White Bass - Do you eat them & How?

I am relocating to the Green Bay/Appleton Area and will be fishing Poygan & Winnebago for the first time. I am getting some mixed feedback from some friends. More are saying that they would not keep or eat White Bass. A couple say they you have to clean them right, (just keep above the blood line.) So, Yea or Nay on keeping & Eating? Any tips on cooking White Bass. Thx

Sheepshead are the same way. All fish should be put on ice in the boat. Not left swimming around in a live well in 80° water for the entire day, then put on ice to get them home. That's why I insulated one of my live wells with 2" foam insulation. A cooler full of ice to top them off every so often keeps fish nice and cold. The insulation is form fitted, so I can remove it and clean things up.

I've eaten them deep fried after trimming the red fatty flesh and they were fine. I really like them canned as a tuna substitute and even better is to brine the fillets over night with the skin and scales still on. In the morning rinse the fillets very thoroughly. Then smoke the fillets for only 45 minutes at 180 degrees or so. The skin will just peel off and you can scrape off the red with a table knife. Then can the smoked fillets and you have delicious canned smoked fish you can use for lots of things, pate' in particular. Duke

Grandad: AGREED

I do not know how some people keep their fish after they are caught,but NEVER in my life have I seen a MUSHY White Bass!Kept in a cooler with ice and filet properly above the blood line they are firm ,white and delicious!I soak mine over nite in lightly salted water,then cook right away or freeze,they are good for months!Grandad!

I keep and eat a lot of whites from bago. but only when the water is less than 50 deg. seems above 50 they get mushy. only use the meat above the lateral line and don't fillet too close to the skin. make sure all the fatty red meat is removed. I did a blind taste test at work a few yrs ago. 1 pail of whites cut in 1" chunks and 1 pail of eyes cut in 1" chunks. no one except me could tell a difference. I only knew because of the different pails. even walleye snobs that made fun of me for keeping the whites in the first place couldn't tell!!

Fun to catch. Even more fun to release. I love fish. Grew up on the East Coast and ate A LOT of fish, different kinds. I will literally eat almost any kind of fish. Just not white bass. Seriously.

Thx All, yes, ice fishing (cold water fish), you can't go wrong.

Keep the white bass on ice when you catch them. Fillet as usual. Use your fav. batter and fry. IMO, If you don't care for them I guess you don't care for eating fish.....except maybe Mrs. Paul's "fish-in-a-blanket" types of "fish".

Simply put, remove the red meat from your fillets. These fatty portions of the fillet seem to carry most of that fishy taste. Correctly cleaning white bass will give you some nice size delicious fillets o fish.