Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Guadalupe Bass

I made a run to the Hill Country this week, and caught #1 on my fish wish list. Guadalupe bass are the TX state fish, and unique to several Texas rivers south of Austin. The World/State record is around 3.5#, and Guads that size are extremely rare. Most are around 12" long. As late as 30 years ago, this fish was almost extinct due to smallmouth bass being added to these same rivers. Luckily, TPWD reversed course, and restocked over 2 million 100% Guadalupe bass fingerlings. My guide and I were in a raft when the pics were taken, so depth of perception is a little off, but the identification features are really nice. I caught all the fish on yellow poppers, and a 6 wt fly rod. River fish seem to fight more, but Guadalupe's can hold their own with the best of them.

Identifying features are:

Upper body stripes are more vertically oriented, and easily seen on mature fish.
Horizontal lines that run down the lower white part of the fishes belly.
Mouth is in front of the eyes when shut.
There are 2 "teeth" on the back of the tongue.

Mature Guad, and I'm guessing it was around 1# to 18oz.


Immature Guad whose colors haven't come in yet. Maybe 10oz.


Smallmouth/Guadalupe hybrid. Belly lines are not solid, and the vague lateral spots are almost order-less. It's hard to see, but Smallmouth/Guadalupe hybrids only have one tooth. It's in the center of the tongue, right behind the red patch.

Attached Images

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H. cyanoguttatus Is the rio grande cichlid this is the Texas native.

A lot of the fish keepers and pet shops sell the H. Carpintis as the Texas cichlid but these are two separate species.

The H. cyanoguttatus Has a better cold tolerance then the Carpintis. Both are beautiful fish that do well in ponds.