When I was living in Ottawa County, Ohio, on Lake Erie when the White bass would run we would get together and have fish boils consisting of White Bass. They were very good. they were put in a kettle or some type of container with a couple of cut up onions and a bunch of salt.

Now, my questions which I don't remember the answer to is... Did we scale them and gut them first... I can't for the life of me remember. Isn't that amazing I can't remember something only after 50 years. I probably went to 5 or 6 or maybe more in the years I was there.

Thank you for any input back into this feeble old mind.

Garry-

"Typical Preparation Steps for Lake Erie White Bass Boil

Catch and Initial Handling: Keep fish on ice immediately after catching to firm the meat. Bleed them by clipping gills if possible.
Cleaning/Filleting:
Fillet the fish.
Importantly, remove the dark red "mud line" or lateral line meat (the strip along the side) to reduce strong, muddy/off flavors—this is a key step emphasized in Ohio and Great Lakes discussions.
Rinse fillets well.

Cutting: Cut the cleaned fillets into chunks, strips, or cubes (often 1-2 inches, or ½-¾ inch wide strips cut into 2-3 inch pieces) for even cooking.
Optional Pre-Soak (to Improve Taste): Some soak chunks in milk, lemon-lime soda, mustard water, baking soda solution, or ice water for 30 minutes to overnight to mellow flavors, though not always done for boiling.
Boiling:
Bring a large pot of water to a hard rolling boil.
Add generous salt (about 1 cup per large pot, or to taste—some use crab/shrimp boil seasoning bags like Zatarain's for extra flavor, turning it into a spiced boil).
Add a batch of the fish pieces (don't overcrowd).
Boil for a short time: typically 1-3 minutes (some say exactly 1 minute, others until they float or just start to sink, or 2 minutes).
Turn off heat or remove immediately to avoid overcooking (white bass toughens easily).

Finishing:
Quickly remove with a slotted spoon or basket.
Plunge into ice water or spread on ice to cool rapidly and stop cooking.
Pat dry if needed.
Serve chilled or room temp with cocktail sauce, lemon, or as "redneck lobster"/"poor man's shrimp" bites—dipped like shrimp cocktail.


This method is praised for making white bass surprisingly tasty and tender, especially when fresh and properly trimmed. It's a casual, social way to prepare catches from Lake Erie runs (common in spring/summer).
Other common Lake Erie white bass cooking methods include frying (breaded like perch), grilling, smoking (highly recommended for flavor), or blackening, but boiling is a lighter, low-effort option when doing a group "boil" style meal."

Keith

…. Sounds like absolute garbage

… but thanks for copying and pasting I guess

Thanks Keith. That was a lot of work... But I know the process we used wasn't nearly that complex. The first time I ever had it was at a friends. He, Glenn Lau, Irwin Bauer, my dad and me went out on Glenn's boat and caught a bunch of them went back to Glenn's. Glenn most of the work that day preparing them. I think he scaled and gutted them and then just put them in the pot of boiling water with onion pieces. All of the head, the fins and tail were all left on. If I remember the way he could tell if they were done was when the skin started separating from the meat. They had corn on the cob and potatoes boiling in another pot.

I had help catch a lot of them at other cookouts too but never was involved in the cleaning prep. before they went into the pot.

I do remember the were very good. Meat separated from skin and the bones came away from bones very easily.

Thank you,

Garry-

Ohio sadly doesn't have access to any fishable salt water. We have to make do with the freshwater fish we have. White bass are super common, but not the best tasting fish. My buddy Leroy and I used to take our largest coolers, put frozen 2 liters in them and fish the white bass run at CJ Brown Reservoir, before they tore out the old docks and messed up the fishing. The shad would swim towards the lights at the dock at night, that hit the water and the white bass and walleye would hammer them. We would arrive at 8:30pm as it was getting dark and most of the boats were coming off the lake. When people were pulling out, they would rev their motors to get on their trailers, stunning lots of shad. We would cast just barely behind the boats. We would fill our coolers so full we had to sit on them to close them.

I always fried or grilled white bass, so I had to look up how they were boiled.

The dock lights no longer shine on the water and the new dock is parallel to the shore, so the white bass and walleye fishing sucks there now. You catch mostly carp and catfish there now. I never caught either there before they redid the dock.

Last Summer, my friend Tim and I bank fished the Scioto river starting up not far from Marion going down until the outskirts of Columbus. At the last place we fished I got a huge wiper and a few striped bass. We want to try there again in May and see if we can catch the run.

Keith

Filet, cut off most red meat, sprinkle some Toney’s on them, smoke until done - makes great fish dip - better tham most other fresh water fish - except salmon - because it has some oil in he meat. Left over - freeze about 8 filets per pack in vacuum sealer. Thaw when you want more. Do not freeze in water. Smoke before freezing

We do Poor Man's Shrimp with white and yellow perch like that too... Add Old Bay to the boiling salt water. Ice bath after quick boil... Be sure to put lots of horseradish and Frank's Red Hot in the cocktail sauce!!

Never heard of boiling a fish like that but I imagine you could gut and do scales on and when it peels away from the bone with a fork eat it from the inside to the skin.

If you don't remember eating to skin and were just popping them in your mouth then I imagine they were scaled and filleted.

We used to catch coolers full of white bass every year and haul them home. We scaled and filleted them and had gallon bags full in the freezer.

Im sure we left the pink line and can picture them with it. I didn't know white bass was a "trash fish" until I was older and went on a charter walleye trip with work people.

They and the captain all frowned on the white bass trash fish. I was have embarrassed and thought man I'm glad they don't know how many hundreds of pounds of white bass my family processed.

I half thought I grew up eating carp and didn't know it. It fried up fine, pink line of meat and all.

Good to see you Actor. Hope things are well!

quick boil fillets, then into a pot of creamy chicken soup. poor mans chowder.

The Wisconsin version I had were skin on and scaled.
Some type seasoning maybe old bay.
The fish species were a mix.

My take was you couldn't get it wrong.

Grandson and I happened on a yellow bass run last October. Heddon torpedoes. All about the same size. Like stated above, cut out the red meat. Good eating!

Years ago an older couple invited me in to try boiled northern pike. I wasn't expecting it to be good but they poured melted butter over it and some salt and pepper. It was delicious, poor mans lobster.

Burbot... Used to throw them on the ice for the gulls and eagles until an old timer told us they were like eating lobster

Digger—you ever do the soup thing with gills or crappie, or pike ??? That doesn’t sound like it sucks too bad and I’m going to try that……

Bet those types of fish would make good fish cakes. Friend of mine had a fish store here and made up thousands for sale.

He used cod or other white fish, cause we have them, but the recipe was 50-50 fish to mashed potatoes, with some onion and old bay.....breaded and deep fried

That’s awesome!!! Great pics!

(Heddon Torpedoes are a fun way to fish)

crappie and gills.

No thanks on the boil, grilled, blackened, or fried

I have not done white bass boils , but on lake trout and whitefish we just gut and chunk
some people may scale fish with larger scales but those are our two most common ones for boiling

the heat generally tightens skin right up and holds the scales on and then the skin peals off the meat easily with the scales and they are discarded.

when I do salmon or trout on foil I also don't bother scaling

if I am frying I do scale as I like to eat the skin.

we do red potatoes , whole small white onions and serve with melted butter , rye bread and coleslaw