Good morning everyone, my neighbor and I stocked 30lbs of tilapia in our 2.5 acre pond May 1. Got the fish from Boatcycle in Henderson and all looked to be in pretty good shape. We saw a few at the shoreline early on but haven't seen any since.
With all this rain we have stayed very full and I'm sure have had a ton of water over the spillway. Two questions - should we be seeing our original stockers anywhere, and any chance we would've lost tilapia over the spillway? I seem to recall somewhere that they will seek out a current in a body of water, but I may very well be confused.
Jmac,
I would not be too concerned. When I first stocked my forage base last August, I performed supplemental feeding immediately. The fish would not come to the feed for at least 3 weeks. I don't know if they were adjusting to their new environment, or what. But, they slowly came to feed. When the weather cooled in the fall, they backed away from the feed, so I discontinued feeding until this late March. Again, it took the fish a particular amount of time to feed again. Meanwhile, this whole time I never physically saw any fish. Not until this past April when I caught one, did I see any since August. I believe your fish are fine. Give them some time. My pond is 12' deep in some areas. I feel there are many areas for them to hide.
Charlie
