aka google-eye, red eye

Couldn't get to the creek until 1:30 and would have to leave at 3:00 so that didn't leave a whole lot of time. Was 86, hot and sunny but decided to give it a shot and boy was I glad I did. After the first couple of casts I was rewarded with another nice little rock bass. A few minutes later had a nice Smallie almost to the shore when he shook loose on that final jump. From the looks of him, may have been my best from this creek. No time to be disappointed. In the remaining hour landed two very good fish with the last one at 15" even, probably my best so far. Not a bad hour and a half, although my day was already made when I caught that cool little rock bass.Attachment 431952Attachment 431953Attachment 431954Attachment 431955Attachment 431956Attachment 431957

Sweet! Thanks for sharing

Nice ! wish we had those down here .

Fiesty critters they are

I’d be happy with that too! Gotta love the smallies. Imagine if the rock bass grew as big as crappie. Thanks for sharing another good trip. If you bank and creek fish here you had better be ready for lots of mud and weeds and bugs big enough that they have numbers on their sides. Not a rock anywhere. You have it good up there.

I hear you about loosing a monster fish. Yesterday I lost a huge smallie just when I was going to beach it. I think it would have been a PB for me. I hooked it dead center in moving water maybe 2 ft deep in my local creek. When I set the hook NOTHING moved and the rod doubled over. I took off the anti reverse and at one point between the drag and the handle turning backwards I couldn’t keep up with the handle turning! It was beating my hand! Wow is all I can say. Up and down that run he went. I bowed to him and only gave him one jump! Heart attack. All equipment did their job but me. Lost the fight 1 1/2 feet from shore! I was using gamma 2 lb test, a bison TM, Kreh non slip mono knot. The reel was my Legalis, (really smooth on the drag) and a Leland TSS rod. I won’t forget that one. I missed a once in a season opportunity. That’s fishing!
Bob

smallies are the bomb , we have them in a few locations here , but I rarely try to ketch them .
nice job and KABOOM

Years ago, caught a rock bass that was over 12 inches long. Good job moonrunner, and thanks for sharing.

We have rock bass here. Kind of a nuisance. Fun to catch, and willing fighter but when you're looking for eating fish they just slow you down! Our smallmouth bass fishing can epic at times also.

back when I seemed to remember them hitting things as big as they were , used to ketch them over big rocks trolling baits back in the day , some was pretty chunky in that lake .

Rock bass are good tasting. Just as good as crappie and gills.

Got to disagree this time S10. For me yellow perch, bluegills, and crappie, in that order, with very little seperation. Rock bass is far from those 3 in flavor and more importantly perhaps, the texture is mushy/soft, especially in warm weather. Now, this is my experience in good, clear, quality water in Michigan since the 60's.