JChief wrote on May 2^nd, 2011 at 12:30am:


Like KF, we consider smallmouth the fish of choice for our weekly Cache Lake Fish Chowder dinner (or lunch). Many years ago on a late fall trip we hoped to hang a walleye for dinner while traveling to our next camp. Unfortunately, the weather and fish did not cooperate and we arrived at camp fishless. Determined to have fish for the chowder, I worked the shoreline around camp and caught a decent little smallmouth which we promptly chunked up and added to the soup. From then on it's been a staple.
Fried walleye, baked laker, fried (very good) or "Poor Man's Lobster" for the northerns and smallmouth for the soup........standard weekly fare.

The first time I tried smallie for dinner was a few years ago on a trip with my two 20 yr old sons and one of their friends. He was a big fella, not heavy, but he had quite an appetite. Needless to say, I had on that particular trip, underestimated our food requirements. The last day of our trip left us with only some crackers and a small bag of dried apricots. I supplemented the last tiny ration with one small Northern, one small walleye and a medium bass. I have to say the bass tasted pretty good, maybe it's because we were on the brink of starvation, or at least our stomachs were telling us so. I would eat it again, but I do prefer walleye or lake trout.

im not a fan of eating bass. ive had them a couple times and was never impressed. if you butterfly them so they are thinner and take more batter they taste alright.

baked lemon pepper lake trout #1
battered and fried walleye #2

Smallies in the Spring from those cold Northern waters are just fine in book.

I have thought about the whole eating bass thing for awhile now including largemouths and have come to this conclusion.

I personally think what makes a fish taste good or bad is its primary diet and not water temps. Catch a laker out of lake michigan where it's primary diet is very oily baitfish and they taste pretty bad in my book.........like inedible bad with rolls of oily fat on them. When I kept hearing about how good the lake trout were in canoe country I had a tough time believing it.

Some of the best fish I have eaten were largemouths and they came out of strip mines. Now some may say pure clean water and there may be some truth to that but I think it was because these bass ate nothing but crawdads. Same with smallies. I think smallies are so good because they have an affinity with crayfish. Can't prove it but I strongly suspect it is true. Some of the best eating saltwater fish also prey heavily on shellfish. Hogfish and mutton snapper come to mind.