Rock Bass

I have truly grown to despise them. A few of my favorite walleye lakes have seen their populations explode while perch populations have declined significantly. This weekend I actually couldn’t keep them off my line – they bite leaches, crawlers, sucker minnows, swim baits, and yes even crank baits. They are on the weedlines, in the weeds, and on the deep humps and are not afraid to bite after dark.

I was fishing a mid-sized ultra clear lake in west central Minnesota with strong walleye numbers where I have had success in the past, but last week I could not put together any consistent pattern. Decided to start cranking after my leeches and crawlers kept getting destroyed by 9 inch rock bass, and they even hit shad raps/tail dancers every 7 minutes.

Maybe this time of year is particularly bad, but does anyone have any tips for dealing with this?

I’ve actually heard of people eating them. I have never personally tried though. The daily bag limit is pretty generous though.

The state record is only 2.0 pounds. If you tie into a freak of a rocky keep that in mind lol.

I have heard of people eating them too. Not only are they everywhere, they are always full of those little black dot parasites. Very unappetizing!

Probably familiar with the exact lake. Otter Tail is getting pretty bad too with them. 8” cranks getting towed under 2mph are fair game for rockers. Caught a 13”er a couple weeks ago, Im sure Ive came close to that record. Bleh, bottom barrel fish for me as well.

I swear they look like walleye on side imaging too! Where do they go in the winter? Anyone ever caught one ice fishing? I haven’t. They seem to be everywhere in the summer.

Rock bass Are like Gobies They travel in bunches. Eat anything they can swallow. Then become TOO wide to be eaten easily by bass or smaller pike. They have taken up all the dock & boat spaces. Great for lots of non serious fishing people.

Oh Well.

Years ago there was an IDO get together out of Hunter’s on Mille Lacs. I caught a Rock Bass through the ice. Everybody told me that was pretty weird. Actually it would have been weird if I had caught a Walleye, but that’s just me.

We spend time on a small lake north of Mille Lacs every June. I’ve given up hitting the docks looking for Largemouth because there are so many Rock Bass. They hit everything you throw at them.

SR

I grew up being taught to hate RockBass. I was told “they are wormy” so we threw em back.

Then one day I had a group from Iowa… in typical Iowian fassion (please don’t take offense) they wanted to keep as many fish as possible. So we kept every rock bass.

But thanks to them I kept some rockbass and fried them for shore lunch. They were not only clean looking, with no worms, they tasted incredible. Fully as good as any other freshwater fish and I’m very picky.

So since then I keep and eat em on a regular basis. They are terrific and I feel I’m helping out the lake. I will bet anyone they can not tell the difference between a cooked rock bass and a sunfish or walleye in a blind taste test. I mean that I’ve done this many times and I’ve never lost.

So the next time you are out on the lake getting into rock bass make sure you keep some and give them a try. Remember people used to hate perch and eelpout too.

I’ve eaten lots of them, they are just as good as a sunfish, but have a big rib cage so they don’t fillet as nicely. A few years ago on vacation with another family on Winnibigoshish they kept us all busy (ostensibly we said it was for the kids, but even us big people had a blast) – I bet we caught a 100 in an hour. Good fun.

We seem to agree on the filleting & cooking determine if new people like a new fish.

There are seasonal times when some fish do not taste so good.

TH wrote:

I swear they look like <em class=”ido-tag-em”>walleye on side imaging too! Where do they go in the winter? Anyone ever caught one ice fishing? I haven’t. They seem to be everywhere in the summer.

I have a spot that if I get really bored ice fishing I can pound on them lol

They like DEEP rocks in the winter (from my experience)

My rocko spot is 35-40′ with boulders off the tip of an island

The boys caught a some nice fish including a couple rockos this weekend fishing off a bridge. They wanted to keep them but we have fish in the freezer to eat yet.

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Add me into the “taste like sunfish” group. If you catch them from a cool, clear lake…there’s no way to tell them apart once cooked.

Every one I’ve caught seem soft and mushy that turns me off right away.

And there usually from northern Minnesota lakes.

TH wrote:

I swear they look like on side imaging too! Where do they go in the winter? Anyone ever caught one ice fishing? I haven’t. They seem to be everywhere in the summer.

