Rock Bass

[dc410]

I’m just curious, are any of you warmwater guys catching any Rock Bass anymore? Remember when we used to catch these by the dozen?

 

[Lhersh]

I’ve accidentally caught about 5 little ones in the Conestoga this year.

 

[jifigz]

They've mostly vanished from the Juniata watershed, but I usually catch about one a year; I haven't caught one this year, though.

 

[Swattie87]

A very rare bird on my common WW streams now. An occasional catch only, as in a handful caught a year. 20 years ago, they were probably the most commonly caught species in my haunts. They hit like a Smallie, then fight like wet socks, but I do miss them.

 

[TimMurphy]

A very rare bird on my common WW streams now. An occasional catch only, as in a handful caught a year. 20 years ago, they were probably the most commonly caught species in my haunts. They hit like a Smallie, then fight like wet socks, but I do miss them.

They used to be super common in the Susquehanna, like it was hard to fish a live minnow for smallmouth because a rock bass grabbed it as soon as it hit the water. But that was over 50 years ago, before Agnes. I'm not blaming it on Agnes, just timing things out.

In the late 1990's it wasn't hard to catch them in the Susquehanna in New York State. They used to hit Tiny Torpedoes and if you hooked one and stopped reeling the little slugs couldn't even pull the plug underwater. They hit a tonlike Swattie says but fighters they ain't. Nowadays I usually catch a few if I fish Shermans or the Swattie a couple of times, but I haven't seen one in Susquehanna or Juniata for many years.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