Northwest Fishing Reports

I am almost ashamed to admit it - but not really, that I am a huge fan of rock bass.

They look like (and fight like) some wierd frankenstein monster cross between a largemouth bass and a crappie.

And honestly, if you were to cross the flavor of Crappie and Largemouth, that's pretty much what you get.

In some lakes they are plentiful, and easy to come by around the one-pound mark, and if you find them, you always get some extra perch and bluegill thrown in.

Anyone else out there share this guilty pleasure?

Three big yums, to the red-eyed google eye bass (Rock Bass).

Yum Yum Yum

Ive got them by mistake at American and Spanaway lakes. But Ive never fished for them, Ive always wanted to get more into it because I love panfish but dont know any good palces. What lakes hold large fush and numbers of rock bass. What do you use fo these fish?

i grew up catching and eating rockbass, i think they do taste like a cross between a crappie and largemouth. never had the chance to fish for them here in washington. i found that they do like rocky structure(hence the name). i would slay them with a beatlespin lure. but a plain worm and bobber does well thow they'll pretty much swallow the hook. <')//<

Rockbass are a lot of fun to catch. Growing up I thought they were smallmouths, since none of the lakes or rivers by my house had smallmouth in them. There's a couple really good rivers with slow moving areas in Lewis County that hold them, and they receive next to no fishing pressure. They'll attack small spinnerbaits that are still way too big for them.

Rock bass in rivers?

I know they are in rivers in warmer climates, but I woulda thought our rivers too cold!

Which rivers are they in? I can only imagine they would taste even better than those from a lake - fish always taste better from a river.

Let me know please!

Thanks!

The stretch of the Chehalis River that runs through the cities of Centralia/Chehalis holds them, as does near the mouth of the Skookumchuck (which empties into the Chehalis). They hang out along the banks in slow moving areas. I haven't fished for em in years, but I bet they're still there. They're probably in other areas to in the upper Chehalis, but I haven't fished them. When I was a kid I used to float the area by raft or innertube, and catch quite a few. As you know they are small but vicious fish!

Very late to reply to this topic but much experience with the Google Eye.

I have found Rock Bass in many of the lakes in Western Washington. 3 of my favorites being St. Clair, American, and Kapowsin. Other places I have found them in include Pattison, Long, Hicks, and Black in Thurston County; Borst (juvenile fishing only), Plummer, and Hayes lakes in Lewis County plus the Chehalis River as mentioned in earlier post in this thread and many of the small gravel ponds and sloughs along the Skookumchuck and Chehalis in Lewis and Thurston Counties; Tanwax, Spanaway, Steilacoom, and Gravelly in Pierce County. Cannot recall finding them in Mason County and have not fished any lakes personally in King, Grays Harbor, or Kitsap Counties yet so don't know about them.

I find Rock Bass to be very sporty, they hit lures viciously and fight harder pound for pound (actually more like ounce for ounce) than largemouth. They are decent eating but I have found that their meat is very soft when uncooked and it does make them somewhat difficult to filet due to that softness. And their relative smallness (rarely over 5 ounces total) requires a good number of fish to make a decent meal for my large family of 6.

When targeting Rock Bass, and I have been quite serious at fishing for them, I like to use two jig rigging methods: a 1/64 oz to 1/4 oz round lead head with either half a night crawler or plastic grub fished with or without a float. If the fish are not too agressive, the float works well, especially with a smaller jig head fished 4-10' below the float and cast near cover or at the outside edge of the weeds close to shore. I use a 10' flyrod rigged with spinning guides and a taped on spinning reel with 4-6# mono. If fishing sans float, I am usually fishing deeper structure like drop offs and brush piles in 10-30 feet. Swimming a jig/grub combo as you might for bass is very effective this way.

Often times, when targeting bass I will encounter Rock Bass in the same zones. Usually, if I start catching Rock Bass, there is not much hope in catching any more bass in that area. They tend to hunt in packs and they are very agressive when they do and will move into an area and rush to strike a lure before a bass can get it. If I am really after bass, I usually move on to another area in this instance. When fishing for bluegill, crappie, and occasionally perch, the same thing will happen with a pack or Rockies coming in and pushing out the other fish. Depending on the bite, I often will stay with the Rock Bass until they stop biting and then resume my search for the other panfish later.

I recall the first time I encountered a Rock Bass while fishing at Lake St Clair back in the early 1980's. I was using a perch colored Shad Rap and had been catching the myriad 10 inch largemouth that live around the docks there. As it got close to dusk, I started getting very agressive hits on the crankbait and what I thought was a feisty 12 inch bass turned out to be a 5 inch Rock Bass instead. I was impressed with their fighting ability but soon got perterbed that I was not catching chunky little bass instead. I mentioned, jokingly, to my fishing partner, "hey, we should have a tournament to catch Rock Bass in this lake, there are so many of them." Well, in 1991 we did just that. We started the Red Eye Classic Rock Bass Tournament in May of 1991 and held the contest each year at St Clair in May or June until 1999. It was very fun. 2 man teams competing for top weight in a 5 fish per person limit of Rock Bass. We also had prizes for largest individual fish and smallest individual Rock Bass.(the competition for smallest Rock Bass got intense with 2 inch fish being brought in caught on the smallest of egg hooks and the smallest of worms for bait dangled in the densest brush one could find) Other categories for largest in each other species but we specificialy excluded Bass in order to keep the live release rule easy to manage. It was a lot of fun each year.

