Small bass taste just fine. Especially the corn meal/peanut oil treatment most fish get, hard to tell one fish from another when it comes out of the hot grease. Having said that I eat crappie most of the time when eating fish, but a legal small bass caught while crappie fishing will also get filleted.

I like the 16" and below, but some reason, these guys were just beggin to be kept.

Agreed with the prep and fry. We did a fry and had a few bass and crappie. Bass was great, but I could tell a little difference between the two.

12”-16” maybe 2-3 every once in a while or if one is gut hooked.

Almost had to eat a 7 1/2 last week. She kept rolling belly up beside the boat when I would release her. I finally put her in the live well and held her upright for at least 30 minutes before she started kicking and moving around without rolling over. I then released her and with a kick of her tail she headed for the deep.

When I was in college in Nacogdoches we ate a lot of the fish we caught because we were broke back then. LOL We used to roll the fillets in a batter and then roll them in crushed up flavored crackers instead of cornmeal and that was awesome tasting.