Frank, Like you, I have gone all my life without catching them. This spring, I ran in to the tail end of the walleye run and (as everyone who fishes the detroit river knows) the white bass come in. I took my daughter and my dad and caught over 400 of the little buggers. 16 inches is a master angler award and we caught several over that. I too wondered how they tasted so I took the liberty of keeping 5 fish. One in a small pan fish size, one in a larger crappie size, one about 14 inches and one about 18 inches. I too heard they were "fishy" but I like some fish like that. I soaked the fish in Milk for a couple of hours. I have read that the best thing to do is cut out the "red" meat. I fried the fish in hot oil. What I found is that the bigger fish tended to be on the "mushy" side. The smaller fish cooked up well and tasted fine. For me, I would say 10 to 12 inchers as the max. Anything over that tends to get a little mushy. In a fish fryer, I don't think you could go wrong with them. Definately not on my "target" list of fish to catch and eat but, as they are a blast to catch on an ultra light with 6lb test in the river!