Rock Bass

[The Yeti]

Anyone ever catch Rock Bass while ice fishing? I caught one 2 weekends ago. Put up one heck of a fight too. Kind of weird catching one ice fishing.

[trapperdirk]

I catch that scourge of our pristine waters quite often and we make sure they are removed permanently but always more of them thangs . They like to come to the hole moving in circles .

TD

[The Yeti]

When it first came up, it looked like a crappie.. deceiving little bass turds they are..

[Deitz Dittrich]

Yep, on some lakes you seem to catch more of those than anything else. They do put up a decent fight for their size. And I have talked to some who like to eat them even. Not me. but to each their own!

[Ralph Wiggum]

They're tasty!

[The Yeti]

yuck.. may as well eat a carp or some milfoil..

[bassNspear]

There nasty. I would rather eat smoked carp, and carp are horrible.

[insurance guy]

Rockies taste great and I keep every one I get. We call them "freshwater grouper" and I think they are as tasty as gills and crappies from most places around here. Nice firm flesh just like a gill. What I won't eat are white perch, those are NOT GOOD

[Ralph Wiggum]

Well, the ones that I have eaten have been great. Open your minds! BTW, sheepshead are great, too!

[anyfishwilldo]

I've never gotten the balls to try them. Growing up, my grandpa would catch them and slam them off the top of the motor, mutter some curse words, and tell me in his own way that they were dump. He is dead now, but I feel that it would be like peeing on his grave to try them.

[The_Duckslayer]

We used to catch rock bass in IL when I was stationed there. I thought that they were pretty darn good! I would imagine they are the same thing any way. We were able to use two hooks there. Used to pinch a minnow in half and put half on each hook. We would catch two at a time more often than not when they were hitting. We always kept some for supper. Where did you catch them at? I have never caught one here in MN. Have a good one and Joy the Hunt././Jimbo

[rosspj59]

A one pound rock bass was caught by an angler at the brainerd fishing contest and netted him a 4 wheeler. Actually, quite a few were caught in the tourney and produced many nice prizes.

[bassNspear]

That is crazy. I think its crazy that a rockbas won a tournament!

[Gus]

Quote:

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A one pound rock bass was caught by an angler at the brainerd fishing contest and netted him a 4 wheeler. Actually, quite a few were caught in the tourney and produced many nice prizes.

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My brother won an artic armor suit on one of those rockos!

[dkf]

Every year I go to southeast Ontario two or three weeks softwater fishing. The rockbass taste great to me. I actually prefer them over bluegills and perch because they have bigger bones. To each there own I guess.

[cRaPpiEMaN8265]

I hate the (Contact Us Please) things i always think i have a crappie but whenever i catch one i throw them as far as i can on the ice and let the eagles and crows eat um'. They gotta eat too!

[Minnetonka]

As a former fisheries biologist who thinks just about all fish all cool if they are in their native environment. (unlike Carp) What makes so many of you hate Rock Bass when they are native to most lakes. They may not be the best fish to eat but some of you sound like they are the worst animal to inhabit the earth. Lighten-up

[trapperdirk]

Quote:

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As a former fisheries biologist who thinks just about all fish all cool if they are in their native environment. (unlike Carp) What makes so many of you hate Rock Bass when they are native to most lakes. They may not be the best fish to eat but some of you sound like they are the worst animal to inhabit the earth. Lighten-up

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OH MR fisheries biologist that means nada to us who know our lakes and woods . This scourge was not native to our lakes here but when they showed up they messed with all our truly native populations of trout, walleye and perch. Kill everyone of them I say and it's you geniuses that think you know more than us who live in amongst any critters around here and your ideas that have messed it up more than anything .

Your fisheries and it's a mess and I see it with land animals but the problem is you really don't see it and just talk,talk,talk and theory but you never get out of truck to feel it or see it as it is .As a trapper ,,, were better farmers than you with your studies ever will be because we need seed and truly care .

As has been mentioned bounce them off the cowlings of your motors and we all have a great technigue of swatting them with an oar or paddle or makes good raven or fox food on the ice or eat them yourselves but please just harvest them regardless and biologists mostly are just talk and theory sitting in a truck or office .

TD

TD

[Ray Esboldt]

I don't think I've ever tried them. They can't be that bad, can they?

Here's a good rock bass story. A couple years ago a buddy of mine and myself spent a couple hours one afternoon positioning his fish house on what we thought was the spot on the spot. I bet we punched 50 holes looking for the right depth, right break, and right bottom content. This spot was going to be a walleye magnet. We're all set. I think we were both fishing spoons with minnow heads. Sun starts dropping, perch disappear, and I pop a pig rock bass. We proceeded to catch 17 nice rock bass and no walleyes that evening. We found the ultimate rock bass spot. We moved the house the next day.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Great attitude, Trapperdirk . I'm sure every backyard biologist knows what's best.

[Caesarfishinguytoo]

I too was one of those people that were led to believe that rock bass were a terrible eating fish. Until a week I spent on Winnie and the guy in the neighboring cabin asked if I wanted to go out to catch some nice rock bass with him. He had found a great spot for some nice size ones. I thought what the heck, will catch some fish anyways. We hit this spot and were worming for them and just nailed them long with a few large mouths too. But he was keeping them. He said they were good eats. I took half the days catch back to the cabin fried em up like I would a gill and they were one of the BEST tasting fish I have ever had. I rank them right up there with a gill.

Don't toss them on the ice, leave them in the lake for me to fish and not to mention it is illegal.

[Minnetonka]

To all Rock Bass Haters: No preaching on my part, but here is a little information. Side note to TrapperDirk: This may be a little to scientific for you, so just ignore it. Rock Bass are member of the Centrarchidae Family. This is the "Sun Fish" Family. Latin name is Ambleoplites rupestris. Rock Bass are native to the area of southern Canada from Saskatchewan to Quebec and southward to North Carolina and Oklahoma. The primary food of Rock Bass is small Crayfish, but they will feed on a variety of foods. It is noted in the text that they will sometimes have a "muddy flavor" depending on what they have been feeding on. This all comes from the book "Northern Fishes by Eddy and Underhill published in 1974. I hope it helps you to understand this fish better and does not p___s some of you off

[V-12 Merlin]

I was positive that they were a native of MN, and now I know. We used to fish for them in creeks near my hometown when I was a kid. Under no circumstances would we shoot bottle rockets as we were fishing - that would be illegal!

[Sonicrunch]

Post deleted by Sonicrunch

[trapperdirk]

You can think what you want but they are a scourge of our waters and have done plenty to ruin our walleye and brook trout fisheries here and they never WERE a local species to here . I may garner much of my knowledge from just being out there but where do the pencil pushing biologists get theirs from I ask .? Constantly we see stupidity used in assessing situations that concern our outdoors .

I'll use the latest from MNR. There is no commercial batfish transfers into our area at the moment from the infected zone,or the buffer zone but yet it's legal for fishermen to buy minnows from those zones and bring them up here . Really smart biology that is . That's how we ended up with rockbass too .

TD