Baked Bass; bass fishing anyone?

A few weeks ago I got an email asking if I would be interested in posting an article about bass fishing. As we live in the middle of French farm country I said no…. We are not exactly a bass – or any, fishing paradise.

I mentioned it to mon mari later and he started reminiscing about his bass fishing days. Then I started remembering how important bass fishing was where I grew up in the Midwest. Important enough that every member of my large, extended family had a Big Mouth Billy Bass hanging on the wall to sing ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’ at the drop of a pin (or any other noise that would trigger it).

Not too far from my hometown was a restaurant called Bass Camp. I just Googled it and, while the restaurant appears to be gone, the campgrounds. resort site and great fishing is still there. It’s on the Mississippi.

Mon mari and I lived on a lake in Minnesota that was great for bass, both largemouth and smallmouth. There is nothing like being woken up, just before dawn, on a summer Saturday morning to the very loud sound of fancy bass boats racing around the lake to get to ‘their’ spot for the opening of the Bass Tournament. These folks were serious about their fishing and their fishing tournaments. (If you want to level up on your fishing skills, here is some great info.)

Everything would be quiet for about 3 minutes as they all cast the first line…. then the motors would start and they would all race to the next hot spot. If you are thinking about a new fishing boat, check out BugOutBill.com for the best inflatable fishing boats https://bugoutbill.com/best-inflatable-fishing-boat.

Mon mari never bothered with the contests. He did his bass fishing off the dock. By mid summer it was always a bit weedy by our dock, which the bass love. There were also a lot of frogs which the bass love even more. His favorite story is a bigmouth bass jumping out of the lake and grabbing his lure in mid-air. Apparently, bass are great fun to catch as well as a great fish to eat.

Oh – using frogs as bait is illegal. I couldn’t imagine a fish being able to eat a frog. Frog’s are BIG.

Apparently the mouth on a bigmouth bass is bigger. I’m told they can be quite scary.

As to mon mari – he doesn’t really like to eat fish so he was always a ‘catch & release’ fisher.

Even he would be tempted by this recipe:

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Baked Bass

Any whole fish could be substituted for the bass.

  • Author: Katie
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 15 minutes
  • Total Time: 25 minutes
  • Yield: 2 servings 1x
  • Category: Fish

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1lb (500gr) bass (cleaned and scaled)
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced or crushed
  • 1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tbs Italian seasoning or fresh parsley leaves
  • 2 tsp fresh coarse ground black pepper
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 lemon wedges
  • 1⁄3 cup white wine vinegar (optional) or 1/3 cup white wine (optional)

Instructions

  • In a cup, mix garlic, olive oil, salt, and black pepper.
  • Place fish in a shallow glass or ceramic baking dish.
  • With a sharp knife make 3 – 4 slashes in skin.
  • Rub fish with oil mixture.
  • (Optional) Pour wine over fish.
  • Bake fish, uncovered, for 15 minutes; then sprinkle with parsley or Italian seasoning and continue to bake for 5 more minutes (or until the thickest part of the fish flakes easily).
  • Drizzle remaining pan juices over fish and garnish with lemon wedges. Enjoy!

Notes

Be mindful that several smaller fish will bake more quickly than 1 or 2 larger ones.

Keywords: baked fish, bass

Bass fishing has become a huge sport in the U.S. As for me…. The only fishing I did was when I was a kid. My friends and I used to walk out on the dike road (remember, I grew up on the backwaters of the Mississippi) and fish from the banks along the road. All we ever caught were ‘sunnies’….

But I just learned from Wikipedia that bass are part of the sunfish family.

I can claim to be a former bass fisher! Who knew?

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