I want a little learnin on white bass. They are an introduced species here and not very widely dispersed. Many locals just from a lack of experience and since it is different it must be bad, look down on, and bad mouth them but when asked only can say "well I heard...." Since I have a camper on a lake now that has them, are they the scary trash fish people make them out to be??? "They are oily, they taste bad, they are fishy, they have worms, they are dirty tasting, ect" have all been told to me by people who have never cooked or eaten them. I am not picky and at least when it comes to game meat, I am usually open minded. So how do you catch, clean, and prepare them?
I’m no expert but I heard the same comments on white bass. The first time I caught a mess, I was told to put mustard in the ziplock before freezing to help with the “fishy” taste. Well, they are a fish but I did. They were fine. I haven’t bothered with any special prep since. They eat fine. Then again I’ll eat carp, drum, gar, etc. I like fish.
Also fish that have “too many bones”. I don’t eat the bones. Never counted them, but I doubt the number of bones varies much from one species to the next. I eat fillets or comb the meat off the ribs with a fork.
Our neighbors are Hmong and travel to Devils Lake in North Dakota to load up on white bass in the spring. They give me some to eat every year. They freeze them round for the trip home so I thaw them out, gut them and grill them. I think they are pretty good for eating. Nothing special compared to other fish we typically eat, but not bad at all.
I have eaten them many times. Fun to fish for....I caught 3 at one time on the Ohio River when I was younger. The ones here have red meat in the fillets(don’t know if that is from their shad diet or if they are all that way). A friend taught me to cut it out because of the strong taste. Haven’t ever tried them another way. He does the same thing to stripers. Very nice flaky white meat. We just deep fry them but I bet they are great smoked. Just my experience.
Oh yeah...get yourself an assortment of rooster tails and a light tackle rod and reel for the fun of a lifetime.
That(Devils Lake) is the parent source of the bass. In the low water years of the 70's they were introduced. Only 500 and some odd were put in. Because the water was so salty and stagnant they were one of the only fish that would survive. I think that is why they may have the bad rap around here. Fast forward 20 years to the high water years and the lake overflowed and the white bass have spread to surrounding lakes. Last year I moved to a brand new campground on one of the spillover lakes but was busy establishing our site, and didn't get a lot of water time. I hope to wet some line this year and may even get a dock put out. I've never been a serious fisherman but maybe this may get me "hooked".
White bass aka Sand bass is what we have alot of here in oklahoma. They are good fish to eat and alot of fun to catch. When you filet the fish make sure to cut the red strip out of the meat on the scale side. Thats where people get the oily, fishy bad taste from.
