JPA Repository findByEnum does not cast the Argument Enum to String or Postgres Cast not working as expected - postgresql

Question

I have a Spring Boot (2.5.4) backend pointing to a Postgres (9.6) database. I have an entity in Spring that makes use of the #Enumerated(EnumType.String) annotation on a field of an Enum type. Persisting this entity works as expected and converts the Enum into a String. In Postgres, I have the respective enum casted to character varying. Things are working to this point except invoking a custom findBy "Enum" method in the JPA Repository interface. Now in Spring and Postgres I have defined the following:
Enum:
public enum EnumExampleType {
TYPE1, TYPE2
}
Entity:
#Entity
#Table(name = "enumexampletable")
#Data
#NoArgsConstructor
public class EnumExampleTable {
#Id #GeneratedValue(strategy=GenerationType.IDENTITY)
#Column(name = "enum_example_table_id", columnDefinition="serial primary key")
private int enumExampleTableId;
#Column(unique = true, name="enum_example_type")
#Enumerated(EnumType.STRING)
public EnumExampleType enumExampleType;
}
Repo:
public interface EnumExampleTableRepo extends JpaRepository<EnumExampleTable, Integer> {
EnumExampleTable findByEnumExampleType(EnumExampleType enumExampleType);
}
Working Code as Expected
EnumExampleTable ex1 = new EnumExampleTable();
EnumExampleTable ex2 = new EnumExampleTable();
ex1.setEnumExampleType(EnumExampleType.TYPE1);
ex2.setEnumExampleType(EnumExampleType.TYPE2);
enumExampleTableRepo.save(ex1);
enumExampleTableRepo.save(ex2);
RestController: (to invoke) (not working)
#Autowired
EnumExampleTableRepo enumExampleTableRepo;
#GetMapping("/findByTest")
public EnumExampleTable enumTest() {
return enumExampleTableRepo.findByEnumExampleType(EnumExampleType.TYPE1);
}
When calling this code the following error is received:
Blockquote org.postgresql.util.PSQLException: ERROR: operator does not exist: enumexampletype = character varying
Hint: No operator matches the given name and argument type(s). You might need to add explicit type casts.
Postgres Database:
drop table if exists enumexampletable;
drop type if exists enumexampletype cascade;
drop cast if exists (character varying as enumexampletype);
create type enumexampletype as enum('TYPE1', 'TYPE2');
CREATE CAST (character varying as enumexampletype) with inout as implicit;
create table enumexampletable (
enum_example_table_id serial primary key,
enum_example_type enumexampletype
);
This suggests to me that either:
A: The findByEnumExampleType method does not convert the enum to a string
B: Postgres does not invoke this cast in this particular call
Also to Note: (A hard coded native query will function properly, but this is not the dynamic functionality I need)
#Query(value="select * from enumexampletable e where e.emum_example_type = 'TYPE1'", nativeQuery=true)
EnumExampleTable testNQ();
Thoughts or suggestions?