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This Is A Fish Not Talked Alot About Around My Area, I Myself Have Only Ever Caught Maybe A Dozen In My Life Time. I Only Know Of A Couple Lakes That Have Them In For Sure But There Are Im Sure More, What Are A Few Ways Of Targeting Them Or Are They Just A Fish That Like To Hang With The Sunfish For That Is When I Have Caught Mine.???

Thay Like To Hang With The Sunfish

When I was a kid I caught rock bass off and on when I was fishing for gills. Some of the old timers then called them "war-mouth bass" and I never questioned that. I cleaned them along with the sunfish and gills and never though too much about it. Like the difference between a sucker and a redhorse. Never made much difference. I suppose there might be technicial differances but in the small town I grew up in nobody seemed to care.

That was when the keys were always left in the car and the house was never locked. During summer school vacation I could wander from daylight to dark just exploring or fishing. My parents did not seem to care. Everyone was friendly and honest and a handshake was a contract.

Warmouth, Rock Bass, and Goggle Eye are the three names they go by in these parts. It just depends on which fella' your talkin' to. Mike, I'm not really surprised that you don't have more of them in your area. They are a fish that thrives in warmer water. That's why I use them mostly for bait. It's really hard to kill one of those feisty little guys when you put him on a hook. They will live over night on a set. The only way I've killed them was in strong current. They live about 5 times longer on a hook than any other sunfish will. The reason I use them for bait rather than eat them, Is that since they usually come from warmer water the meat is mushy. Up there where you live with the colder water they maybe better eating than the ones we have here.

They aren't known as Rock Bass for nothing. The best method I have for catching them is to use an ice jig tipped with some small piece of bait, usually wax worms. And fish them in the rocks right up next to the bank starting in 6 inches of water or so. Yeah, they are that shallow. The bigger ones will usually be just a little farther out off the bank in the bigger pieces of structure but usually not more than just a couple of feet deep. I can catch enough to run bank poles all night, which takes about 50 of them; in about 10 to 15 minutes. Depending on how many times I have to stop and rebait my hook.

The Flathead in my Avatar was caught on a half pound Rock Bass....

o.k. this is the best photo that i have found, is there any real color to them i always thought that they had more color.

They're kind of a brown bodied fish, the bellies are a little lighter. The eyes bulge out some and have a red ring around the pupil. And there are several blue lines that run from the corners of the mouth back to the eyes and gill plates.

Here in Indiana the rockbass usually has a lighter colored body (like redear sunfish) white almost.Mainly found in rivers and creeksl
The warmouth is darker (like a cross between a bass and a bluegill)
I have caught warmouths up to 2lbs from stripperpits. found in lakes and ponds
I fish a small piece of night crawler dangling from a small hook about a foot under a small red and white round bobber and no weight at all. Cast to the shore and drag out to deeper water. they can't resist it. If they are present they hit quick.

Red Eye main detail of rockbass! I have a good pic of one I'll post later. They hang in river and of course around rocks around here. Anywhere you get smallies in the river there are alot more rockbass!!!! They'll bite just about anything including live bait and white roostertails also willl get em!

ok here we go-
fun to catch the little fighters!

ok here we go-
fun to catch the little fighters! No we werent night
heres the area we were fishin (check background)

Man Them Are Dandy Fish, I Need To Do Some Research For My Area And See What I Can Come Up With For Lakes And Rivers That Have Them In Here Thanks For Sharing Buddy.

We call them bait snatchers around here...