You guys dissing rockfish don't know what you're talking about.

Tie a rockfish tail to tail with an equal size smallmouth bass and the rockfish will definitely pull the smallmouth right back into his hidey hole. Among freshwater spiny ray fishers smallmouth are generally regarded as the tops in fight quality, but I'd say rockfish fight better.

Nobody fishes rockfish with size appropriate tackle, thus they get a bum rap as fighters.
Try fishing them with appropriate light tackle and then tell me they don't fight. They don't make spectacular runs like coho or chinook, but they'll pull your string.