Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Tilapia in East Texas ponds

Has anyone else in East Texas seen any Tilapia survivors over this past winter? My buddy says he saw a small dead one in our pond yesterday, although he didn't take a picture of it. Seems hard to believe that it could've survived until now.

Yes, I have seen some in our big pond. I will survey next week before I add more for this year,

My threadfin shad made it through the winter, and I'm up near the Red River (Fannin County). Not sure of the cold-tolerance difference between shad and tilapia, but I think they are similar...

I would be shocked if any tilapia survived in Fannin County over the winter. Is it possible, maybe. But, highly unlikely. We stocked more than 25 lakes in east and north east texas last year and I have not had any reports of them making it this year.

Shad survive about 10 degrees colder than tilapia. 52 degrees for tilapia and 42 degrees for shad. This is a general guide line. In Fannin county I would say shad survive 3 out of 4 winters. Although it would be possible for them to survive 6 winters in a row if we had 6 mild type winters or die two winters in a row if we had to cold winter in a row. This winter was mild and would expect shad to have overwintered.

This pond is near Canton, TX. The water temp at the surface got down to 40 degrees, so I have such a hard time believing we'd have any Tilapia survivors. Anyone else see any surviving Tilapia in Texas this year?

I saw no Tilapia survivors in my pond in Wills Point (14 miles from Canton) and my water has been pretty clear.

highflyer has spring water flowing pretty much all year. He's the only person I know that may have wintered them. I know he had them 2 months after mine were bass chow 20 miles north of Canton.

Allen and All, I'll do a survey asap and report.

Allen is right about the spring water. That area is opening up as the pond matures and I have the ability to survey that area more easily. I know that the water temp was warmer than Allen's on several occasions, and I attribute that warmth to the spring water. Over the winter, the O2 levels were good in the back water, so the environment was there to support the Tilapia. Todd tells me that if any survived, it would be the bigger males.

I see FA growing in our pond now, so I doubt many Tilapia survived, but I'll know after I take a look.

I am planning on adding new Tilapia next week because I see the diference they make when added. I plan on getting them from Overton Fisheries, Todd's group grows very nice fish!!

Tilapia in North East Florida Ponds are going strong this winter. seeing signs of nesting already.

Perhaps a stupid question, but if they did winter every year, could the biomass ever overload a pond? Would a 100 pounds turn into a 1000 pounds, then 10,000 pounds?

Bobby, perhaps you or any of the other coastal guys could answer this.

Al I would think 100% survival would be a nightmare pretty quickly.

I didn't quit seeing Tilapia in my pond outside of Nacogdoches until late December. That being said I didn't ever see the first struggling or dead one either. I did have a bald eagle that hung around for a couple of days in the first part of January and maybe it and other predators took care of the biggest Tilapia when they began to bite the bullet. I am definitely sold on the benefits of them though!

they do get pretty thick and big too. Some of the small ponds in the area are pretty loaded. If you cast net during the summer around the edes at night you can't get away from them, every cast comes back with tilapia. They will need to be harvested to keep them thinned out OR have a few big 50 pond tarpon eating on them ....

Come to think of it Lake Fairfield in Texas has Tilapia that make it through the winter every year. I haven't been to the lake in a couple of years but anywhere you can see bottom it looks like the surface of the moon from all of the beds. Lake Fairfield also has tons of bow fisherman and a nice redfish population that I imagine helps keep the numbers down some.

Is Lake Fairfield a power plant lake like Lake Welsh near Pittsburg, Tx?

Best I recall you have to gut any tilapia that you boat and catch and release of em is against the law.