It's the year of the rock bass! They are strong fish!

My part time fishing buddy thinks that they should develop a hybrid rock bass that grows to like 15 or 16 inches. He says "There's no way you could ever reel one in." Too bad they stink so bad.

I used to run a tournament on St Clair each spring for Rock Bass. It was fun. Usually about 20 guys fishing for about 6 hours with live worms, jigs, spinners, small cranks. Our rules required release of all largemouth. We awarded prizes for the 2 man team with the top weight in 10 total Rock Bass, largest single Rock Bass, and smallest Rock Bass. We also gave a prize for the largest of all other species except largemouth. The smallest Rock Bass category always was quite a competition with guys dangling tiny maggots on the smallest fly hooks on skinny long rods stuck back into the brush along shore. Smallest was usually less than 2 inches in length. The biggest one ever caught in the tourney was just over 11 inches and weighed close to a full pound.

a lot of people get annoyed with rock bass but i love catching them! for their size they sure do fight ultra hard! i've been lucky enough to catch 3 near 12" with the biggest weighing in at 15 oz! if you target them on ultra light gear it is an absolute blast!