My 1.4 acre pond is south of San Antonio. I bought my stocker fish from Henneke Fish Farms. I stocked CNBG, RES, FHM and CC in July, 2008. I stocked LMB and 20 medium tilapia in May, 2009.
I'm no expert and my proof is only anecdotal, but I believe that putting tilapia in at the same time as the fingerling bass was helpful. By the end of the summer, we were catching a few 9-11" bass while fishing for bluegill. When they hit, they were slamming anything that was white (looked like little tilapia). With no large LMB in the pond, the original 20 tilapia produced 100's of 1-6" tilapia in the shallows through the summer (and presumably many 100's more in deeper water).
I was not at the property when any die off occurred. I am no longer seeing any tilapia in the shallows, but I have not found any indication of the die off (dead fish on the shore, etc). I assume (hope)that the LMB and CC gorged on the smaller ones as they died. The 10" bass should have been able to eat a bunch of the smaller tilapia. I also believe that all those little hungry tilapia helped keep our pondweeds and algae under control.
I would stock a small number of tilapia with my bass if I had it to do again.
