Can you eat Rock bass, the lesser of all bass??

[Bass-mania]

Can you eat Rock bass, are they good for something after all? :D

[c_diesel2]

Sure...you can eat carp, suckers and sheepshead also...but i sure wouldnt.......

[Cephkiller]

Yep.  they taste almost exactly like a bluegill.  I had some as recently as last year.

[bassnleo]

I'm gonna have to start keepin some of the slab rockies that we have been catching on Lake Erie........

[Jig Man]

We have them here in MO, mainly in streams.  We call them goggle eye.  They are small but quite tasty.

[Bassassasin12]

what is up with those things. My favorite pond is loaded with them. They will hit just about anything but they tend to love worms longer than they are! ;D

[XcoM274]

I'm quite sure you can eat just about any freshwater gamefish, carp included. But my desire would be low. Rock bass happens to be really good by my experience  

[burleytog]

I've eaten many a redeye in my day.

[Garnet]

Rock Bass are great eating. Carb you hold them in a tank and keep changing the water until it stays clean.

Garnet

[Guest avid]

I ate a rock bass once.

Broke two teeth.

[NBR]

My fishing buddy's father preferred them over everything else!

[Red]

my parents would eat them all the time if i caught them back in NY, but i have also heard that they got a bad rap from being full of worms, but i never saw any while cleaning them

[Dan:]

I've never actually tried to eat them because I heard they were bony. After hearing some of the other comments, it seems that might be incorrect.

[jdw174]

Absolutely great eating.  If you like bluegill, perch, crappie, you'll like the ol' goggle-eye.

[DR_Bass]

I ate a rock bass once.

Broke two teeth.

Someone is always going to crack a joke...   ;D

[flyphisher #]

some of the same folks that bash anyone that says anything about eating a largemouth, talk about how tasty redeyes and rocks bass are???????? : : whats up with thatt???? Do you also eat wild trout???? Last time I checked LMB and SMB are stocked by the state..Nice logic...redeyes and their relatives are not..On the brink of endangerment in some places... Redeyes, Piedmonts,and Suwanees, the only native fish in alot of places... Had some of the best days ever with a flyrod catching piedmonts and redeyes....

[fourbizz]

"brink of endangerment"  kind of a curious concept, when you think about it...

Not trying to discredit your argument though, I just thought that was funny.

I will eat spotted bass at every opportunity. They are choking lakes and stunting real bad in my area. VERY TASTY!!!

[Rob G.]

Rockbass or Warmouth are excellent table fare as are all of the sunfish including LMB, SMB, and Spots.  Do not get me wrong, I do not kill many bass, but once in a long while dinner is on.

[Cephkiller]

some of the same folks that bash anyone that says anything about eating a largemouth, talk about how tasty redeyes and rocks bass are???????? : : whats up with thatt???? Do you also eat wild trout???? Last time I checked LMB and SMB are stocked by the state..Nice logic...redeyes and their relatives are not..On the brink of endangerment in some places... Redeyes, Piedmonts,and Suwanees, the only native fish in alot of places... Had some of the best days ever with a flyrod catching piedmonts and redeyes....

Come on down to my neck of the woods and you can take all you want. We have plenty and the ones that are left will make plenty more. Also, I only fish man-made lakes (mostly strip pits) so someone has to be stocking them.

P.S.

When questioning others' logic, don't bring a pen-knife to a gunfight

[flyphisher #]

Brink of endangerment= I meant threatened, just couldnt think of the proper term when i was typeing.....

I am refering to public water, really unless you fish private stretches of rivers.....

Shoal Bass,piedmonts,suwanee bass and Redeye  are only native to certain drainages and dont live in ponds. Warmouth and rock bass are totally different fish, as are spots. In some of the rivers here, the spots are coming out of the lakes and breeding and out-competeing the native fish that live in the rivers, same as is happening/has happened  with the smallmouth in other lakes in the south and where the spots cant live, we have people introducing flathead and blue catfish that are even wiping out bream populations in some river systems.

Yet largemouth and alot of places smallmouth are stocked and managed by DNR/FWD and its not ok to eat them, yet its ok to eat native bass species, is the logic i am asking about??? pen knife to a knife fight???? WTH???

[Cephkiller]

pen knife to a knife fight???? WTH???

Thank you for making my point ever so much more eloquently than I could have ever hoped.  Since you have self-administered the coup de grâce, I am finished.

[flyphisher #]

Whatever...... Dont know what you are going for, but if it makes you happy. :

[roadwarrior]

** Moderator Note **

C'mon guys...Let's lighten up or just move on to another topic. Jeez...

-Kent a.k.a. roadwarrior

Global Moderator

[Guest Bountiful_Waters]

Back to the subject.....Rock Bass are good eating, and fun to catch. They have saved the day for many a young fisherman. They do over-populate quickly, not sure why.  

[Guest btlva]

Flyphisher, rock bass are not really a bass per se. They are a panfish. These guys aren't talking about eating actual redeye bass here. Redeye is just another name for them, like goggle eye. Rock Bass spawn prolifically and are considered a nuisance in many lakes. Think of them as a cross between a smallmouth and a bluegill.

Rock bass are great eating. I just spent a week in Minnesota and ate dozens of them like I do every year. They're easy to catch too. They bite everything from 1/64th oz jigs to 1/2oz spinnerbaits. They do often have worms. You know those little black "balls" that are sometimes all over their fins and skin? Those are worms. They aren't dangerous and don't affect the flavor of the fish in any way. Tight lines