Rock Bass

[trapperdirk]

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WOW!!! All I started this post with was asking if anyone caught one ice fishing and that I would prefer not to eat one. Did'nt intend for this to turn into a political and environmental debate... cripes!!

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Quit your whining and don't take the credit for the whole thread .Nobody cares who started the thread .

TD

[The Yeti]

nice....

[fiskyknut]

Yeti, a couple folks posting here get a rise from kettle stirring no matter the topic, ignore them!

The Rock bass I've eaten out of the LOTW watershed taste pretty good and remind me of Bluegills I've eaten from small lakes. I've got them out of the Red river and out of there they don't taste so good. Not surprising as any fish from the Red river seem to have an odd taste all their own when compared to fishes from other watersheds.

fiskyknut

[trapperdirk]

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I dont think any of us are looking through a glass ball. Like i mentioned before most of the people got into the field because we love the outdoors and have grown up in it. Unfortunately the field of wildlife/fish biology has gone away from actually managing the species. It is now more about people management (like you) that we have to deal with. I dont get how you can call yourself a sportsmen when you deliberately kill fish and dont use them in some way. Like the majority of people onhere, i dont think that is right either.

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You have to manage me sdstate . That's EXACTLY the " look at me PHD " syndrome I've been talking about here and you lad already have it .Are you even aware of the the kill offs done in some waters of species that you as biologists have done . What makes you better than me to make that call .

You also have come up with the conclusion that I am wantonly wasting and killing but I have yet to say that is my answer in a direct manner . I did say they should be removed in my watershed and yes I do remove each and everyone but waste . I don't think so but maybe you also have a conclusion of what defines waste that differs than mine .

As far as I'm concerned at the moment your biological assessment of the situation is WASTING a pristine fishery that has existed here for many,many years by allowing the scourge ROCKBASS to continue to displace and take over our walleye and trout waters . But then again you are a biologist taught by a prof using text book technology so must be right and I should follow your lead just because you think you know whats best but in the meantime I have to live amongst the devastation of your decision and watch a one time great fishery go down the tubes . I'm watching it and feeling its effects but where are you and your profs .Long live the rockbass eh

TD

[Orlip]

This is just my .02,

After having a cabin on a northern MN lake for years and enjoying the great fishing on this relatively small (370.70 acre) lake we would consistently catch quality largemouth occasionally we would catch some quality northerns but most of the northerns were of the 1 - 2 pound size. We have however caught some in the upper teens.

Occasionally on those long summer nights we would troll around the lake to see how many northerns we could catch and that number would be around 25 - 35.

Now lets introduce our biologists and DNR ( Who requested there input is unknown to me.) This is from the lake info from the MN DNRs HSOforum;

"Even after intense removal efforts of smaller pike and stocking of larger pike over a 6 year period, as part of a research project that sought to alter the fish community and cause an increase in average size of pike, these strategies were ineffective in notably altering pike densities and improving pike growth. The percentage of sampled pike in 2001 that were at 24.0 inches or greater in length (12.5%) was down from 1996 (24%). "

Did you notice the pike sizes are down, Whoops. After they started this "Research project" The fishing went downhill fast. We have since sold our cabin (My father in-laws decision) but not before the affects of this "Research project" became apparent.

No longer were the days of going out and catching numerous 2 -4 pound bass in one evening no longer are the days of trolling around the lake and catching northerns by the dozens (last time i did this we ended up with 1) Now to top things off they are trying to introduce walleye into this lake.

So I guess I would like to thank the "Research Project" I have saved I pile of money. No longer do I have buy the amount bait that I had to or replace fishing line as often.

My long winded point is, Mother nature made this lake and put the fish there, who are we to say we can make it better.

[trapperdirk]

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Yeti, a couple folks posting here get a rise from kettle stirring no matter the topic, ignore them!

