The Roanoke Bass will chase down pretty much anything that lives on or lands on the surface of a river. They will eat insects, worms, leeches, crayfish, fathead minnows, golden shinners and gizzard shad.

Features

The Roanoke Bass has a compressed, stocky body with a large, terminal mouth, dark-edged anal fin and almost no cheek scales. It has a rounded pectoral fin, heart-shaped tail fin, large, red eye and a dark brown or olive body.

The Roanoke Bass is characteristic of most members of the sunfish family (Centrarchidae), having the same all around shape and form, with the exception of the smallmouth bass and the largemouth bass, which are more elongated. But those fish aside, the one thing all sunfish have in common is that they are very well designed for ambushing their prey, lunging at them from a standing position to the attack point and able to turn rapidly much like a sports car can around a turn.

The Rock Bass

The Roanoke Bass resembles the rock bass and many people make the mistake of confusing the two despite having a different colouring. The Ranoke Bass has a dark, olivegreen to olivebrown back, fading to grayish sides and white belly. It has a smaller set of scale spots than the rock bass and lighter small whitish or yellowish spots on its upper body. The Roanoke Bass has a slightly concave outline over the eyes. Checks scaleless or nearly so.

The Roanoke Bass is one of the most rare bass in North America along with the redeye bass. Due to it’s size, few anglers chase after it and there is no one is interested to transplanting the fish to other waterways. With reduced populations, the Roanoke bass is threatened.

Size

The record Roanoke bass caught was one pound, five ounces and a total length of 14.5 inches/37 cm long. Even the rock bass grows larger than the Roanoke bass. A member of the sunfish family, the Roanoke is a tiny fish sought after by children and the odd cat.

Food Preferences

The Roanoke Bass will chase down pretty much anything that lives on or lands on the surface of a river. They will eat insects, worms, leeches, crayfish, fathead minnows, golden shinners and gizzard shad.