Eating Rock Bass???

[MrBlackIS300]

Just wondering if anyone has tried it. Went crappie fishing on Saturday and we couldn't find them, but we stumbled upon a killer rock bass spot. It produced very nice and thick fish with no black spot disease. Caught and released a dozen before moving on thinking we might still find the crappies. Now I'm thinking we should've bought a couple home to try.

[gabowman]

IMO, you aint missing much by not keeping 'em.:rolleyes: I know alot of people like 'em but they aint even in the same league with crappie to us.:o

[MrBlackIS300]

Lol... well I know its crappies first and everything second, third and so on.

[jiggshooter]

man down here in nc we catch them 2 and 3 lbs ive eaten them before and they are pretty good just a little bony they are first cousin to the walleye

[MrBlackIS300]

The ones we were catching were close to 1lb, but that's great size for up here.

[bfish]

They are edible for sure. Their big heads makes the meat ratio pretty small. On overnight float trips for smallmouth, we kept a few as bycatch for an evening fish fry.

[Crappie 1]

We keep them & eat them, usually with bluegills. Have eaten them all my life, seem to be ok to me,maybe the water is colder here in the North....

[kycreek]

I've caught'em while bluegill fishing; cleaned & cooked them all together and never knew the difference. Lots of fun to catch too.

[CrappiePappy]

Question is ..... WHICH "rock bass" are we talking about ?? Doh

There's the real thing .... then there's a Warmouth, that some mistakenly call a "rock bass" (& vice versa) ... then there's a Hybrid/Striper, that some call a "rockfish" or "rock bass".

OK, OK !! Rofl .... let's just throw out the Hybrid Striper & Striped Bass reference ... and concentrate on the Rock Bass vs Warmouth identity. Being as MrBlack is in MN, he's probably talking about the real Rock Bass (Ambloplites rupestris, Ambloplites constellatus). And while I know they're present in KY waters, I've yet to catch one (or ID it as one), while I have caught plenty of Warmouth (& some good ones, too Thumbs Up close to 1lb). I've eaten them, too ! Even raised one in a 38gal aquarium for around 4yrs. They all were easily ID'd because of the fluoresent blue "war paint" stripes on their faces/jaws. As I understand it, Rock Bass do not have this kind of flashy coloration ... and are mostly mottled brown/black in coloration.

If memory serves me, the Warmouth I ate tasted more like a young/small Bass, than a Bluegill or Crappie. For those of you that eat Rock Bass .... where would you group the taste/flavor of them, versus other fish species ??

... cp

[Crappie 1]

Well, we catch Rock Bass-some call them Red Eyes, We also have the warmouth bass, with the blue trim. The two of these fish taste different to me. The warmauth taste like a blugill to me, but the Rock Bass is more flavored like a Bass. This is just according to my taste. If You put the Bluegills Roch Bass warmouth all together and fry them up I doubt I could tell one from the other.