I have heard that you need to cut the red meat out of sandbass. Does anybody leave it in. How does it affect taste?

lots of people leave it in... its just fishier tasting to me.

I cut it out. It tastes muddy to me.

I always remove it and never have much leftover after a fry.

remove it.

It makes it a lot milder to cut it out. I used to leave it in until I prepared it for cooking but even that effected the taste. Now, I remove all of it.

remove all the red meat .makes the fish taste like minnows..

Leave it in. It doesn't affect the taste at all. In Stripers and Hybrids, I typically remove it as some people like to bake the larger fillets and some people tell me that it affects the taste. 99% of people are unable to tell when eating the fish whether the strip was left in or removed.

If you eat em fresh really doesn't matter. But if you freeze them then they taste fishy with the red left in.

+1

I always leave it in, but soak the fillets in salt water, or freeze in salt water. Never had anyone tell me they taste fishy, seldom any left either.

Boy, you guys are all over the place. You leave the red stripe in, you leave red stripe out, you leave the red stripe in and you shake it all about....

Looks like I will have to catch a few more and try them both ways.

This is what I have done for years

If I keep fish for myself, and also tell customers, after I filet and wash them, I put them in a bowl of water, cover them and leave in fridge overnight. It doesn't remove all the red but enough of it that it doesn't affect the taste whether your cooking it fresh or freezing it for later.

Me personally I take it out.. what i don't eat i soak in salt water over night then rinse the heck out of them the next day and freeze them in regular water. They NEVER smell or taste fishy IMO

So everyone can do them how they want to

A trick I learned from Chris Carey. If you keep fish just before you put it in the ice chest cut one end of the gills. This will allow the heart in the fish to pump the blood out on it own so that when you do clean them the meat is really white.