I love to fish and my favorite species of eating fish is Walleye. Crappie and Perch are right up there as well.
For years I have always believed that Bass were not good for eating. In 2011 we went out to fish on lake Oahe in SD with a guide. We caught some nice walleye and some smallmouth. He convinced us to keep the smallmouth for table fare. With cautious optimism I fried some up (after frying some walleye first to be safe and compare. I tell you what it was pretty good. A bit different flavor almost like dark meat versus white meat chicken, but pretty good.
Recently I was out exploring the ice and trying to reduce the LMB population in our new to me lake. I ended up with a nice 14"er for my brief effort and decided rather than leave it for critter food I'd fillet it. I'm really glad I did as it's really quite good. I'd say it's a bit more of a firm texture like a perch and taste was quite good. No fishy or muddy taste. Not as good as walleye mind you, but rest assured I'll be eating more.
Gosh, there are hardly any fish I don't enjoy. Very importantly, I agree with the above posts about bleeding the fish, and getting it on ice as soon as possible.
Cleaning also has a lot to do with it. No matter what kind of fish, almost all have a blood-line that runs with the lateral line. After skinning a fillet,, cut out the blood line.
IMO, feed has some consequences. The LMB I regularly caught as a kid on our NW Wisconsin farm, and in many close-by lakes, tasted something like a combination between cedar boughs and pine boughs. I learned that there are many great ways to beat that.
I was instructed by many great mentors, that there was almost no fish or game that couldn't be made delicious.
I regularly fished the upper Brule River trout area, where we caught a lot of red horse sucker fish - they became incredible smoked-fish spread.
LMB that tasted like pine trees become delicious by soaking them for a few hours in in a combination of some salt and buttermilk. To this day, we cut the filets into finger/nugget size pieces, spicy batter them, and fry them at 220 degrees F., until they are golden brown. They disappear almost immediately when served. This also works with gutted smelts and sliced lamprey.
I do it in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Upper Michigan, Virginia, and West Virginia. Nobody ever complains -- until we run out.
Anyway, properly prepared, most fish and animals can become very tasty.
As for Dave Davidson's wild goats and boar hogs -- I'm not so sure. Those are critters I've tried many ways, but never conquered. Old male goats and old male pigs, just don't ever seem to be edible.
Good eatin'
Ken
