Bill can you share how you coax the TP to take bait? what a great way to utilize the tilapia before they succumb to cold.
This is a timing thing and a process of how I do it. Tilapia are a whole lot more fun to catch and remove than removing algae and the more delicate plants. Harvesting TP and plants are a form of nutrient / fertilizer harvest from your pond.
Firstly one needs to regularly feed the TP some fish pellets once you get them. This keeps them conditioned to eating pellets. TP are grown eating pellets before you get them. You don't need to feed them a lot of pellets, even cat or dog food would work; just a few tablespoons per day. If one regularly feeds their fish then TP become more conditioned to knowing and eating pellets.
Secondly - watch the late summer water temperature and 70F is the magic water temperature. At 70F the TP quit spawning. Now they leave the regular sex party going on at the beach spawning area and feeding activity gradually slows down more and more. The beach area or pellet area is where you fish for them. Fish for them while they are usually concentrated and still in the beach area spawning zone. Below 70F they scatter thoughout the pond searching for food and you have to now find them to catch them. When you wait until the water is 60F or below TP become a lot harder to catch.
Thirdly - I make my anglers sit down and keep a low profile as much as possible so TP are not as skittish.
Fourthly - Use softened pellets for bait. Carp boilies made with fish food may work, but I always use a rolled cluster of softened high protein pellets under a small slender bobber and just big enough size to hold the pellet in 12" to 4ft deep without weight nor hardware. Finese fish. Find the depth where they are holding. In cooling nights of Sept, early Oct TP and then during sunny days TP will bask or hold near the surface during sunny days. Find the best depth for the best bite. Mold the soft pellet into a 3/4"-1" nugget to cover or imbed it on a No. 4, 2, or 1 hook. A Sproat hook works good. If you don't catch a TP on the first bite you almost always have to rebait. I do not consider this a bad thing as the free pellet snack keeps them interested in hanging around and willing to bite. I think when missing a hookset, it is a form of baiting them to try again.
Fourthly - TP will quickly become hook smart. Thus I only catch several every 2-4 days. Give them time to readjust back to eating pellets. Then fish for the next catching group of 6 to 10 TP. This year's first catch session removed 10 TP all about 13" weighing 16-18 lbs; some 2 lb each.
Fiftly - I have discovered some yearly batches of TP are more willing to bite for anglers than another year's crop of TP. Not sure why yet. So you need to sometimes experiment with different angling methods and maybe different baits such as sweat corn or bits of hot dog. A FA algae based carp boilie may be a real good bait. One of the main things is do not wait until the water is colder to try and catch them. Fish for them when the water is 70F to 65F, while they are still active usually gives the best catch results. Removing the adults at 70F is I think okay because they should have eaten all or most all of the algae, Chara and delicate plants by then and the young TP can continue to keep the pond clean until late Fall when they quit eating and die at 45F-50F water temp.
