12 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I have captured the elusive yellow tail snapper. Talk about a weird way to fish! Throw handfuls of sand and oats into the water, free spool the bait into the sand cloud, and reel in your fish when you get bit without setting the hook 

California Yellowtail is a member of the southern amberjack family, good fighting game fish up to 88 lbs, average arlund 25 lbs locally, not a yellowtail snapper.

Wahoo are larger fish very fast swimmers over 40 mph with razor sharp teeth.

Tom

 

Forgot to mention my 2nd favorite fish to eat behind flounder.....Whiting.

The Pacific Ocean doesn't have Flounder we have Halibut, both Pacific and smaller California species and Sand Dabs a smaller 2 to 3 lb species usually very deep water 300' to 600' and very delicate whate meat flat fish. Halibut are firm white meat fish similar to east coast flounder, except much larger 25 lbs for California and over 300 lbs for Pacific. All the mentioned ocean fish are availble fresh in local markets seasonally and the reason eating bass isn't popular.

Tom

 

 

1 hour ago, WRB said:

The Pacific Ocean doesn't have Flounder

I've caught plenty of Flounder in Puget Sound.  But there's a variety of species called "Flounder", so this is what I'm talking about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_flounder

 

btw, there are about 100 species of "bass" when you include saltwater too.

No body like salmon?  Fresh King, Silver, or Sockeye is my favorite, Salt water fish.  Wahoo comes in a close second.  Yellow Perch, crappie, and bass are all great fresh water fish.  Sure hope none of my fly fishing purists friends read this, but I have been known to eat a wild rainbow trout once in awhile.   Not as good as bass or perch, but delicious all the same.

Freshwater I prefer Yellow Perch.

 

Saltwater it's Fluke and Flounder for me.

Yellow perch and bluegill top my list.  Walleye would be next.  I think crappie meat is overrated.  I've killed a couple smallmouths with gut hooking and they are pretty awesome.  I like largemouth bass, too, but they have to be 15"+ here to keep them.  At that size and bigger, they aren't quite as tasty as the younger ones.

52 minutes ago, Pickle_Power said:

Yellow perch and bluegill top my list.  Walleye would be next.  I think crappie meat is overrated.  I've killed a couple smallmouths with gut hooking and they are pretty awesome.  I like largemouth bass, too, but they have to be 15"+ here to keep them.  At that size and bigger, they aren't quite as tasty as the younger ones.

I agree on the crappie, my fiancé won’t eat them. More for me though!!! They taste great it’s just a soft texture that turns off the lady 

Myth; California Halibut isn't a Halibut it's a Flounder, learn something everyday!

Myth; Black bass, Largemouth, Smallmouth, Spotted etc, are not a bass, they are sunfish. Stripe bass are true bass.

Tom

PS, Sand Dabs are also a flounder.

Red Snapper=awesome fish tacos...

On 5/27/2020 at 5:43 PM, TnRiver46 said:

The thing that gets me is when people try to tell everyone that bass are nasty to eat when they have never eaten them. Typically in my area it’s tournament anglers or strictly bass only anglers that treat them like Hindu cows and can’t stand the thought of guys like me killing them. That’s why this worldwide forum is so awesome, before I found bass resource I was beginning to think I was the only person in the world that ate bass. I’ve caught some major flack and been just about blacklisted on local forums. I’ve also had people at boat ramps literally tell me not to eat bass. I mean what in the world is that all about????

Bass taste terrible, and I've eaten a ton of them growing up. I wish I liked them, I'd eat a ton of the dinks out of the slot limit lakes. I don't have a problem with people keeping smaller fish to eat, but I'd be lying if I said it doesn't hurt when I see the big ones get tossed in a bucket or added to a stringer, I feel the same about seeing people keep big fish of all species though.

Pretty much every fish tastes good, if it's prepared properly. I had patties made out of carp that rival any walleye filet I've eaten. My personal favorite is the belly meat from flathead, or cold water blue cats. Only fish I don't care much for are wipers and stripers. If you cut the strip of red meat out, they taste good. Just a lot of effort for not as much meat, once you're said and done. 

