Bass - How Many Still Eating Them?

Back in the day before being monetized (tournaments, advertising, tackle sales, videos, boat sales on and on) a big bass simply fed the family. How many of you still eat them? This one of mine fed four adults:



Grandaddy's meals:

Why not? It's legal and I like them.

I haven't in years. I have eaten many a bass growing up and enjoyed them.

I never did eat any of the larger bass I caught, always kept and ate the keeper bass under 3 lbs. These days if I want to eat fish, I usually try to catch some white perch but will keep a limit of keeper bass to eat if that's all I can catch.

I don't eat black bass. I throw them back to catch another day. I do eat white bass and crappie. Plenty of them in the lake.

Always through em back. If I want to eat fish It's Crappie, White Bass, Bluegill, and Redear!



Side Note: Also Rainbow Trout during stocking season.

Anything over 3lbs. goes back the rest I'll eat.

I have 5 ponds that I keep thinned out each year so I still eat plenty of black bass 2 lbs and below.

I eat all of them that are under `18 inches. The are excellent if blackened. I get hate mail if I post anything about killing them so I don't post much about Black Bass. They are still legal to catch and cook but the tournament crowd will probably get them protected before long.

They will never get them protected. I eat all I catch that are legal. .They are almost as good as crappie February, March, and April, are fill the freezer with bass fillets months.

Not all tournament guys. I've been fishing tournaments since 1985. I don't care who keeps them and eats them. They are just fish

Under 3 pounds gets kept for eaters.

Dumb newbie question: Why keep the smaller bass to eat and let the larger ones go?

I remember club tournaments where we had a fish fry after the weigh in.

The fish were caught not bought.

I agree. Bass over 3 lbs tends to be not as good to eat. Release the larger fish. The whole reason the bass pro circuit started the release campaign is all about MONEY. As long as a fisherman is legal and ethical, he should be able to keep and eat what he wants. Even bass fishing has a "Political Correct" component.

Just tell them to pound sand. I like to eat black bass!!

If they are under 3# they are pretty good eating, especially when still hot out of the grease. I have access to a private lake and we usually have an annual tournament on it and keep lots of smaller ones for a fish fry afterwards. We need to keep way more to keep them from getting stunted.

They are ok to eat if cooked right. Prefer to eat properly prepared Stripers or Hybrids.

That's what I'm talking about! You didn't need all those fancy electronics, and a $80,000 bass boat to catch them either!
Old school and proud of it!

Eat a lot of bass keeping pond in balance. For the grill I like 4lbers.

I bet if I fried them up with a batch of other fish no one would tell the difference.

They're delicious. I don't normally target black bass, but if I happen to catch some incidentally to whatever I'm after, the keepers go on the stringer.

I enjoy bass. Don't keep them that often but if a keeper bass gets a hook too deep or somehow dies while I'm fishing a tourney in the livewell(and doesn't look diseased or something) then I'll gladly use the resource to make a meal! Grilled/fried/blackened/pan seared = All good!! :-) Easy to fillet(skin on or off), nice white flesh, and to me quite tasty!

Wife likes them too so while she makes some hushpuppies or fries I go grill them real quick!

The answer is more complicated than it might seem (at least to me). I've lived on the banks of fresh and salt water now for the majority of my life (63) and have been lucky enough to live directly looking at the bass spawning grounds twice. Right now I'm looking out the window about 30 feet from them. All that to say this: what I'm about to say is from years of direct observation - not feelings, or YouTube videos, or forum chatter. Large bass vs small bass for eating: if you prefer small bass, fine. The small bass tend to be "schoolies" that get a lot of swimming done in a day and their flesh is more firm since they do a lot of exercise chasing minnows. Does keeping small bass help a fishery? If caught during the summer, near the weeds - no - it is actually detrimental to the fishery. Why? The small bass under 3 lb. are almost always males and males guard the eggs of up to 4 females (we watch the spawn every year). So if you pull a male off the bed (and there are thousands of YouTube's by the "pro's" teaching how to do this to win tournaments), you're having the effect of killing up to 4 females egg production since those eggs are now lost (crappies, bluegill, minnows move it to eat them almost immediately). We typically see the females come in to the bed at night, and they're out an hour after sunup. They hang around for some time in the deeper water at the first drop off in front of the spawning beds (so the beds could be viewed as bait to catch large fish, as long as the males aren't snatched off them). Bottom line (for me): doesn't hurt to keep females - nor does it hurt anything to keep "schoolies" chasing the minnows. Catching males off the beds I don't do.

