Musty tasting Bass?!?!

[bman]

Took two nice bass from Lake Jackson yesterday - filleted them up and they were beautiful.
We were both excited- Bass is usually one of our favorites.
A little Salt, Lemon Pepper and butter under the broiler.

First bite and my wife says this tasted like dirt.
To be fair they were musty or grassy.
If you fried them you probably would not notice it but what do you guys think?

I checked the Department of health consumption advisories but they did not test Jackson.
Munson, the Ock and Lake Tom John are the only places with an advisory to eat less than once a week.
Every other Leon County Lake is fine...

Should we throw it out?
Fry the next batch?
Is it bad for you?

[One Keeper]

Barry in the past I have never ate anything but good tasting fish out of that lake . Maybe it's because of the lake coming up so fast over the last few months, I dunno! But i'm sure it won't hurt you , Maybe we should catch and release until we find out more. As for the Oclocknee river I was down there a couple weeks ago at the mouth of the lake and apparently Game and Fish has sprayed the lake kill ALL of the hydrilla, everything was brown and dead looking. I did not see any floating fish but we all know that can't be good for them. So if your planning on fishing hydrilla mats at Talquin ya might wanna go to plan B.

[bman]

One Keeper- I'm with you.
Had bass out of there a lot of times with no "flavor" issue- as recent as last year.

Been thinking about this all day so I got on the phone.
Had an interesting conversation with a guy at the department of health who used to be in charge of the testing program that sets consumption recommendations.
Taste and health have nothing to do with each other...
He said some of the highest heavy metal counts come from Tannic waters- the tannic acid breaks down the metals and makes them more easily absorbed by the fish.
Most Leon county lakes say 1 time a week consumption is fine... the recs are here:
http://www.doh.state.fl.us/Environment/ ... s/Leon.htm

[KyTrkyHntr]

[NO PATIENCE]

I ate some shellcracker out of there a couple of months ago and they were not fittin to eat. But they were bedding when they were caught too. It seems bedding fish are stronger tastying anyway. Havn't eat any since.

[FUTCHCAIRO]

HEY BARRY, MAN IF THOSE FISH DO NOT TASTE RIGHT DO NOT EAT THEM. WE HAS SOME SPECKLE PERCH THAT DID NOT TASTE JUST RIGHT, TASTED LIKE WHAT I THOUGHT MUD WOULD TASTE LIKE, IN A MATTER OF 4 HOURS HAD TO TAKE THE WHOLE FAMILY TO THE HOSPITAL AND HAVE OUR STOMACHS PUMPED OUT. SOME HOW A NON NATIVE VIRUS HAD GOTTEN IN THE LAKE WHERE WE CAUGHT THE FISH. THE WHOLE FAMILY WAS SICK FOR ALMOST A WEEK. THE HOSPITAL PERSONEL SAID THAT THE VIRUS WOULD NOT KILL US, IT JUST MADE YOU WISH YOU WERE DEAD. FEED SOME TO THE NEIGHBORS CAT AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS, IF IT IS BAD THE CAT WILL NOT EAT IT.
PA

[Reel Cowboy]

A friend of mine in Puerto Rico told me they take barricude fillets (which you shouldn't eat) and put them on an ant bed. If the ants start eating it, it's fine. But if they leave it alone, don't.
You got any ant beds close by?

[RHTFISH]

A friend of mine in Puerto Rico told me they take barricude fillets (which you shouldn't eat) and put them on an ant bed. If the ants start eating it, it's fine. But if they leave it alone, don't.
You got any ant beds close by?

Your friend must be a witch doctor.


Personally, I think it's the time of year...hot weather.....very warm water....heavy algae, etc. Back in the 70s when we were catching obscene numbers of bass from Jackson, we didn't
eat them in midsummer.

[Reel Cowboy]

Your friend must be a witch doctor.

I don't think so but down there you never know.

[tin can]

Rhtfish is right on. The fish out of Jackson have always tasted musty during the summer months.

[wevans]

I aint never liked the taste of any fish not caught in free running water, they always have a mud taste to me "may be that the river fish just have me spoilt also"

[Charles]

You can get rid of a lot (not all, but most) of the muddy flavor by skinning the fish. If ya' don't skin'em, frying won't help. They'll just taste like fried mud instead of broiled mud.

If they still have a muddy flavor after skinning and cooking ya'll need a stronger hot sauce.

[bman]

Charles these were filleted and skinned- still muddy.
I talked to my dad about this and he said it late summer bass from Jackson have always had that flavor...
I guess its catch and release for a few months!

[Redbelly]

Ditto what Wevans said. Although skinned and fileted are decent to eat out of still water sometimes, depends on where they came from.