What kind of freshwater fish, in the Tampa area?

[Buford_Dawg]

My son recently moved down to Tampa with a new job and while visiting down there this weekend, I took a stroll around the hotel and apartment complex we were staying at. The ponds were full of good size fish, most about 1 to 2 pounds. I am very familiar with all freshwater fish here in north GA, but never seen this kind. They were chunky like a largemouth but their dorsal fin went almost all the way back to the tail of the fish. All their fins were big. They were colored like a largemouth for most part. And they were on bed, big clean bowls of sand all around the shores with one nice fish after another sitting in them.

 

[RedHills]

My son recently moved down to Tampa with a new job and while visiting down there this weekend, I took a stroll around the hotel and apartment complex we were staying at. The ponds were full of good size fish, most about 1 to 2 pounds. I am very familiar with all freshwater fish here in north GA, but never seen this kind. They were chunky like a largemouth but their dorsal fin went almost all the way back to the tail of the fish. All their fins were big. They were colored like a largemouth for most part. And they were on bed, big clean bowls of sand all around the shores with one nice fish after another sitting in them.

Tilapia

 

[ucfireman]

My thought too.

 

[jNick]

Yep tilapia

 

[Gator89]

With a dorsal fin nearly the entire length of its back, my first thought is a mudfish or bowfin to some folks.

 

[Gator89]

This is one type of tilapia

 

[Nicodemus]

This is one type of tilapia

The top fish in the pic looks like those in Lake Seminole. And they get big.

 

[Gator89]

The top fish in the pic looks like those in Lake Seminole. And they get big.

I think the bottom is the juvenile version of the top fish.

 

[Gator89]

But there is no telling what sort of illicitly imported fish is swimming in FL waters these days.

 

[GTMODawg]

Tilapia

And fun to catch and good eating when they are fresh....far better than Tilapia sold in restaurants and in fish markets unless it is VERY fresh. Often sold as Nile Perch or Nile Bream or just bream in fish markets in the south they are none of the above....just plain old Tilapia, and there are about a gazillion different kinds (I think the ones in Florida are Blue Tilapia).

When I was a kid I'd catch them by the bucket full just about every day in the summer and over winter break around Pinellas Park and Seminole (St Pete). Just about every canal and pond was lousy with them. When they are on bed...and they seem to be bedding all the time, thus the high numbers (big scooped out beds, easy to spot in black water, and loads of them when you find them), they'd hit anything that looked like a small fish that might eat their fry. Very aggressive, maybe even more so than warmouth. They are a blast on light tackle and I have caught them on a fly rod with a simple white clouser. If they aren't on bed I was told they were vegetarians or filter feeders and were hard to catch....not so in my experience as they'd eat a red wiggler as quick as a stunted blue gill. I have seen people catch so many in a cast net that they would have to have help bring them in. They used to sell them at all of the fish markets around St. Pete. They still sell them in fish markets in east Georgia and South Carolina and they are a staple restaurant item in that area....but those are generally frozen or not fresh so they aren't, in my opinion, as tasty as they are when you catch them in the morning and eat them that afternoon. Large, flaky chunks of very white meat. We weren't as sophisticated then as we are now so mama would fry them whole (cut their heads off, gut them, scale them and theyre ready) with some slits cut in them to get them done through. Just some corn meal, salt, pepper and some hot oil and they were delicous. They were big enough to filet....many of them were 3 pounds or more...but fileting fish back then was something only rich folks did LOL. The proletariats among us back then were of the opinion that if you caught a fish you ate all of it you could LOL....just stay away from the bones, and even a few of them won't hurt you if your lucky.

 

[GTMODawg]

But there is no telling what sort of illicitly imported fish is swimming in FL waters these days.

That is true. Lots of good eating, hard fighting, aggressive invasive species in central and south Florida. Most of them have no size limit or bag limit and they are almost universally good eating when fresh. Some don't freeze well in my experience but will do in a pinch. They gotta be hurting the native species though...so folks ought to go catch them and eat them by the boatloads. They are all VERY aggressive and easy to catch and most fight like demons on light tackle. Smaller ones are also very good bass, snook, tarpon and speck baits.

Apparently they are also becoming common in south Texas and Southern California. Tilapia mostly but other species as well.

 

[Buford_Dawg]

Thanks all, that is what it was, not as brightly colored as the picture provided, but definitely same look. I will take a rod the next trip down, we will be in St Pete in May vacationing. We have always vacationed on 30A, but that is changing to St Pete, Treasure Island, Indian Rocks area. I must say a very nice beach scene down there.

 

[Gator89]

Thanks all, that is what it was, not as brightly colored as the picture provided, but definitely same look. I will take a rod the next trip down, we will be in St Pete in May vacationing. We have always vacationed on 30A, but that is changing to St Pete, Treasure Island, Indian Rocks area. I must say a very nice beach scene down there.

If you go south a little more, Longboat & Siesta Keys are also very nice.

 

[RedHills]

But there is no telling what sort of illicitly imported fish is swimming in FL waters these days.

30 yrs or so ago..there were 2 commercial tilapia growers I knew about..each marketed the tilapia as a "cherry snapper". Both had ground pits dug and about a week before processing time, they pumped carbon dioxide thru an air aeration system. The fish turned from white to cherry one was on the north road into Port Manatee, almost to the old ferry dock...the other was east of Bradenton a few miles....come to think of it, it may have been carbon monoxide! Or some poisonous mess