Is this a Largemouth Bass?

[Pkfish49]

I thought it was at first, but the shape and coloring is different than most of the Bass in the lake that I caught it in, and the dorsal and tail fins are much larger than I normally encounter with Largemouth bass.  It came in at 1.36 pounds, in case this helps with the ID.

 

Thanks.

[Deleted account]

Nope. We are headed down there in March to target exotics.

[Scott F]

It’s a tilapia

[MN Fisher]

^ What Scott said.

[Pkfish49]

Wow!  I caught a Florida Blue Tilapia.  How the heck did that get in my lake?

[ironbjorn]

1 hour ago, Pkfish49 said:

Wow!  I caught a Florida Blue Tilapia.  How the heck did that get in my lake?

Well if it isn't supposed to be in there, somebody transported it and released it.

[Aaron_H]

1 hour ago, Pkfish49 said:

Wow!  I caught a Florida Blue Tilapia.  How the heck did that get in my lake?

 

They're everywhere down here. Good fight when they're aggressive enough to strike a lure, though. This past December I got a 7lb 13oz and an 8lb 10oz on a lipless crank, talk about ripping drag.... Hard to target with artificials most of the year but when they start spawning they get very fired up. I've caught them on plastics, crankbaits, even a chatterbait last spring....

[Pkfish49]

It was a fun catch.  I got bored using plastic worms and decided to switch to the Cotton Cordell Wally Diver you see in the pic.  As long as a lake isn't weedy, I have great success with that crankbait.

 

It wasn't a huge fight, but a lot more than the thin Largemouth bass I had been catching all day.  The weird thing was that when I pulled it out the water, it was starting to fold, as if it were experiencing rigor mortis.

[bulldog1935]

There was an Egypt rush in the 1920s - driven by King Tut mania - many warm states stocked tilapia - the lower San Antonio and Guadalupe rivers are inundated with them (also plecostomus sucker catfish) from initial stocking at the San Antonio zoo.  

Florida also has widespread feral tropical imports from aquarium-supply breeding ponds.  

 

Texas has a native cichlid, which is a beauty, but has become a stunted plague where introduced in most Gulf coast states.  

[Guitarfish]

Bulldog, you forgot to mention the pythons.