I love to catch and eat fish...all kinds of fish. I just don't keep many anymore because it doesn't seem like our local fisheries are all that healthy and the pressure on them is just incredible.

6 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Bass taste terrible, and I've eaten a ton of them growing up. I wish I liked them, I'd eat a ton of the dinks out of the slot limit lakes. I don't have a problem with people keeping smaller fish to eat, but I'd be lying if I said it doesn't hurt when I see the big ones get tossed in a bucket or added to a stringer, I feel the same about seeing people keep big fish of all species though.

But the big ones have more meat! 

On 5/28/2020 at 3:09 PM, Pickle_Power said:

Yellow perch and bluegill top my list.

I have to second this 

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

But the big ones have more meat! 

If that's the issue, then there's fish that get much bigger on average, that are also easier to catch (looking at you catfish ?)

3 hours ago, scaleface said:

I have to second this 

Third. Especially fat bluegills! 

On 5/27/2020 at 9:12 PM, RoLo said:

most never get the opportunity to taste wahoo, yellowtail snapper or tripletail.

 

Roger

 

I have caught wahoo, yellowtail snapper, tripletail, dolphin, and many other saltwater fish. They are delicious but for me the best tasting fish I have eaten are hogfish that I caught spearfishing and ate the same day.

15 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

But the big ones have more meat! 

But even "Fat BassGuy" (censor) wanted to eat "the baby", not Dr Evil!  Small is tasty!

I don’t regularly keep fish but when I do bass doesn’t even cross my mind. Around here we have so many other high quality fish like northern pike, walleye, sauger, yellow perch, whitefish, channel cats from clean water, wild stream trout from crystal clear streams, lake trout from super clean deep lakes, salmon in lake superior, burbot, crappie and sunnies of course, people even net smelt and eat them. Very rarely will you hear about people eating bass here, it’s kinda looked down upon even though bass are pretty unpopular here. There’s a lot of fish on that list that I would be willing to bet taste a lot better than bass, not something I’m going to keep any time soon.

 

When my family has a fish fry, we use crappie, bluegill, pumkinseeds, and largemouths. We dont seperate the meat by species. We cut all the fillets up into bite sized chunks and fry it up.  I ve never had anybody say any of it tastes different or say that one piece tasted funny. If cut up and fried, all sunfish taste the same as far as i can tell. We have had these fish frys 3 times a year for longer than ive been alive. Im 40. There is normally 20-30 people at them. I have never had a single person notice the difference. We just tell them its "pan fish". These parties are a long running tradition in my family. My brothers, brother in law, and i catch most of the fish now. It used to be my grandfather, father, and uncles.

 

   I always get a chuckle out of people claiming bass doesnt taste good but crappie does.

 

   I strongly feel that yellow perch is the best tasting freshwater fish. Walleye is good too. They are basically just a giant perch. 

     Pike are good eating too but i dont keep them. They smell terrible and get that slime all over everything. I try to release pike without taking them out of the water and with minimal touching. Nasty suckers.

 

     Ive never had catfish that i liked other than small bullheads. Ive tried it many times, cooked by many people from here in NY to Tennessee, florida, and Louisiana. It always tastes like a swamp smells.

I’ve fished saltwater here in Florida for over 60 years (as well as bass fish) and have caught almost all the species in saltwater we have.
As SoFl said, Hogfish is right near the top. Scamp grouper is the best in the grouper family and yellowtail the best snapper. Triple tail, triggerfish and sheepshead are all excellent. Fresh Wahoo is hard to beat. 
In Florida freshwater I rate speckled perch ( crappie) #1 with sunshine bass and LM bass in that order. Catfish from the rivers taste a lot better to me than those from lakes. 

walleye, crappie, and big bluegill.  Of the catfish variety I prefer blue cat.

On 5/27/2020 at 8:09 AM, N Florida Mike said:

 

 In saltwater, my top 5  that Ive eaten somewhat regularly:

• Red Snapper 

•Sheephead

•Flounder

•Redfish

• Panfish: Whiting, croakers etc

Any list is incomplete without Spots.

10 hours ago, whitwolf said:

Any list is incomplete without Spots.

You are a true North Carolinian.

The only reason I didnt include them is I didnt think most people would know what they are.