Ice fishing

I have been in a great walleye bite and sunfish/crappie bite

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Is that a green sunfish on the bottom?

Rock bass

wow, those are some nice sunnies!

Pug, I think we need your identification skills here…

LabDaddy1 wrote:

Is that a green sunfish on the bottom?

Hybrid, rock bass have red eyes.

eyeguy507 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>LabDaddy1 wrote:</div>
Is that a green sunfish on the bottom?

Hybrid, rock bass have red eyes.

To me that looks like a straight up Rock bass.

Definite rock bass. Aka rough fish

Yeah, rock bass 100%

Rocko!

Thanks for the laugh Labdaddy.

Never actually tried rock bass because my family doesn’t think they taste good. Can anyone second this?

Tried it once. Not bad in flavor but a bit mushy in texture. It was edible but I will stick to gills and crappie.

They are related to sunfish AND taste almost exact. I pan fry my sunnies so no heavy oil deep fry taste. The fish flavor really comes out and no one can ever tell the difference even when I ask them to ID the rock.

This comes from a guy that was raised to hate rockbass… I was told they were, “mushy” “wormy” and so on… we threw everyone away.

I’ve found those comments to be 100% wrong in my experience. The meat is just like a big bluegill. I’m very picky too… very!

I have a long standing bet with my clients. If they can tell the difference between a bluegill and rockbass, they get my Ranger boat… and I still have my Ranger.

In my estimate I’ve cleaned over 1000 rock bass the past few years. EVERYONE has been very impressed with the rockbass. The flavor and texture is just like a big gill. I’d say 100% of my clients say they’re the same as a bluegill and about 90% say fully as good as the walleye.

As picky as I am I’d take a rockbass over a restaurant walleye 100% of the time no questions asked. Give them a try and you’ll be very impressed.

brewerybuilder wrote:

They are related to sunfish AND taste almost exact. I pan fry my sunnies so no heavy oil deep fry taste. The fish flavor really comes out and no one can ever tell the difference even when I ask them to ID the rock.

X2

Joe, I’m in need of a boat….. What are the exact stipulations of this challenge?
I agree they taste just fine. Particular lakes have more to do with fish flavor than fish themselves, sometimes.

That’s good to know, Joe. Birch lake in Ely has a chit load of Rockies in it & have been tempted to try but have always been told they are yuck, even the warden up there said nasty when he saw a few in my live well, tossed them back. I’m going to give it a go next time.

I don’t see any Walleyes!

Big rock bass can have just a finicky bite as big crappies and bluegills. However a 9-10″ Rock bass will probably only have as much filet meat as a 6-7″ bluegill. Big Rock bass have big rib cage and big rib bones.

I always heard the same thing about “garbage” rock bass. They say they’re mushy and wormy. I’ve never actually tried one(though not really for this reason)but now I’m kinda curious. I trust joe, so maybe one day I’ll give ‘er a go

Ps; pug- you must be too busy catching reds and trout. Was hoping for a neat drawing here…

Pailofperch wrote:

Joe, I’m in need of a boat….. What are the exact stipulations of this challenge?
I agree they taste just fine. Particular lakes have more to do with fish flavor than fish themselves, sometimes.

Well here’s how it goes. We go fishing and catch a bunch of fish. Usually we get walleye, Sunfish, and rock bass mixed. Then I clean them and cut them into identical sized pieces and fry five of each. If you can pick out the 5 rock bass pieces blindfolded the boat is yours.

No one has gotten even close.

If you lose you owe me a couple cases of beer.

Joe Scegura wrote:

This comes from a guy that was raised to hate rockbass… I was told they were, “mushy” “wormy” and so on… we threw everyone away.

I’ve found those comments to be 100% wrong in my experience. The meat is just like a big bluegill. I’m very picky too… very!

I have a long standing bet with my clients. If they can tell the difference between a bluegill and rockbass, they get my Ranger boat… and I still have my Ranger.

In my estimate I’ve cleaned over 1000 rock bass the past few years. EVERYONE has been very impressed with the rockbass. The flavor and texture is just like a big gill. I’d say 100% of my clients say they’re the same as a <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>bluegill and about 90% say fully as good as the walleye.

As picky as I am I’d take a rockbass over a restaurant <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleye 100% of the time no questions asked. Give them a try and you’ll be very impressed.

I too was told growing up that they were garbage fish and couldn’t be eaten. I just decided to try ONE just once. That is when I turned.

But by all means everyone, please throw them back…they are horrible!
…more for me!

brewerybuilder wrote:

But by all means everyone, please throw them back…they are horrible! grin
…more for me!

The bag limit is 100 daily and the season is continuous. There should be no shortage for you.

BTW, the state record in MN is only 2.0 pounds even. They can get quite a bit bigger though, as the state record in WI is a full pound heavier, 3.0 pounds. Just in case you’re after a monster rocky.