texas blue cichlid

[John C Watson]

Caught a Texas blue cichlid while fishing in the New Orleans City Park.  My wife, buddy and I went to try out the lagoons at City Park today.  I was told that since that area was flooded during Katrina that all the fish were liberated from the lagoons.  Well there are a large number of small bream, bass and to my amazement some cichlids.  I was using a 8 or 9 ft telescoping jig pole that is a three section.  I had it set up like a Tenkara rod with a furled leader and 4lb tip.  I had a had tied fly I call a spike after the small spikes you can buy for feeding fish or reptiles. It is tied on a number 14 hook. 

I was casting along the edge of a beautiful lagoon near a pavilion and catching some mighty small bream when I tossed under a small willow and bam, the Texas blue hit.  Nice fight, wished there had been more of them but he was the only one there.  We did some others in pre-spawn mode and they wouldn't take a fly from us.  Took a few pictures of the Blue and let him go to make more for later.

John

[Keith Owen]

Cool fish! They are also called Rio Grande Perch (even though they are found in places other than the Rio Grande and are not even closely related to perch).

I have a "Bucket List" of fish. These guys are in the top five.

[Chris Stewart]

Sweet! Some day you owe it to yourself to try a real tenkara rod, though.

[John C Watson]

Don't know how much I like not having the ability to reach out to distant places. The Tenkara has it's limitations. I switched to my fly rod after a while and was able to reach a cruising gar that I wouldn't have been able to with the Tenkara. Got the gar to follow my fly and take it but didn't get a hook-up, was fun though.

[Zach Pierce]

I wonder if these would make it in a pond in Oklahoma?

[John C Watson]

I read up on these and they said they can't stand water temps below 48 degrees. I am guessing Oklahoma gets some colder water temps than that.

John

[Xeev Xwm Vang]

I raise these. We call these hericthys cyna. I currently have the carpintis escondido type. Very beautiful fish.

[John C Watson]

Going after some more tomorrow morning. Local pet shop put in an order for a few for his store. We'll see how successful my crew and I can be.

John

Caught this little red belly on one of my bead flies on Tuesday

[jacob wilson]

hey i dont know if u have ever heard of west end but they use to or still have a pond there with those in it i remember these when i was little cause my dad caught one and got in the paper

[John Sheehan]

That's a very cool looking fish!!!

[John C Watson]

Went back today and caught about a dozen more Texas Blues, well momma caught the most using wax worms. Tried every fly I had and they wouldn't touch them.

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h127/jwatson34076/P1040664.jpg

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h127/jwatson34076/P1040608.jpg

[Zach Pierce]

So how do they fight and can you eat them?

[John C Watson]

They fight just like a big bluegill. I am told you can eat them but haven't tried yet. The ones we caught today went to a friend who has a pet shop. I wouldn't mind trying them though. They are local to south Texas and I would imagine that they eat them.

John