One to two pound channel cats from a flowing river like the San Marcos or Guadalupe.

We had bass, flathead, crappie, bream, and walleye laid out at Ouachita. 4 way tie and the bass was good.

Water quality makes all the difference when it comes to catfish. Chow down on a cat taken from a mossy pond, and chances are it'll taste like moss. The best cats I've tasted came from a clean flowing river, especially one with a sandy bottom. The old timers say the best tasting catfish come from the Great Salt Plains lake in OK. This is supposedly due to the high saline content.

Sand Dabs caught in cold water (55 or lower) then pan fried in garlic and butter. In 55 years of fishing, they are easily my favorite behind Salmon caught fresh in the Pacific Northwest.

Marc

Experience itself had probably something to do with it, but best thing I have ever had were walleye cheeks while on the ice.

Hell, they are all good !!

We got to PB and fell face first into a big time fish fry. Neighbors hauled In over a hundred stripers. I never fish for them thus never ate them. They had way more fillets than folks to feed so they kept bringing hot messes of fish over to us. It was plain old cornmeal fried fish and very tasty. I think it would be better with mustard under the cornmeal but no complaints at all.

Baby Bass are better IMO.

OP said Texas lakes so I say,
1. Crappie
2. 10-15 lb flathead in fish tacos, mmm
3. Bluegill
I would have put walleye in there but the last ones I caught in Texas was Lake Meredith and I think it dried up.

10lb and over largemouth bass.

Freshwater = Walleye. I spent my teenage years in Southern Alberta and fished every slough, river, irrigation ditch and lake within 200miles of Medicine Hat. Fresh Walleye from the Oldman is second to none.

Saltwater = Alaskan Halibut. The spring and fall fish trucks use to come through town loaded with the latest catches from the coast. Salmon were good but the halibut slabs were heavenly. (great job, mom!)

For fresh water fish;
1. Walleye
2. Crappie
3. Channel Cats

Number 1 hands down in my opinion is White Bass to me they taste Even better than crappies

They are decent, but no where near the top on my list.

That's not very good to do because a double digit bass is a fish of a lifetime if I caught a bass that big I would throw it back because they rarely get that big and 2
It's a old fish and 3 I would think it would taste terrible and not worth eating .in my opinion to should only eat bass between legal size a three pound and the rest should live to fight Another day but hey that's you and you have the right to do it but personally I wouldn't .

Your papadeaux's , fish was not caught and released .It landed in your belly, with spices and butter and mushrooms,