Fish species?

[chucker34]

What fish looks like a largemouth bass but with bright red eyes? We kept catching one after the other last week on Big Trout in the Whitefish Chain. Was a lot of fun. We threw them all back - including some nice big fat dandy ones. Not being too big of a fisherman other than for walleye and sunfish, I had no idea what they were and didnt take any pics. Any thoughts?

[chaffmj]

Those fish would be rock bass.

[chucker34]

What kind of structure do they hang out in typically? We were catching them in about six feet of water right off the weedline but not in it. Can you eat them? What do they taste like?

[Fishin4Life]

You can, most people don't. They tend to have little maget looking things in them, not sure what those are. Just kind of grosses me out.

[deepportage01]

There aways ware you don't want them to be, I don't see why you can' eat them just look for worms when ya clean them. I have never try'd them and I don't think they will be on my plate any time soon,but they are fun to catch untill you see what it is

[mtreno]

grandpa told me they taste like mud. course he also told me all perch have worms and if i ever catch a musky to shoot it in the head cause they eat all the walleyes.

[Ralph Wiggum]

I remember eating a mess of them when I was younger and they are pretty darn tasty. I don't recall seeing any worms.

[nofishfisherman]

I think the worms will depend on time of year and body of water. I know I have caught plenty of perch in a lake near Duluth with lots of little parasites in the meat during the summer but in the winter they are clean. Another lake a few miles away might have clean perch all year long.

[Deitz Dittrich]

smallmouth have red eyes as well? I dont think Rock bass look like bass at all?

[DTro]

That's funny I was thinking the same exact thing. I think most people mistake rockies for a crappie.

Then again I don't think a smallmouth looks much like a largemouth either.

I always get a kick out of people calling large size bass "largemouths" and little dinks "smallmouths"

[Matt Johnson]

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smallmouth have red eyes as well? I dont think Rock bass look like bass at all?

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Yeah, and Big Trout has a few smallies in it, right Deitz? They could be smallies...

[DEADhead]

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I dont think Rock bass look like bass at all

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that's because a rock bass isn't a true bass; it is in the sunfish family. I've been told they taste just like a sunfish as well.

[croixeyes]

Im thinkin they were rockies,the brainerd area lakes have some very large rock bass in them,and he did say he was catching them one after the other.They are very fun on light tackle.

[DTro]

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and he did say he was catching them one after the other.

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even makes me think more that it was smallmouth

[Matt Johnson]

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I've been told they taste just like a sunfish as well.

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Yes, I've eaten rock bass on numerous occasions and they taste very similar to a sunfish. If you batter up sunfish and rock bass and throw them all on the same plate you can barely tell the difference by the taste...

[JollyT]

Rock Bass, Largemouth, and smallmouth bass are all in the sunfish family.

[Bobby Bass]

Sounds like rock bass to me, if you catch some and have caught sm and Lm you can easily tell the difference.

[DEADhead]

If you want to get picky, Here's your daily biology lesson:

A rock bass (Ambloplites genus) isn't a "true" bass (Micropterus genus), e.g. largemouth, smallmouth, etc.

sunfish such as bluegills, green, pumpkinseed, etc. belong to the Lepomis genus.

Crappies belong to the genus Pomoxis.

All freshwater bass and sunfish belong to the family Centrarchidae (white, yellow, and striped basses, and white perch are considered a temperate bass and belong to the Family Moronidae).

Yes, bass and sunfish are in the same family, what I was trying to point out was that rock bass are more closely related to sunfish than a true bass....

[chucker34]

Thanks for the replies guys. I was out of town for a few days but did a search on photo ids based on your replies and I'm leaning toward smallmouth if they also have red eyes. Again, I'm not expert at iding a fish other than I know walleyes and sunfish and crappies when I see them, but I'm thinking smallmouth in this case. Was a lot of fun.

[Freckles]

Yes they are Rock Bass. I used to run a resort in central Minn. Every year we had a group stay with us from Iowa. They would go out just to catch these. They thought they were crappies. We told them dirrerant but they kept bring them in and eating them. So now we call Rock Bass "Iowa Crappies".

Freckles

[Harmonica Bear]

Iowa Crappies?!?! Now that is some good humor! I was having a bad morning and that just made my day.

[genegodawa]

Every yr we have been lucky enough to get our limit. We do nothing special in cleaning them - just fillet 'em. At our annual fish fry, everyone praises the cook at how good they taste so I don't understand not wanting to eat Rockies. Although, I would never knowingly eat Carp despite the fact they are now a "delicacy" at some restaurants - I'll just never get over my upbringing. So I suppose people can feel that way about Rock Bass too. I have also heard people talk badly about the taste of WhiteBass, but I've never had a bad experience with those either. I'm just an all-around garbage-hound though.

[Ely Lake Expert]

You guys are making me consider keeping one of the ugly bass (rockbass) and trying it out. I sure accidentally catch enough of them. Though on second thought I still don't know if i can do it. lol

[Flash]

I call them "Party Crappies" because their eyes are red(bloodshot) like everyone after a good nite of partying.

Flash

"Set the Hook"

[zepman]

Spent a week on one of the Brainerd area lakes this summer and our neighbors were up from Indiana. They probably kept over 500 rock bass over the course of the week. They had a fish fry almost every night and I believe they took a 10 person limit home with them also. They thought they tasted great. I just thought it was funny to see these huge baskets of rock bass sitting next to the fish cleaning house every night. They spent many hours cleaning all those fish. To each his own.