Catch a bass sized to fit your barbecue, oven or whatever large baking appliance you have. A 30#er works great for a large party, but needs a 40" oven. Clean the fish, but do not remove the head and scales. Cut along both sides the spine from the belly cavity and remove as much of the spine as you can without externally mutilating the fish. Pull off as many ribs as you can, but don't worry if you miss some. (For extra effect, remove the eyeballs and store in the refrigerator.)

The stuffing is a mixture of whatever marine stuff you have. I like to use lobster, rock crab, scallop, quahoag, and maybe a little shrimp. Combine with portugese bread soaked in white wine and some chopped-up celery. Improvise.

Stuff the whole bass with the stuffing mixture, and sew up the belly cavity, mouth and gills. Coat it with cooking oil so it won't stick to whatever you're baking it on.

I'd give a 20# fish about 90 mins on low (~350 maybe). During the last half hour you can try covering it in rockweed if you are cooking on a (covered) gas or charcoal grill.

Try hard to get the whole bass onto a platter. It'll be very soft, and it'd be a shame to have it fall apart now. Remember those eyeballs? Take them out of the fridge and pop the better one into the eye socket. It's a pretty cool effect.

To serve, just cut the skin as you would a parchment, and serve meat and stuffing from the inside. The few rib bones on a large fish are very easy to pick out. ~ josko