They are very interesting fish. Feisty, tasty, easy to catch but hard to find one over a pound. Well worth pursuing as an alternative to other panfish. For action, they cannot be beat. They school in large numbers and being so agressive, once you find them it is all action until conditions change and they move on. Particularly at dusk and dark with topwaters, they can be one of the sportingest panfish around.

Funny to see this thread, just as I head out the door to my local lake that is loaded with rock bass. You said you hadn't fished any King County lakes with rock bass.
I'm about to head out to Bitter lake in N. Seattle. The target is LMB, but I will do battle with the rock bass anytime too. They are plentiful in this lake. As you said, they are very fiesty. They really like a 2" curly tailed, watermelon colored grub when trolled very slow behind a float tube. When I target the LMB I fish bigger baits, but sometimes the rock bass will take on a 5" Senko too. I did eat a few last year one time, and I thought they tasted like crap, and they smelled up the kitchen like spoiled fish. Just my opinion though, and maybe that has to do with the body of water they came from.:batman:

American lake probably has some of the biggest rock bass ive ever seen. Ive caught them up to 10 inches and theyre so agressive ive caught them using power eggs while fishing for trout.

For sure American has some of the biggest I have caught too. Up to a pound. And, they are so numerous, you can catch them on practically anything you throw out in late Spring near the weed edge. I target Smallmouth there most of the time and I catch them on 9 inch worms, large plastic craws and jigs, crankbaits, topwaters, everything! They are the 2nd most populous fish in the lake with perch being number 1. That is part of the reason that the State decided to stock smallmouth there about 10 years ago.

As for your culinary experience with them, I am not sure why they did not taste good for you. Did you skin them?

rockjiggr wrote:As for your culinary experience with them, I am not sure why they did not taste good for you. Did you skin them?

I did not skin them, it was the only time I'd ever kept one. My quick method for pan frying fish is to just clean them, and then sprinkle a little of "Tony's" seasoning in the body cavity and pan fry the fish in butter or a little canola oil. For simple trout that works just fine. I recall that these fish tasted very muddy. they're a little hard to deal with in the kitchen like you said, due to there being so small.
(just returned from 2 hours of float tubing bitter lake for rock bass)-- as I said above, this is a red hot lake for these fish, but the water needs to come up about 10 degrees. We caught no rock bass, nor bites. Although my friend has started to pull some from the shore in the evening on the fly rod.

I used to gut, de-head, and scale panfish to pan fry too. Thats the way I was taught as a child and I do still enjoy a nice bluegill fry like that from time to time. However, I got tired of bones sticking in my throat so I learned to filet my catch. I filet everything- including trout. (sideline note- the WDFW recommends removing skins and fatty areas of freshwater fish, especially trout, because toxins concetrate in those areas of the fish)

When you remove the skin of a panfish, you remove much of the fishiness. Folks that I know who swear that they hate fresh fish but love fish and chips are amazed when I fix them bass filets rolled in seasoned corn meal and fried in a little oil. No skin, no fish odor or unpleasant fish taste.

I do agree, however, that fish taken from shallow warm lakes taste muddier than those caught in deep, clear, colder waters. That is why I like fishing American Lake and St Clair for panfish. The water is DEEP and usually cold compared to other shallow and weedy lakes around the area.

I recommend that you give the Rock Bass another try and filet and skin the fish before cooking. You may find that they are much more palatable than you thought before. Of course the downside of this method is that you end up with only a small portion of meat from a small fish. But, since they are plentiful, eagerly bite, and have no real competition for catching them, getting a good number of fish to make a meal should not be a problem.

Good luck!

I grew up trout fishing from the bank of Haller in N. Seattle with my grandpa, and when I got tired of watching trout rods waiting for one to swim off with out power bait, I would put a mini jig on a stick and pull rock bass out from the holes of the cedar tree roots. I always had a blast, and they fought great for only being a few inches big. I'd love to actually focus on catching this fish with a little more size on them. I love that this thread showed up again, It's bringing back some good childhood memories! haha

I've been itching to hit American lately too, maybe I can do a Kokanee/Rock Bass trip! haha

Kapowsin hands down has a pretty solid population. They are fun to catch and pretty tough fighting for their size. The family and I catch loads of them when were targeting perch and crappies.
Tapps also has a pretty impressive population of them.

Star lake is loaded with them.

Green Lake in Seattle has them. I wouldnt eat them though

I read this thread and it peaked my interest and curiosty? What is a rock bass? Is it a sculpin? I did not know there was such a creature. I learned something new today.

Heres some pics I found while doing a Bing search
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=roc ... =IGRE#x0y0
Also includes some bass guitars.
I have a few pics these had more.

There are all kinds of them in Tapps .My kid kills em in summer

Lake Washington has lots of them too. I have always caught Rock Bass close to rocky structure.
Gene Coulon along the walk way going towards Ivars, usually has a school of them.
Throw your lure really close to the wood dock structure and real in slowly. And, you will know when you have one on! Rock bass will hit very aggressively, which is what I love about them.
You will get the ocassionaly bass, perch and odd trout from Gene Coulon along that walkway as well.