Panfish · sunfish family
Rock bass
Ambloplites rupestris · also called goggle-eye, red-eye
- Typical adult
- 7–10 in, under a pound
- Spot it by
- Red eyes and six spines in the anal fin
- Matures
- At about 3 years
- Favors
- Clear, rocky water around boulders and roots
- Indiana record
- 3 lb — Sugar Creek, Hancock County, 1969
Where rock bass have been recorded
19 of the 111 Indiana lakes on this site with fish records list rock bass, across 7 counties. Tap a dot to open that lake’s depth map.
Recorded here Other lakes with fish records
How we know
- 19lakes where a DNR fisheries survey caught them
A lake can appear in more than one line. A lake that isn’t listed may still have them: records exist only where someone caught, netted or stocked them.
Inland lakes on this list run from 26 to 3,508 acres (median 247) and from 21 to 90 ft deep (median 55 ft).
How many turn up in DNR surveys
Indiana DNR crews survey lakes the same way everywhere: timed night electrofishing along the shore, plus gill and trap nets set overnight. The standard method makes lakes comparable. These are the DNR’s own sampling rates from its community surveys, 2008–2025 — a measure of how many fish a lake holds, not how many an angler will catch.
- Found in
- 17 of 105 lakes surveyed this way
- Typical rate
- 4.0 per hour where found
- Highest
- 42 per hour
- Method
- fish per hour of night electrofishing
“Typical” is the median across the lakes where the survey caught at least one. Nets and electrofishing catch different fish: by the other method it turned up in 13 lakes at a typical 1.0 per net lift. A single survey is a snapshot of one season.
Highest survey rates on this site
- Pretty Lake, LaGrange 2018 42
- Lake Maxinkuckee, Marshall 2020 24
- Olin Lake, LaGrange 2021 16
- Eve Lake, LaGrange 2016 14
- Oliver Lake, LaGrange 2019 10
- Lake Manitou, Fulton 2017–2021 7.7
- Dewart Lake, Kosciusko 2018–2020 6.0
- Wall Lake, LaGrange 2017 6.0
- Big Chapman Lake, Kosciusko 2021 4.0
- James Lake, Kosciusko 2021 4.0
Fish per hour of night electrofishing, with survey years. Survey effort and season differ between lakes.
Often found with
Share of these lakes that also list each fish.
How to recognize it
A large mouth, red eyes, a dark teardrop under the eye, black-edged fins and six anal spines. It can switch quickly from pale silver with rows of spots to dark and blotchy.
Don’t confuse it with
Life in an Indiana lake
Rock bass prefer clear streams and rivers with rocky bottoms, hiding near boulders, rock piles, roots and steep drop-offs. They eat mostly aquatic insects, and larger ones take crayfish and small fish.
Males build nests over gravel, often beside a boulder, and fan the eggs until they hatch in 3–4 days.
Source: the sources below.
Rules and eating
Check the rules before you keep fish. Each lake page shows the regulations that apply there, and the Indiana Fishing Guide is the official source. Before eating fish from a particular lake, check the Indiana Fish Consumption Advisory.
All 19 lakes with rock bass
Show every lake, by county
Fulton County 1
Kosciusko County 5
Big Chapman Lake, Dewart Lake, James Lake, Lake Wawasee, Pike Lake
LaGrange County 9
Cass Lake, Cedar Lake, Eve Lake, Martin Lake, Messick Lake, Olin Lake, Oliver Lake, Pretty Lake, Wall Lake
Marshall County 1
Perry County 1
Steuben County 1
Whitley County 1
Sources
- Indiana DNR: Fishes of Indiana list (native and introduced species)
- Ohio DNR: Rock bass
- Indiana DNR fish surveys (Indiana Data Hub) — lake records and survey catch rates
- Indiana DNR record fish list (angler names are not reproduced here)