experienced them taste bad is if you freeze them more than 2-3 months 

[Whitebassfan]

I never ever remove the red meat because I feel like you're wasting most of the meat when you do  and besides ive never had any problems with fishy taste in the white Bass from lake tawakoni .in fact sometimes when I fillet the white Bass I will scale the fish and leave the skin on because if feel the skin has alot of good flavor 

[Junger]

Never had white bass, but I dislike catfish because I think it tastes very gamey.

 

Anyone ever try smoking the white bass filets? Mesquite and hickory would impart lots of flavor.

[Russ E]

fried white bass is excellent in fish tacos. the gamier taste stands up to the spicy ingredients in the taco.

one thing I do is, use an electric filet knife to clean them. I just leave a fine layer of meat behind with the skin.

what red meat is left does not impart much flavor.