The Rock bass I've eaten out of the LOTW watershed taste pretty good and remind me of Bluegills I've eaten from small lakes. I've got them out of the Red river and out of there they don't taste so good. Not surprising as any fish from the Red river seem to have an odd taste all their own when compared to fishes from other watersheds.

fiskyknut

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Good grief man this debate has gone way beyond tastebuds . In most european countries carp are considered a delicacy and it has more to do with how they are cooked than about the species in general or where they are from although yes some waters produce fish that taste different because of what they eat and the enviroment they live in but that at the moment is on the back burner of this discussion .

I'll just ignore that kind of input . I've eaten my share of rockbass but they are not my preferred species by a long shot to have on my plate .

TD

[fiskyknut]

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Good grief man this debate has gone way beyond tastebuds.

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Good, and don't drag me into your "debate" by quoting me and then adding additional rant about Carp!!! FYI, Rockpass are'nt my favorite fish to eat either, nor are Bluegill. I simply posted an opinion as to their eating quality out of the waters which I have taken/eaten Rockbass from, and the difference in taste I percieve between these fish taken from the above mentioned watersheds.

fiskyknut

[trapperdirk]

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Good grief man this debate has gone way beyond tastebuds.

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Good, and don't drag me into your "debate" by quoting me and then adding additional rant about Carp!!! FYI, Rockpass are'nt my favorite fish to eat either, nor are Bluegill. I simply posted an opinion as to their eating quality out of the waters which I have taken/eaten Rockbass from, and the difference in taste I percieve between these fish taken from the above mentioned watersheds.

fiskyknut

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Well the way your initial post sounds is that our concerns are to be ignored as were only here to get a rise out of someone and then you start yanking our chain about how good they are to eat . As far as me mentioning carp it was just example and nothing more so go chew on them scales if you want a bite in the debate .

TD

[fiskyknut]

Whatever!!!!

Read whatever you want right into it just however you see fit.....You always do, LOL!

Lates....fiskyknut

[sdstate]

TD what are your suggestions for removing the rock bass. Or dont you want them removed??? As far as the research project goes, thats why it is called research!!! Mother nature is very hard to manage and not everything turns out perfect, thats why it is called research. It is pretty easy for people to sit back and criticize the DNR and such when something goes wrong. If you feel so strongly about it I bet there is still time to make a profession change.

[IndyEFI500]

To this day, my granmother (80) curses rock bass. Funny thing is that after she married my step-grandfather 15 years ago, she actually started keeping and eating them. She says she can still tell them apart after they have been cooked though. Only thing I know for sure is watch them real close if you keep them. As soon as it warms up a little, they get wormy. That will make your skin crawl for sure.

[trapperdirk]

Well to start off with SDstate I would from an MNR standpoint make the public aware that these fish are not native in the waters I'm talking about and promote that each and everyone caught by fishermen be removed permanently just like it's mandatory to remove gobies here and never return them to water . That would be a start .

I don't like it that MNR lets on they are alright and not hurting our waters any which they are . Not much can happen unless they acknowledge the fact that they hurt our resident stocks of gamefish .

I see it mentioned about grubs or worms being found in them when the waters warm . I'm not sure which parasite exactly your referring too but I've seen this common too in fish under the ice out of some lakes and in quite a few species such as perch,bass,herring,whitefish,bluegills and of course rockbass . So far I have not found it in trout or walleyes and it is something that my friends and I are monitoring on our own .

At one time too we theorized that warm temps in summer allowed these parasites to survive and would not be found once the lakes froze over but thats not true as we have discovered . These parasites are passed into watersheds by bird droppings and their host are fish and the cycle continues . Waterbirds such as ducks,herons etc also propagate waters with different species of fish like this .

They eat fertilized eggs of fish and they go through there digestive system and then hatch in another body of water the birds fly too after they shat them out and also can stick to their feathers . I've seen landlocked ponds that are man made and in a few years they are loaded with minnows and they were not put there by man . Yes this is my backwoods biology but it's the only conclusion I could come up with after watching what occurs .

