white bass

Took my grandson out of fountain city this morning. While I Was struggling with walleyes down below he was tossing a small crankbait on the surface and boated 45 white bass. So needless to say I have a load of good size fillets to deal with. Was planning on pickling them but was interested to know what if anything others do with them. Do they taste ok pan fried?

Cleaned right, meaning remove as much red meat as possible, and they are very good cooked just like any other fish. I have done batches of them along with walleye, crappie and gills, and the votes are pretty much split against any other fish.

^ What that Cycle Guy said. I would just add that for some reason White Bass hold more contaminates then other fish…

Red Wing to Kellogg-White Bass All sizes One Meal Per Month Mercury PCBsPFOS

For Men and Women not becoming pregnate<

Thanks for the info bk I wasn’t aware of that.
K

Now I know why I feed them to my bride’s family!!! Knew there was a reason. JK

Glad you posted that Brian, didn’t even think of it. On the Winnebago chain here it is all pretty clean, but water sure makes a difference on anything. A lot of guys guys here, just out of ease ( and maybe to your point) keep the back straps only.

Nick of the Lake City DNR office brought it to my attention.

They don’t know why. Must be something in their flesh, oils that hold the contaminates better then other fish.

As mentioned, remove as much of the red tissue as possible when you filled them. That red meat holds a lot of oil. I use white bass for rendering fish oil for trapping. Weird, I get the most from bluegills, and white bass is a close second. Yet gills taste so good.

When I fillet them, I leave an 1/8″ of meat on the skin to remove most of the red meat and really only keep the backstrap above the rib cage. I soak it in salt water for 12hrs (ish) and freeze or cook. I was very surprised the first time a tried it although I normally dont keep any when caught in warm water conditions (above 50F)

Thanks for the information.

Fillet the bass and lay them flat on a sheet of waxed paper on a cookie sheet and freeze them. When they are solid, run your tap water as HOT as you can get it and, one at a time, remove the frozen fillets and run the hot water over the red fat until it grays a little, then scratch off with the edge of a spoon as best as possible.

The fillets can be cooked or put back in the freezer until solid again and then put in a zip-lock for more permanent storage.

The fat layer will come off pretty easy using the hot water and once the fat has been removed the fish is healthier and has a much better taste.

Has anyone ever tried bleeding them out? I’ve been doing that with all my fish now ant it really makes them taste much better. It reall takes the red meat out of the walleyes.

when I have clients keeping them, we pop the gills as we put them in the live well. Bit messy, but does make for a cleaner fillet