Fish Mystery Solved

I pride myself in being an amatuer naturalist - especially when it comes to aquatic species. So, I was dumbfouded last week when I pulled this fish from a tidal creek on Kiawah Island (see post below). I had no idea what it was but it fought like a bluegill on steroids and put a serious bend in an 8wt. rod . . . not bad for a pound and a half fish (for size comparison, that's a #2 Cave's Wobbler in its mouth). All I could guess is that it was some kind of cichlid.

I looked online and in all my field guides and found no satisfactory answers. Thursday I stopped by Tailwaters fly shop in Dallas and mentioned the fish to the guys. They jumped on the quandary like men possessed and I had an answer via email by that afternoon . . . a Mozambique tilapia !