Fish ID Please - Silver Perch / Bass????

[OverNover]

Hi All,

Took the kids to a local park yesterday afternoon to ride their scooters and get them out of their Mum's hair for a while!!! Thought I'd go down to the edge of the lake for a squiz, was amazed to see masses of small fish varying from 10cm up to mid 20cm buzzing around my feet, had no bread or anything so through a handful of grass into the mix and it erupted!!! Managed to catch one of the little tackers in a freezer bag of all things, gives you an idea of how thick they were. I've heard reports of Silver Perch being caught in there and actually saw one caught a little while back. However after searching the web, this little fella doesn't seem to match the photos of juvenile Silvers, it's not a Tilapia either (Thand God), I'm hoping it's a Bass???

Any help would be appreciated, Cheers, Jamie.

[FNQCairns]

Little native spangled perch?, been a long time since I last saw one.

cheers fnq

[Mike Delisser]

Yeh a Spangled Perch alright.
Prob our most wide spread native fish (that's over a few inches). Common in dams, lakes, creeks, they even live in some bore drains. Great fun for kids to catch as they're ferocious feeders and love pieces of peeled prawn or garden worm susspended under a float, will readily take small lures as well. They don't taste too bad either but 3" to 6" is about the ave size so not many people would bother. Also there's no legal size or bag limit. The map showes the range of Spangled Perch
Cheers
http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/3296/spangledperchdist1.gif (http://img687.imageshack.us/i/spangledperchdist1.gif/)

[OverNover]

Thanx FNQ and Mike, I never would have guessed. Just came back from giving them a go with the kids, they had an absolute ball catching the little tackers on bread under a float and my boy managed one on a tiny Atomic soft plastic. I got two on the one little Atomic K9 Pup stick bait!!!! They sure are aggressive, will post a couple of photos as soon as my phone charges, thanx for the help guys. Cheers, Jamie.

[King_Kong]

I caught quite a few of them up at Cania, on poppers, I though there was bass and togas attacking my lures in the shallows but it was a heap of those Spangles, adds a bit of variety to trip. Mick

[gr hilly]

i caught some yrs ago and now i know what they were whata great site tis real is thanksfellas for the info
tight lines hilly

[OverNover]

Photos as promised, anyone know how they go as an aquarium fish???? Cheers, Jamie.

[aussiebasser]

http://www.sweetwaterfishing.com.au/species.htm

They'll eat everything else and they tend to jump out of tanks and they don't live long on carpet.

[budgebass]

Go the Spangled Perch - best fish for teaching kids to fish by far.

In some quarters known as freshwater "whiting".

Just a couple of years ago prior to "banded grunter" invasion - Wivenhoe and Somerset had a couple of spots which would regularly produce 28-30cm models which were fantastic on the plate. Unfortunately those days are gone.

They love Rapala CD3s and tiny Celtas.

In an aquarium they are good but will only tolerate their own company once they reach a certain size pending on the size of the tank.
Just make sure they cannot jump out.

Biggest spangled to date - 33cm - Weight 925gms - absolute monster caught in local creek.

Cheers
Budgebass

[fishel]

Biggest spangled to date - 33cm - Weight 925gms - absolute monster caught in local creek

Wow. That's huge for a spangly. I thought they only grew to about 20 cm.