I have been wanting to get out and get some fishing in before spring ends. I have been real busy planting the garden, working, attending out of state basketball tournaments for my daughter and waiting 2 weeks for a continual rain to stop. I wanted to focus on white bass since they are extremely fun to catch and are great fighters. White bass also spawn in the month of May in Utah and Utah Lake is one of the best locations to target this fish.

White bass are distributed widely across the United States, particularly in the Midwest. They are very abundant in Pennsylvania and the area around Lake Erie. Some native ranges of the white bass are the Arkansas River, Lake Erie near Cleveland, Ohio, and Lake Poinsettia in South Dakota; they are abundant in the Winnebago lakes system of Wisconsin; and they are also very abundant in Oklahoma. In fact, white bass are the state fish of Oklahoma. White bass are not native to Utah but were introduced many years ago because they are known for their fight, flavor and reproduction success. White bass also make a great meal. They are very tasty and have sweet white meat with little to no fishy flavor. They also make great fish tacos.

The weather finally cleared today and I had some free time and was able to hit Utah Lake this afternoon with my son. We got to the American Fork Boat Harbor and walked to where the American Fork River flows into the lake. We were not the only ones there. There were probably about 15 fishermen standing out in the lake along the waterline where the river meets the lake. Everyone was catching fish on about every other cast.

Fishing for white bass today reminded me of fishing for sockeye salmon in Alaska. Twenty years ago during my first visit to Alaska, I found myself fishing with hundreds of other fishermen who lined both sides of the river for several hundred yards. I landed 2 fish and each one got tangled in 5 other lines. Today, I was standing knee deep in the water, shoulder to shoulder amongst 15-20 other anglers casting to the fish as they swam upstream to spawn. Luckily, we only had two line entanglements. There must have been thousands of white bass concentrated at the mouth of the American Fork River and they were hitting jigs and spinners on nearly every cast. We fished until are arms were tired and our bucket could hold no more fish. We were at this fishing spot for only 1 hour and 20 minutes!

When I got home I dreaded the chore that lay ahead which would entail filleting these 26 fish. I decided to try using my electric knife to fillet these fish instead of my regular fillet knife. I had used this knife one other time to fillet 50 yellow perch and I remembered how quickly I was able to get those perch filleted. The electric knife did not let me down and I had all 26 of the bass filleted in less than 35 minutes! I ended up with 52 fillets. Each fillet is the perfect size for one fish taco. I decided to cook 14 of the fillets for a fish taco dinner tonight and I vacuum packed the rest and put them in the freezer for future fish fry’s.

The following is the recipe I used for the fish tacos. This recipe is nothing fancy. The fish has such a good flavor I don’t like to put to many condiments on the taco. All I use on my white bass tacos is some shredded cabbage, cheese, and my jalapeno/cilantro cream sauce. I serve the tacos on warm soft corn tortillas with a side of chili beans.

INGREDIENTS

Marinade

2 cups of Land Shark or Corona Beer.

1/2 cup of vegetable oil.

The juice of one lime.

1 tablespoon garlic powder or 2 cloves of fresh garlic minced.

1 tablespoon onion powder.

1 teaspoon cumin powder.

2 tablespoons cilantro leaves.

Salt and Pepper.

Flour Mixture For Frying

2 cups white flour.

salt and pepper to taste.

Jalapeno/Cilantro Cream Sauce

1 jalapeno cut in half and seed removed. Leave seeds in if you want a very spicy sauce.

1 cup of cilantro leaves, no stems.

2 cups of mayonnaise.

3/4 cups milk.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Tacos

14 white bass fillets.

1/2 a cabbage shredded.

2-3 cups of shredded cheddar cheese.

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine marinade ingredients in a bowl. Place the fish fillets in the marinade and make sure they are covered with the marinade. Let the fish marinate for 1-2 hours.

2. Make the jalapeno/cilantro cream sauce. Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth and creamy.

3. Place flour mixture ingredients into a Ziploc bag and combine thoroughly.

4. Remove the fish fillets from the marinade and drop directly into the Ziploc bag containing the flour mixture ingredients. Shake fillets until covered in the flour mixture.

5. Pour enough oil in the frying pan to a depth of about 1/4 of an inch. Heat oil and fry fish until you reach your desired doneness.

6. To make the taco, place some cabbage on the tortilla then place a piece of fish on the cabbage. On top of the fish, put your desired amount of cheese and top with the jalapeno/cilantro cream sauce.

7. Serve with a lime wedge. Enjoy!