Spotted/Kentucky Food Fish

[jte54]

Hello,

I work at Lincoln University at Jefferson City Missouri in the Aquaculture program.  We are looking into spotted/Kentucky bass as a food fish.  I have heard that there are anglers near Table Rock  area that target and harvest spotted/Kentucky bass during the winter months.  The claim is that the spotted bass taste better during the winter, have firmer flesh, and they have less yellow grub.  I have no information, proof, or experience backing up these claims.  I would like to know if there are any anglers here that target spotted bass for food, are there any certain times of year one is prone to harvest, and is the fish flesh any firmer?  

 

[Quillback]

This is not a subject (keeping of bass) that usually ends well.

[WoundedOne]

12 minutes ago, Quillback said:

This is not a subject (keeping of bass) that usually ends well.

That is what i was going to say..

[jte54]

10 minutes ago, Quillback said:

This is not a subject (keeping of bass) that usually ends well.

 I personally do not, but I do know of individuals that do keep them and even target them for harvest.  I will be breeding and raising them for the sole purpose of food production.  There are markets for largemouth bass just not here in Missouri . 

[top_dollar]

               They taste quite similar to crappie and walleye.  Excellent to eat.  Especially smaller ones.  I cant say that they (or any fish) tastes better in the winter, but i do believe that proper handling and storage of meat is alot easier in the winter, leading to more folks thinking it taste better. 

             When it is hot outside, it is of utmost importance to keep the fish on ice.  You simply cannot have dead fish, or fillets,  not on ice during the summer months for any amount of time.  I cringe all too often when i see people with a bucket of fish at a filleting table in the summer and no ice in sight, by the time those fish are filleted, washed, and frozen that mean has been out in the heat for hours.  Its ruined. 

              My summer fish go in a cooler of ice immediately after I catch them.  I store them packed in ice for several hours up to a day.  Not ice water, but ice.  If the fish are kept in a cooler with ice it needs to be drained and re-iced often so the fish are not just sitting in ice water.  The fish should be thoroughly cold when you fillet it.  That way, the meat is already cold when it comes out of the fish.  The fillets get tossed on ice, and when all the fish are cleaned are rinsed in clean ice water. 

              Keeping fish fresh is super easy in the winter time....the fish is cold when its caught, the fish metabolism is so low that they stay alive for hours or days out of water.  It is typically cold outside when they are being filleted,  so there is just so little chance for the meat to spoil in the winter leading most people to believe that fish taste better in the winter, when in reality they just eat spoiled fish all summer.

 

          All that said....posting this topic on this thread is going to start a 20 page female doggy fest about eating bass.  It is probably better to post it anywhere else.

[Dutch]

I don't think you will get much static about eating spots.  Lots of guys would like to see all of them gone from our lakes.  I haven't eaten one in years but they would be my preference to largemouth any day if I were going to eat them.  They don't have the frog smell that largemouth do when you catch them.

[dblades]

I'd think there are a lot of fish, with faster growth rates that would be more viable.  I'd think at least two years to reach a marketable size.

[Ellros]

10 minutes ago, dblades said:

I'd think there are a lot of fish, with faster growth rates that would be more viable.  I'd think at least two years to reach a marketable size.

   Tilapia is a lot easier to farm raise from reports I have heard/read.

[jte54]

1 minute ago, dblades said:

I'd think there are a lot of fish, with faster growth rates that would be more viable.  I'd think at least two years to reach a marketable size.

They have several characteristics that will make them favorable for us. Dblades you are correct in that they will take close to two years, but we will not be using conventional methods.   My supervisor who is the principal investigator believes we can shave about six months off of those two years.  We may be feed training some of our fish differently than a farmer.  We also have to think outside to the box so that we do not compete with the people/farmers that we serve.  Another thing our facility is setup differently than what a farmer would have.  Most have more pond acreage than we do.  We will be working with smaller quantities of fish as well.  There will be other fish species that we will be raising besides the largemouth and spotted that are more viable.

 

 

 

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

I keep the smaller ones out of Bull Shoals when crappie fishing, after they are breaded and fried its hard to tell the difference from crappie