Catching tilapia - 09/19/05 01:50 PM
It’s coming up on the time when your tilapia are reaching a nice catchable size and nearing extinction so I thought I would share my experience with them.
On March 8 I stocked 100 1 ½” to 1 ¾” tilapia advertised as 99% male. I caught 3 of these original fish yesterday, the largest of which was 2 lbs and 12 ¾”.
I fed them pellets that were 30 to 32 % protein until 3 weeks ago when I switched to 15%. I also have feed them all types of vegetables and many types of fruit, they will also eat bread and crickets. All feeding was done by hand, once a day, late afternoon. They share the pond with an equal number of pacu which eat more aggressively than they do. There are no predators, except birds and snakes, both two and no legged.
My water temps are in the high 80s and will probably be there year round.
The fish usually remain out of sight during the day, coming out between 3 and 4 and hanging around until 6 or 6:30, I feed near 5. During this time they are very catachable with bait that floats. If I let the feeding time go past 5 they start circling the pond and are catchable anywhere on the surface if they can’t see me. I can cast to a swirl or to the fish and will get a strike. Generally speaking if I can see them I can catch them. They are probably conditioned to food hitting the water. I started with the hook tied to a braided line, but they soon associated bad things with the line. I now use mono. I use a light wire hook and no weight other than the bait. The strike is a gentle slow pulling, I see the bait disappear, take up the slack until I feel the resistance then use a medium steady pull to set the hook. I use bite size bait, allowing the fish to take the baited hook entirely into it’s mouth, making setting the hook simple.
Unlike the pacu, I can catch tilapia repeatedly from the same area. Yesterday I caught 15 in an hour from within a 10’ radius.
They are also catchable on the bottom, I use a sliding sinker and the same method as above for setting the hook. I run about 15 minutes between bites, so I get distracted and often miss setting the hook. I have used a bobber, but the fish seem to like the bobber as much as the bait and push it around like a soccer ball.
I think the fish first take the bait with the intent of getting it away from the other fish and plan on eating it later. I have never had a tilapia swallow a hook and I have had them move the bait 15 or 20 feet from the spot of the cast.
Based on my experience so far, I would say that the key is surface feeding with veggies conditioning the fish to readily take a floating bait. I have caught tilapia in ponds where they are not fed and the process is very different.
Now, I would really like to see the catching experiences of others.
On March 8 I stocked 100 1 ½” to 1 ¾” tilapia advertised as 99% male. I caught 3 of these original fish yesterday, the largest of which was 2 lbs and 12 ¾”.
I fed them pellets that were 30 to 32 % protein until 3 weeks ago when I switched to 15%. I also have feed them all types of vegetables and many types of fruit, they will also eat bread and crickets. All feeding was done by hand, once a day, late afternoon. They share the pond with an equal number of pacu which eat more aggressively than they do. There are no predators, except birds and snakes, both two and no legged.
My water temps are in the high 80s and will probably be there year round.
The fish usually remain out of sight during the day, coming out between 3 and 4 and hanging around until 6 or 6:30, I feed near 5. During this time they are very catachable with bait that floats. If I let the feeding time go past 5 they start circling the pond and are catchable anywhere on the surface if they can’t see me. I can cast to a swirl or to the fish and will get a strike. Generally speaking if I can see them I can catch them. They are probably conditioned to food hitting the water. I started with the hook tied to a braided line, but they soon associated bad things with the line. I now use mono. I use a light wire hook and no weight other than the bait. The strike is a gentle slow pulling, I see the bait disappear, take up the slack until I feel the resistance then use a medium steady pull to set the hook. I use bite size bait, allowing the fish to take the baited hook entirely into it’s mouth, making setting the hook simple.
Unlike the pacu, I can catch tilapia repeatedly from the same area. Yesterday I caught 15 in an hour from within a 10’ radius.
They are also catchable on the bottom, I use a sliding sinker and the same method as above for setting the hook. I run about 15 minutes between bites, so I get distracted and often miss setting the hook. I have used a bobber, but the fish seem to like the bobber as much as the bait and push it around like a soccer ball.
I think the fish first take the bait with the intent of getting it away from the other fish and plan on eating it later. I have never had a tilapia swallow a hook and I have had them move the bait 15 or 20 feet from the spot of the cast.
Based on my experience so far, I would say that the key is surface feeding with veggies conditioning the fish to readily take a floating bait. I have caught tilapia in ponds where they are not fed and the process is very different.
Now, I would really like to see the catching experiences of others.