Nope, it 's not a cross between a rainbow trout and a bass, no, it 's not a peacock bass, it 's a fish native to Mexico 's tropical south and Central America, they are very colorful predatory cichlids with the head of a LMB and the body of a tilapia, called "guapotas" or "tenguayacas" by the locals.

I 've caught them in Chiapas, good fighters, always hungry and cooperative, very fun to catch on 8 lb test and a medium light rod. Obviously the one in the pic is a true trophy, normally they weight between 2-3 pounds.

Pretty cool!

Do you actually fish for them or just occasionally catch them when you are bass fishing? Are they isolated or do you find them schooling? That's a nice fish, but how big can they get?

nice fish sound fun to catch

I have only fished for them twice, a friend of mine worked in an alligator and crocodile repopulation program in Chiapas at "El Canón del Sumidero" in the Rio Grijalva RW, I dropped by to say Hi ! and he took me on a fishing trip and fish for those "exotics", they form schools like panfish, find a school and you 're in business ;D, he told me he has seen them as large as 6 pounds; there 's another fish there called "macabil" ( or "machaca" ), it 's a native characin that can grow up to 4 pounds, something like giant shiner but the thing has teeth like a piranha.

Macabil

"El Cañon del Sumidero"

Beautiful place, the only things I didn 't like were the gators and crocs and those dang mosquitoes !, it 's great place for sight seeing navigating on the river, bank fishing is certainly not recommendable, there are crocs, gators and it 's Fer de Lance territory.