Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Fly Fishing & Other Fish Species How to catch Tilapia?

I am trying to catch some Tilapia before the cold weather gets them.I can't get them to bite.Any tips on what to use?I cant even ge them on fish food.....

Do fyke nets/traps work on them?

I think you have waited too long to start fishing. September would have been a better time to catch them due to the warmer water. NOt saying that you cant catch them now but you would have had better success in Sept. Their activity is starting to get pretty slow when the water drops below 60F and angling success becomes slow. Try a Stubby Steve artificial pellet, a raisin, or canned corn. Next year begin baiting them with pellets in late August early Sept then use pellet bait under a small bobber in the feeding area during mid to late Sept.

At this point in time, I'd use 20# test line and a #2/0 treble hook. Snag 'em.

Water temp in the pond today was 57.7°F and the Tilapia were hanging out on the North shore at the edge of the weedline. They were swimming around, but not near as fast as in 80°F water. Most looked to be 10"-12" long.

esshup... sounds like the Grim Reaper will soon be entering ponds looking for Tilapia

get a cast net and toss it over them since they are have slowed down shoud be easy fishing........

Do what Bobby said, I caught 4 in one cast of the cast net today, about a pound each.

jakeb,

You take any pics of your tilapia you caught?

Here's what I snagged in 15 minutes today. If I had a better set-up I could have gotten more. All I did was tied on a #1 treble hook directly to the 12# line on my rod. No weight or anything else. They were hanging out at the edge of the weeds on the North side of the pond. The weeds stopped about 25' from shore, and there's a 20 mph (gusting to 35) wind coming in from the South. So, at the most all I was able to do is cast 15-20 feet past the weeds. The wind didn't make for very many accurate casts hence the low numbers.





Largest fish is the one that I'm holding. 13" and 1.80# They were stocked in May at 6"-8" fish.

I know Mr. Hello is going to ask what type they are. From my understanding, they are Oreochromis eatalotoffa.

Ambient temps today were in the high 60's, I've only seen one dead Tilapia so far. While they weren't speed demons today, they swam fast enough to get out from under the fishing line once it hit the water's surface.

blue/nile hybrids...

stubby steve's pellet lures catch them well....

I think the cast net idea should work pretty good if one can locate the sluggish fish within net tossing range.

MRHELLO, no I didnt even think to, but they went in a 2 inch and were much larger than my hand. I dont know what they are eating, but they were much to large for any of my bass to eat, so they really grew fast.

The fish I caught in my net were right up on the shore just in the water and sluggish, but today it warmed up considerably and they were moving much faster and aware of my presence walking around the pond.

Snagging them is working. There's lots of floating leaves on the pond surface, I don't know if a cast net would work or not. They are a ways out from shore too.....

Removed 45# of Tilapia yesterday, largest fish was close to 14" and 2.21#.

Esshup,

Those are nice looking tilapia and glad you have been able to catch many of them out. I have not had a chance and not sure many are still alive for me. What ever is may die off later this week into next do to the temp change.

Where did you get your tilapia this year?

Pure blue tilapia should stay alive until the water temps drop into the 45-47F range. Water temps in northern Ohio are in the 57-59F range. Other tilapia strains often die at higher water temperaters than 45-47F. Sometimes it is worth a little extra effort and maybe money to have the blue tilapia who feed at lower temps and die later giving one a longer opportunity to remove tilapia in the fall.

Bill, the water temp in the pond was 50.3°F on Friday, today it's 53.8°F.

Weather is in the low to mid 70's this week, even pushing 80 on Thursday, but on Sunday they are predicting snow flurries....

While I didn't weigh the others, I'm guesstimating that I'm up to around 70# of Tilapia removed so far.

WOW esshup!!!! I'm curious as to how many lbs of tilapia you stocked this year?

When the Tilapia went in, the pond was full, so I stocked at the rate of 40# per acre. (50#)

If you put Tilapia in for bass to feed on, and the rate essups grew. Don't they grow kind of fast for the bass??? Yeh maybe the first couple weeks maybe but looks like them things grow like crazy. @essup did you eat the ones you caught??

From what I understand, you stock large ones initially so the bass don't eat them. What the bass will eat is all their offspring. But to take your question one step further, what size bass do the offspring benefit the most? Seems like they would be to small to be preferred by larger bass.

The Tilapia's reproduce and grow so fast that all class sizes of bass will benefit. With tilapia averaging growth to 1.5 pounds from an egg in just 6-9 months there will even be a few tilapia that avoid and outgrow the largest of predator gapes to become table fare. Those uneaten become food for turtles, catfish, other aquatic scavengers, or if floating, terrestrial scavengers.

I'm sure there are a few warmer water pockets the tilapia are "trapped" in now...looking like a hybrid (badly broken curved tail fin ray markings)..I would guess 50-52 is the lethal low.

Blues dying cooler occurs when a bass' metabolism has slowed and allows the nutrient to become flesh and more high energy lipid to live on during the winter. Your bass will lose less weight over winter than it would consuming non-blue tilapia.

The ones caught have been filleted, but I haven't eaten any yet.

Did yours have much red or dark meat in them, this seems to very depending on the fish? Not sure which Tilapia have more than others but I have noticed that dark strip seems to hold the more strong flavors or off taste if you will.