# how to cook small mouth bass?



## NickieL (Jun 15, 2007)

cought 2 bass this morning, one's 3 lbs and the other is just under 4. Whats the best way to cook these? I've already got them gutted and in the fridge, waiting to be cooked up for supper.


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## Use Less (Nov 8, 2007)

We have large-mouth bass in our pond. We only really like them very early in the spring, since they tend to taste muddy. You could try grilling them with a little aromatic wood for smoke, or bake on a grid & serve with a tangy sauce of onions & peppers, or fruit to counteract fishiness. Sue


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## NickieL (Jun 15, 2007)

do you think they would be good in a stew? I'm kind of in the mood for a soup/stew since I have potatoes, onions and lots of greens to use.


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## Tracy Rimmer (May 9, 2002)

Mmmmmm.... baaaaasssss.... my VERY favorite!

Fillet and skin 'em, dip them in beer batter and deep fry. Serve with salad of any kind, bread and butter, and squirts of lemon juice or herbed mayo as you like.

My mouth is watering just thinking about it... I may just show up on your doorstep around dinner time!


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## NickieL (Jun 15, 2007)

Tracy Rimmer said:


> Mmmmmm.... baaaaasssss.... my VERY favorite!
> 
> Fillet and skin 'em, dip them in beer batter and deep fry. Serve with salad of any kind, bread and butter, and squirts of lemon juice or herbed mayo as you like.
> 
> My mouth is watering just thinking about it... I may just show up on your doorstep around dinner time!


You'd be welcome to.  I'll set out an extra plate. And I won't even make you eat the weeds. I'll give you jsut the regular greens w/o weeds lol


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## soulsurvivor (Jul 4, 2004)

Typically smallmouth bass are found in running water like a river. The largemouth are usually what's stocked into lakes and ponds. Smallmouth fight like the dickens when trying to reel them in and you've got a really good sized smallmouth if it's 3 and 4 lbs. My MIL and I used to fish the river just to catch smallmouths, and she always outfished me 5 to 1. She'd catch 5 before I hooked one. She was a firm believer in eating the fish you caught right then and there on the sandbar in the river. She had her cooking supplies set up on the dropped tailgate of her old jeep and would gut and dip the fish into her special cornmeal breading and skillet fry those to a golden perfection bones and all. She always had big pones of cornbread ready to heat in the skillet and serve with the hot fish. We'd usually catch and eat about 4 fish each and then we'd clean everything up and go home empty handed but full bellied. The cornmeal breading was yellow cornmeal, papikra, red pepper, black pepper, salt, plain flour, and dry mustard. Sometimes she'd do an egg batter and mix in some eggs and cream. The fish always tasted better when eaten on the riverbank.


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## NickieL (Jun 15, 2007)

soulsurvivor said:


> Typically smallmouth bass are found in running water like a river. The largemouth are usually what's stocked into lakes and ponds. Smallmouth fight like the dickens when trying to reel them in and you've got a really good sized smallmouth if it's 3 and 4 lbs. My MIL and I used to fish the river just to catch smallmouths, and she always outfished me 5 to 1. She'd catch 5 before I hooked one. She was a firm believer in eating the fish you caught right then and there on the sandbar in the river. She had her cooking supplies set up on the dropped tailgate of her old jeep and would gut and dip the fish into her special cornmeal breading and skillet fry those to a golden perfection bones and all. She always had big pones of cornbread ready to heat in the skillet and serve with the hot fish. We'd usually catch and eat about 4 fish each and then we'd clean everything up and go home empty handed but full bellied. The cornmeal breading was yellow cornmeal, papikra, red pepper, black pepper, salt, plain flour, and dry mustard. Sometimes she'd do an egg batter and mix in some eggs and cream. The fish always tasted better when eaten on the riverbank.


Yes, I ended up oven frying them with a corn meal coating (no beer in the house for beer batter, sorry tracy  ) 
Fish, especially trout (oh how I miss mountain trout...) does always taste better stream side. LOL With it, greens and some yummy snap peas from the garden as a side. Very tasty! I want some more LOL but they recommend eating only so much fish a week from the these waters:bored: pollution and all.:bored:


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## Jan Doling (May 21, 2004)

Thank y'all for bringing back some long-tucked-away memories! My daddy would toss us all into our '49 Ford sedan in the wee hours of the morning and go surf casting on a South Fla. beach away from the crowds. Mama would fix a diaper (before disposables were used) over a couple of windows for sand-fly-free ventilation so we could finish sleeping. For breakfast we had fish fresh from the sea cooked on a Coleman stove in granny's cast iron skillet. I was probably less than 2 years old because I fit on the shelf under the rear window. Mama said I would run along the shore singing the Itty-bitty Fishy song, but most of the fising memories I remember myself.


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