TD

[The Grebe]

When I was a kid, we used to eat everything that the old man brought home and the old man brought home everything!

Anything that swam was fair game and Rockbass were always in that washtub. We never filleted them,no one knew how, it was always scale, gut, behead and thats how they went into the pan.

I'm sure nobody knew about the worms that the rockbass had in em, probably wouldn't have made any difference to the old man anyways.

I was the offical fish cleaner and I hated it! Once I got older, out on my own and learned how to fillet and seen those nasty little grubs in the rockbass, I never ate one again!

My nephew got some whitefish at a lake up near Alexandria and smoked em up and they looked pretty good....I split one open and it was loaded with those grubs, smoked of course. When I pointed it out to him he says, "Aw, that ain't nothin, just pick em out." ....Noooo thank you!!!.... I left all those fine smoked whitefish for my nephew! Yuk!

To many good things around to eat and I'm not at a point in life where I want to include worms in my diet, even little ones...not if I can help it!

[Fishing_Rookie_123_]

All the rock bass that I have ever caught are full of those black pepper looking dots. Is this where the worms come from?

[sdstate]

Good luck trying to eliminate the rock bass population. In some cases fish have actually increased their populations when a lot of them are taken because the fish left have a lot more forage and dont have to compete with eachother. If you try to do this the fish could have excellent recruitment for a few years and there could be more than there were begore.

[General Montgomery]

Some people actually like Lutefisk, so I'm not surprised that some also eat Rock Bass. More power to ya. There's plenty of the better tasting fish in our waters for me.

[Jackpine Rob]

Here's a question maybe the books can help us out on SD!

The lake I grew up on in NE Minnesota had always contained a thriving population of rock bass. It is a riverine system with stained water. We used to catch them off the dock all summer long, and would "tag" our fish by using a paper punch on the dorsal fin. We caught and recaught the same fish many, many times. During the mayfly hatch we would use flyrods, and many the goggleye was yanked from the water using this technique.

A bit over a decade ago, rusty crayfish literally took over the lake. Another "bait bucket stocking" had taken place, and the varmints were everywhere. If you shined a light on our beach at night you'd literally gag to see the thousands upon thousands of the little beasts.

The walleyes seemed to fare OK, as did the northerns. The rock bass population appears to have crashed - and hasn't come back. Smallmouth bass numbers also seem much lower.

Now we all know that rock bass and smallmouths like crayfish, so logic would tell you that they should have boomed after the rusties invaded. That is not the case. I have no explanation...

A few miles down the road are a couple of lakes connected by a small rapids that are clear, deep and cold. One lake has lake trout, ciscoes, smallmouths and northerns. The odd walleye here and there (but no significant numbers). The upper lake is clear and cold, with several extensive weedbeds, some sand, gravel and a few deeeeeep holes. That little sleeper lake contained good numbers of 20 lb. plus northerns, and some excellent walleyes (2-3 lb. average). For years numbers of large pike were taken, and we would frequently have 5 to 6 of the big girls in our spear hole during a day of spearing. It was actually tough to find a smaller one to toss the spear at some days!

Enter the rusty crayfish. The little boogers wreaked havoc on the weedbeds in that lake (where they didn't have an appreciable affect on weeds in the lake I lived on). Now the northern and walleye numbers have plummeted. I don't even bother going there much anymore...

2 different systems - same exotic introduced - radically different outcomes.

Go figure.

[sdstate]

How do you know that the crayfish were the source of the problem??? Just Wondering???

[Jackpine Rob]

You're right of course. The timing of events may be nothing more than mere coincidence. Such an obvious change as the crayfish may in fact have had no appreciable effect.

I'm thinking there is a correlation. Call it a hunch.

[Jim Uran]

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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.

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That is the funniest thing I've heard in a while HA HAHA!!!!!!