I have caught those Cichlids in Mexico, where the locals called them Rio Grande "Perch" (of course).

We were fishing large crankbaits on medium equipment trying to entice large LMB out of the weed beds. Sometimes you would catch a cichlid on the trailing treble hook that would barely fit in their mouths. We also missed numerous "hits" on our lures that I assume were cichlids hitting the body of the lure but missing the hooks.

In my limited experience, they were pretty aggressive and good fighters. I think they would probably be a blast to catch on a fly rod or ultralight tackle.

I failed to ask if they were good eating. The large ones we caught were broad but a little skinny (kind of like a 12-13" crappie). However, I think we were fishing just after they spawned so both the males and females might have been at their annual low RW.