I catch em all the time during the winter on White Bear walleye fishing. They will come in out of nowhere and fly up and smack your bait and look just like a walleye on sonar. Most of the time I will get them late at night going for walleyes even the small ones chow on big spoons and minnow heads. Never tried them myself but I heard they taste awful. Last year stopped by the Crosby mine pits and sight fished them in that super clear water that was pretty fun I have to admit

Maybe I will fillet a few up sometime and see what I think. I wish more people kept them, but everyone I know just treats them as a nuisance. The bigger ones can definitely fool you on sonar too, but I have also found I shouldn’t rule out a spot with rockbass because sometimes there’s a walleye or 2 mixed in the area.

I have never caught one in the winter, which is one of the reasons why I would rather fish early ice on these lakes than battle all the rockbass mid-summer.

One final thing I forgot to mention in my rant, they somehow completely swallow the hook 95% of the time if using live bait.

Over Memorial Day weekend in 2021 on Leech, a couple of friends and I were pitching 1/16 and 3/32 oz. jigs tipped with minnows to a small rock reef that came up to about 6 feet. We were getting some walleye, and a bunch of rock bass. We pan fried them all up together and all three of us thought they were good. I didn’t see any black specks or worms in the fillets.

I was surprised at how little meat I got of some pretty decent sized rock bass. I took two, quart sized zip lock bags to the cleaning shack for the rock bass but didn’t even fill up one bag. I found they more difficult to fillet than an walleye. The skin and scales seem tough.

TH wrote:

they are always full of those little black dot parasites

This is the primary reason I don’t care to try eating one. The rockies I catch (which isn’t a lot anymore) all seem to be stricken with some sort of visible disease or parasite. I’m sure that thoroughly cooking the filet would take care of it, but I have trouble getting past it initially which is why I don’t keep them.

Black spots in fillets aren’t parasites, it’s called pepper and it’s nature’s seasoning.

Funny how the kids don’t even think twice about eating specks in their fish when I told them that years ago now.

Pictures of your boys make me laugh EVERY time –

I personally don’t like to eat them. They seem mushy to me, same thing with saugers. But they give kids a lot of action so I take the positive from it.

Ahh the rock bass. Over 20yrs ago now a friends parents had a cabin up north and one time his dad brought us to Koeps bait shop to get some new lures. Well my friend got this new rattle trap that he was going to outfish me with and on the first cast with it he caught a fish and was giving me a hard time because he said that lure was the ticket. Well his line broke and the look on his face was priceless then to add insult to injury a rock bass jumped out of the water and shook its head with my friends brand new rattle trap in its mouth. To this day I still remind him of that famous rattle trap.

gim wrote:

I’ve actually heard of people eating them. I have never personally tried though. The daily bag limit is pretty generous though.

The state record is only 2.0 pounds. If you tie into a freak of a rocky keep that in mind lol.

I actually caught one on Mille Lacs about 15 or so years ago… was about 3 lbs… brother in law fileted it out.. stopped at Portside and was telling them about the large fish… a DNR guy was in there at the time.. he looked up the record and said, that it would be the new record if not fileted. He said Mille Lacs holds MANY over the state record… people just don’t think about it and release or eat them. Haven’t caught one over 1.5 since.

big_g wrote:

was about 3 lbs

State record just across the border in WI is a full pound heavier at 3.0 pounds so it wouldn’t surprise me.

I’ve tried eating them out of Mille Lacs years ago, nice clean water, early in the season, they tasted terrible, I mixed them in with walleye fillets and everybody that tried just a bite of one of the rock bass spit it out.

I’ve caught more rock bass than walleye this summer season…

Jigging a Swedish Pimple through the ice got this rock bass.

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mnfisherman18 wrote:

I have never caught one in the winter

They definitely bite more in the warmer summertime months. Since they’re a bass species, they’re most active water temperature is going to be around 75 degrees. In the cold water of winter, their activity level likely drops off a cliff and they’re very lethargic. As B-Man stated though, they probably school up in deep water where you’d have to sit right on top of them to catch any.

I had one this weekend I swore it would have been a record but I tossed it back lol. Damn things.

I’m wondering and hoping that they’re cyclical because same thing on our cabin lake. Used to love to go out at dusk and drop slip bobbers over sunken points/humps for Walleyes. But now your bait’s gone in under a minute EVERY time. My boy caught one on a larger spinner last week and my crankbait was constantly getting thumped down the weedline with no hook-ups. Guessing rockies or small sunnies are the culprits.

Never ate one, but flatheads love them, stay alive forever, and really work out on the line. DK.