If they come out of cold clear water they are fine.
The fillets aren't very big, so we cut them into "nugget" size piece, bread them, and then deep fry them. White bass, rock bass, and pumpkinseed sunfish are usually small, but tasty if you're willing to do the work involved in processing them.
We have some big white bass out here, up to 3 lbs. I do prefer the 1 to 1-1/4 lb size for eating. I have pickled the smaller filets a few times, mighty fine.
