Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Anyone eat white bass/sand bass?

Title says it all. Are they any good?

Yes. I like them best out of cold water in the spring.

They're low on my list of fish to eat. Mostly I throw them back.

When I was a kid we ate hell out of em. Bet I haven’t caught one in over 40 years now.

Yep, we filet them and fry them. They aren't as good as catfish of course.

I don't know why they would not be fine.

Like a lot of less desirable fish in an area populated with the snooty species,
it's common to look down the nose at them.

Fishing Lake Erie, the captain had no interest.
We brought a few home anyway, delicious.
Not the walleye we had, but darn good.

Ticked me off how much good fish we threw back.

Just as soon as I can get the hide off of them and heat the grease. powdr

Watched a guy filet white bass and he kept his filet knife at an angle when removing the meat from the skin. It kept the majority of the dark meat on the skin. Those filets actually have been quite good fried up. Not crappie good, but I'd eat them again for sure.

I don't know from less desirable or snooty species. I do know that out of cold water in the spring they are fully equal to walleye. perch, sauger, catfish northerns, crappies or sunfish. Much better than stream trout, siskowets, LM/SM bass and a lot of others.

Well, striped bass are good, and striper/white bass hybrids (wipers) are good, so white bass surely are good, too. Stripers and wipers have a layer of red meat right down the lateral line that should be removed when you filet them, and that much improves the flavor. Do it immediately. I froze a bunch of striper filets once, thinking I could trim the red stripe just before cooking. Ended up tossing the whole batch because the meat got strong.

Thanks, I'll have to give them a try next time I catch a few.

I like them blackened. They're just another somewhat tasteless white flesh freshwater fish.

I live 25 miles from Lake Winnebago in southern Wis . The lake has a lot of them. I find them a lot more fun to catch. They eat just fine. The wife used to bring home Tilapia form the store for 8 bucks a pound. She told me to bring home some whitebass to fry , so I did. I have always kept whitebass. Three or four make a pound and are far superior to frozen Talapia in the store. They fry up just as good tasting as walleye and sometimes people will comment they like them better than walleye. have no preference cause I love fish. I used to smoke the whitebass cause they had a lot of oil. They are good that way too but not as good as channel cats.

30338...Spot on w the skinning. Without skinning out that redline/red meat they taste fishy and muddy. Current temps here on Cedar Creek Lake in Texas, water temp is falling fast. Whites/Sandies and Crappie are fired up. Sandies are daily under the water turkeys most often or on the back side of the many large humps in our lake. Crappie are real strong at bridge pilings and dock structure. I’ll add some salt to each bag of fillets as I freeze them to also cut the “whang” fro them. YMMV.

They are best caught early in spring when the water hasn't warmed . Just happens to coincide with their spawning run.

Among my other faults, I am not a fan of any panfish.

blackened or made into a fish patty 9the way you do salmon) they are great.

1) Walleye
2) Smallmouth / Largemouth bass
3) Bluegill / Redear
4) Striper
5) Catfish
6) Salmon
7) 3rd day reheated Long John Silver's
8) White bass

That bad...