My personal eating preferences: crappie, shellcracker. In the bass category we catch a lot of white bass, which cleaned right (center section (fat - toxins) removed and all red flesh removed) are excellent and we catch a lot of hybrid stripers (again, anything red removed) which cleaned right are like a better grouper to me.

We have eaten bass fillets for decades. I have some fillets vacuum packed in the freezer now. The wife pesters me to cook them occasionally.

Ditch Pickles taste great! RIG!

Plenty of them in the lake along with Catfish and Crappie.

If you want to quit fishing move to the lake. You won't have time to go. However during the rare times I do fish if I/we are in a lot of bass then I might keep a few under 3# Anything over goes back unless injured where I don't think it will survive.

We eat them sometimes. I’ll keep a couple 2 pounders once in a while. And When I fish a tournament I’ll usually keep some of the fresh dead fish to keep guys from dumping them. They eat as good as a crappie fried and grilled they are as good as it gets.

Largemouth Bass

Depending on lake, if it’s looks like they stunted then I’ll keep the small ones that are legal

This was probably 14 years ago on a private lake in Ellis County. Made for a hell of a fish fry

I remember many years ago fishing a 10 acre private lake that was full of small bass. Nobody fished it and a friend had permission to fish, and wanted to have a fry. We must have caught 25/30 8” to 12” bass that morning. They were very good eating !

Drycreek, you by far did that little lake more good than harm. Sounds like you guys took out a bunch of stunted fish from an over crowded lake.

Personally, there's just so many other fish that taste better.

I have been known to eat Kentucky's

yup

I believe the limits take into account (and assume) that people will keep fish that are legal to keep, otherwise population control based on limits doesn't work. In put and take lakes it's important to take. That said, I haven't kept a bass in many years, but I am not against it. I just haven't had the urge. Even if I did, I'd keep the near lower limit fish, release the big ones.

Bass are tasty I don’t tournament fish and if I need a few to make a mess I don’t mind neither does the state.
Only keep small leagal size but if I gut hook a big one rare so be it I ain’t wasting it
J. D

For me, bass have been catch and release for many years. I get plenty of Crappies, Sand Bass and Channel Cats to eat.

Big Bass is my favorite fish. Boneless and flaky

When I was a young guy with a house full of kids, I kept lots of fish that I wouldn’t now. Kids like to eat, couldn’t ever break mine from the habit. Squirrels, rabbits, and fish of all kinds were eaten, (some only once) , and every now and then, I got lucky and killed one of the few deer we had in East Texas at that time. I put some bass fingerlings in my pond this year, and when they get big enough to eat, I’m gonna oblige them !

We clean a lot of fish from the tank. Lake fishing not so much.....usually a blue moon to bring them home and clean them.

I love a nice, flaky, succulent baby bass, though....

I still keep and fillet some occasionally. I’ve been telling my sister that they need to catch a bunch from their private lake and have a big fish fry because they are so small.

Yuck! They taste like fish!

There's a problem with eating them?

Barlow's Tackle in Richardson had a picture of a grumpy old man holding one of the Monster bass being caught back in the day in California. A friend of mine that worked there had photoshopped a caption below the picture that read "I caught him and by God I'm going to eat him!"

Well, if we're going to eat them, might as well eat them crispy:

1. Set your cooker to 400º
2. Use Grape-seed oil.
3. Add 1 tablespoon cornstarch to every cup of mix (cornmeal, flour, or bought mix)
4. Egg/Beer/Milk wash not essential but if used it will be even more crispy.
5. Roll fish in mix or dip in wash, then roll in the mix.
6. Fry like you mean it.
7. Put fish on a rack to cool (never paper towels or plates).

I rarely do. I mainly fish crappie if i'm going to eat something. However I rarely keep some larger ones because i like some meater fillets.

Can't wait for them - we are spoiled since they're under the dock!

I will keep some shorter ones now and then to eat especially when they piss me off during spring crappie fishing. One problem with bass is they can have worms.

I don't understand why people would send hate mail for this. Why is a bass more privileged than a crappie?