Looking to get on some of the copper sunfish. Have never caught decent ones in Wisconsin and would like to target lakes w good populations. Feel free to post or message.
Rock bass are fun to catch and their aggressive nature makes it even better. If they target crayfish they taste pretty good to. My goto baits are jigs and minnows
Just for clarification panfish just a slang name for "sunfish" i.e. Centrarchidae family which includes the "Black" bass. Yes largemouth and smallmouth are indeed Sunfish :-)
So a rock bass is just as much a bass as a large or smallmouth is.
I would not typically consider a rock bass a panfish as they can get pretty large and have a big mouth and are generally much more aggressive than others in the family like bluegills and crappies.
Rock bass are actually great eating as long as they don't have worms and even then are fine as long as that does not gross you out hahaha if you hold the fillets up to a light you can see the worm and cut them out.
Lake Geneva in Walworth county has tons of them.
We caught a lot of Rock Bass at Long Lake, WI in Washburn County this summer. They hit almost anything you throw. We caught them trolling for Walleye, fishing for LM Bass and slip bobbering Berkely Honey Worms for Bluegills. Fun to catch. But their scales are big and super hard, which is harder on the filet knife. Just have to resharpen more often.
Sorry this won't help much but, I cleaned a bunch of rock bass last week from a lake in Minnesota.. I agree with the previous poster about his comparing them to crappie; I think they are firmer fleshed and tastier too. One thing I noticed is the numbers of crayfish they had inside them. One had a three inch perch in his gut. They hit the plugs I was dragging for walleye, and competed for the leeches I was catching some nice bluegills on. They all fought like mad and made the trip fun. Rock bass are panfish, not bass. There were some threads about rockies in the Panfish section.
What part of the state are you targeting? I agree with Geneva being the best in the south. I’d say I’ve probably seen the most in Little Butte des Mortes in the Fox Valley. Numerous lakes in the north have good populations.
I think the table quality is excellent. Better than crappie in my opinion, with a sweeter/firmer texture.
