As a kid, we ate bass. I haven't eaten one in many years. My favourites now are crappie, bluegill, and walleye when I can get them. 

Gave up eating LMB long ago. Eat and enjoy fried catfish and some seafood fried and not fried at my favorite restaurants.  

5 hours ago, Mobasser said:

As a kid, we ate bass. I haven't eaten one in many years. My favourites now are crappie, bluegill, and walleye when I can get them. 

I have't tried walleye but crappie is the least fishy tasting, very mild. Bluegill also delicous. Might try some white bass this year if I catch any. Cut out the bloodline

I grew up eeating bullheads, channl cats and carp. I think bass taste amazing if they are small. I like the lakes with slot limits . I take my stringer of small ones and not feel guilty. Largemouth mainly. I have had a smallmouth and a few spots. They tasted the same to me.

I have only had largemouth and I thought they were very good fried. Not my favorite lake fish (that would be perch or bluegill), but do want to eat more of them. 

It’s probably all in my noggin, but I’m convinced that smallmouth taste better than largemouth. 

I think the overzealous push of conservation has mentally dissuaded us from eating most species of gamefish.  I’ll agree that the water they come from and forage they are feeding on have a lot to do with the flavor of the fish.  I don’t make it a habit to keep largemouth and smallmouth when there are so many other species that I will keep like crappie, bluegill, catfish, white perch, ring perch, walleye and more recently snakehead (Channa).  I have eaten smallmouth and largemouth and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it and I don’t throw shade on anyone who enjoys them.  I’ve caught smallmouth and largemouth for fish fry’s both in lake Champlain and in Wisconsin.  St Clair has a large contingent of meat fishermen who include smallmouth along with all the other species, and there are a lot.  Follow the slot and cull limits and enjoy your catch.  

LMB from clean water are pretty good. Not up there with flounder, crappie, etc. But good enough when fried. I had a friend with an overpopulated pond who told me to take everything I caught. I wouldn't waste them. But my wife and daughter just don't care for fried fish, especially bass. He had a floating basket, so I would leave them in that if I caught a lot or just didn't want to take them. 

My tastebuds prefer bluegill, crappie, and catfish.  I haven't eaten a bass in years.

We must have lower taste standards than most.  We keep and eat largemouth bass any chance we can and they taste great no matter the water conditions.  Some of the comments sound like yall just cook your fish in plain water. 

Largemouth taste like eating what I imagine a big handful of pond muck and algae mushed together and deepfried would taste like. The whole "You're not cooking it right or you've never had it cooked right", arguement, no, it just taste like crap to me. I like other kinds of fish, and I'd eat bass if I liked it. There's some slot lakes around me packed with dinks I could keep 5 under 13" and have a great meal if they didn't taste awful. 

 

They make pretty solid catfish bait though, and it's legal here, so when I'm after bait and I catch a legal undersized bass, in the bucket he goes. 

 

I've heard smallmouth and spots taste better, which makes sense since they tend to live in cleaner areas and not buried up in the debris and vegetation like largemouth do, but I could never bring myself to eat a smallmouth or spot because they take so long to grow here and spots are so few and far between, especially keeper sized. 

A friend and I did a taste test with several of our favorite freshwater fish back in the mid-80's with bass, crappie, trout, bluegill and catfish.

 

#1: Channel Catfish

#2: Crappie

#3: Trout

#4: Bluegill

#5: Bass

 

Nothing wrong with the taste of bass, just that in our opinion, there are better tasting fish swimming nearby if I choose to eat my catch. I haven't kept a bass in over thirty years, and would only do so if I mortally wounded one.

On 4/16/2025 at 7:50 AM, TnRiver46 said:

I even take them home and fry them for people, they usually say it’s the best fish they’ve ever had 

This is also my experience. People look at me like I’m crazy for eating bass… until I make them some. I’ve never had someone say it wasn’t incredible. And I’m nothing special as a cook. Just fillet them well, soak in saltwater, pat dry, and fry properly. 
 

To the OP, I’ve never had spotted bass, but we eat lots of large and smallmouth up here in NY. Smallies are a more subtle flavor for sure, and most people prefer them. 

Eaten both large mouth and spots and could not tell which was which. Both tasted great deep fried in corn meal. 

 I had 72 fillets taken from an over poulated lake that MDC wanted thinned out.  My brother was having a bar B Que. I took my Coleman stove and fried those bass up. Everybody loved them. Even those who said they dont like fish

I find freshwater fish to be very bland tasting.  Saltwater fish is so much more robust in flavor.  If I lived near the coast I would never target another freshwater fish ever again, regardless of whether I was fishing for sport or to harvest.

 

The OP failed to mention ROCK BASS.

 

On 4/19/2025 at 3:12 PM, fishingram24 said:

Both tasted great deep fried in corn meal. 

 

Of course they did.  All you tasted was the corn meal because you covered up the natural taste of the fish.  You could deep fry hot dogs or horse turds if that was the case.

1 hour ago, scaleface said:

 I had 72 fillets taken from an over poulated lake that MDC wanted thinned out.  My brother was having a bar B Que. I took my Coleman stove and fried those bass up. Everybody loved them. Even those who said they dont like fish

Happens every time !

1 hour ago, gim said:

 or horse turds

Even I’m not eating that 

Out of all fresh water fish only walleye and perch are eatable.. Saltwater fish, that is another story. 

 

4 minutes ago, Gera said:

Out of all fresh water fish only walleye and perch are eatable.. Saltwater fish, that is another story. 

 

The multi million (maybe billion ) dollar farm raised catfish industry disagrees with you 

39 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Even I’m not eating that 

 

So says the 2 legged garbage disposal that will eat anything that isn't bolted down. 🤔

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

The multi million (maybe billion ) dollar farm raised catfish industry disagrees with you 

Millions of people have been brainwashed by these multinational corporations to believe that it tastes good when it doesn't. Just like when Tabaco companies made us believe smoking was good for us.

My in-laws go bonkers when I take them catfish, and I didn’t brain wash them haha. They request them by name, pretty tasty