Ewest: The one acre pond was stocked with 20 lbs mozambique tilapia, then 3" bass after I verified tilapia fry present. The idea was to prevent tilapia overpopulation and hence grow larger tilapia. It worked. We stocked 100 bass with those tilapia, but I can't remember how many we harvested. They were in great shape. This was one lb growth up to November, and the tilapia died from cold exposure just a few weeks afterwards. Numbers of bass in the production pond were adequate for tilapia population control and good growth. This may not work with other types of tilapia...I know the Aureas are more aggressive.
I too have thought it would be a great idea to replace FH with tilapia, and have actually made that recommendation for some folks. Good or bad or indifferent, you'd still have a large tilapia die-off in the spring as bass would probably have a hard time keeping up.
We stocked fish for Jake B, and he called today to order some tilapia. I talked him out of it I think, but only because I think it may not be necessary if the existing baitfish are doing their job. For Jacob, if you would like to try stocking tilapia with your bass fingerlings, try 2-3 lbs per acre. Remember, it's all about the pond....not so much about the fish....like Davidson says.
