Late Summer Whites...

[Bitethis]

I figure whites will be a good target soon, if not now. Goign this weekend to try my hand at catching some whites, if it doesn't pan out then I know how to catch a limit of cats pretty quick :-)

Anyone catching whites on accident or purpose lately?

[reddog]

White bass are my favorite to catch also. I usually don't start trying until late Sept. it is usually good from then until the 1st hard frost. Keep us posted on how they are biting.

Thanks

[Lowe Down]

We ran into a feeding frenzy a week ago on point flat near a drop off off. We had never fished for or ate White Bass and so we took a two home and used Zatarins and an oily skillet. They were brought home alive in the live well and I immediately filleted them, cut out the red meat, soaked them in fresh water for a few hours etc.

They were SO nasty to us and we could not eat them. I think they tasted like shad smells! The neighbor's cat thought i was okay.

If anyone has a recipe/technique for cooking that would be great.

[fishinwrench]

LD, They ain't fit to eat, throw'em back.

No, here's the deal... First off, Zatarain's is for Yuppies. Secondly...Some folks that dig Crappie and Walleye truly can't appreciate the flavor of FISH like Salmon, Catfish, White bass, ect.

To me Crappie and Walleye only taste as good as the crap you roll them in....cuz with clear white fish flesh the breading is all you actually taste.

But if you ever choose to try them again I'll offer up my method(s) of cooking them for you to try if you want. Here goes:

Fillet and trim out only the dark lateral line of red meat, no need to try and shave every little bit of pink colored flesh from the fillet.

Soak fillets in salt water for an hour or so.

In a big ziplock bag throw in one cylinder of Ritz crackers, about 3/4 cup of corn meal, 1/4 cup of flour, and some fresh ground

black pepper.

Get all the air out of the bag, seal it, and beat the piss out of it with a rolling pin or whatever's handy, until all the crackers are no longer crackers.

Crack 3 eggs in a bowl, add a splash of milk, and beat the piss outa them too.

Rinse the saltwater off the fillets, pat them dry with a paper towel and throw them in the bowl of egg business.

Throw them from the bowl into the bag and shake the piss out of them.

Fry them golden brown...but not too fast in grease that's too hot or else the thicker chunks wont get done.

Now here's the REAL SECRET PART....

Dump the remaining cracker business into the bowl of egg business, throw some butter in a coffee cup and nuke it until its creamy and dump it into the cracker/egg business.

Open up a can of corn and slop some corn and corn juice in there too. If you like some "heat" chop up a handful of jalapenos and chuck them in there too. Stir that all up and either add flour or milk to get a consistency where you could turn the bowl upside down without any s#it falling out.

Spoon those delicious HUSHPUPPIES into your nasty old fish grease at a temp a bit above what you cooked the fish at.

Crack open a cold beer NOW, and when the HP's are dark brown on both sides it'll be time to sit down and say...

"Oh S#!t, Wrench this is AMAZING!"

[podum]

Oh snap Wrench! Must try. Great camp recipe.

To Lowe Down: I fry whites a lot in the fall and love them. I agree with wrench. Some people just don't like 'em.

[wuteversbitin424]

if you dont mind me asking bite...where have you been catching your cats and how. A buddy of mine and i might be going up next weekend and he has not caught many fish this year so i'd like to put him on some. pluse we're having a fish fry soon and i'm a few fillets short...got some crappie and blue gill but would like to add some frying size cats to the mess.

as for the whites...i alway fillet mine then soak in really salty salt water for 2-4 days 4 is better but only if you have your fridge cold enough, if not 2 works and change the water out daily then i use Andys breading...it comes in a clear platic type bag and the breading is orange...it's very flavorful.

Thanks,

good luck and good fishing!!

[wuteversbitin424]

sounds GREAT wrench!!! will deffinatly try that next mess of white i get!!!

[fishinwrench]

Here's method #2

Set out a bag of FROZEN white bass and thaw just to the point where the fillets can be separated but are still partially frozen.

Put the oven on 400, throw a slug of butter in a pie tin and pop it in the oven to melt before the oven totally pre-heats.

Pull the pie tin of melted butter out and let it cool until the butter starts to get creamy again, then lay the fillets into the pan and slop some of that butter up over any dry spots.

sprinkle a healthy dose of Lemon pepper over the fillets and cover the pan with foil.

Bake covered for 35-40 minutes, then take out, remove one side of the foil and drain all the butter/juice out.

Remove the foil, turn the oven off and stick the uncovered pan back in the oven while you whip up a batch of Minute Rice.

When the rice is done add some butter to it....not too much, but some, and lay some baked fillets over a bed of rice and salt/pepper to taste.

For this you need wine. Preferably a mediocre chardonnay. A side dish of steamed broccoli or carrots....or BOTH will have you in fine shape.

A bit of warning here.....THIS meal is an incredible aphrodisiac and will boost your potency, so if you don't want any more kids you'd better have a monkey boot or two in the house.

[Lowe Down]

I think from reading all of this our mistake was trying to cover up the piss taste in the white bass with Zatarins Blackened Seasoning instead of beating it out of the fillets. That recipe sounds darn good and the next ones that I run into will get that treatment because what I do won't work. Thanks

I do like to blacken cats/bass/crappie in an iron skillet with a touch of cayenne , cumin, & salt or Zatarins Blackened Seasoning in olive oil on my gas grille burner. While that's going I grille olive oiled onion slices or olive oiled preboiled corn ears on the grille starting about 5 minutes ahead of the fish. Good light way to do any fish regularly so I won't lard my butt out and have ride a scooter in WalMart with a purple face when I am old some day.

[mic]

Try soaking them in buttermilk or milk instead of water to remove some the game taste. Remember if you use buttermilk, the acid will break down the meat if you soak for a long time.