I really enjoyed having these fish in my pond this spring. They have an incredible growth rate and are a ferocius fighter..only one problem..they are , by far, the most hook-shy species in the pond.At 1-4 lbls., they were quite aggressive, but nothing works now, not even live bait or a pellet fly. I managed to cath one to overwinter with my tilapia. The other 4, I'm giving up on. They even manage to avoid my cast-net!
My SMB, on the other hand, are really thriving in my relatively shallow (8' max) pond in the north texas summers. I think the well water and aeration were the key for them. They have recently taken to pellet food, and many are approaching 10" or so in size.

Howard,

We had 2 pacu last year, and caught each one several times. They quit biting when the water got cool, but maybe they finally became hook shy.

Mine are off and on, I have the best luck with bait on the bottom now, shrimp or hotgogs. They are aggressive eaters and when I first throw the pellets, I can occasionally get a strike on the first cast from a pacu.

Usually I can only catch one, the others get the word and it will be a couple of days before they bite again.

Be careful with overwintering pacu. If you have anything soft plastic or rubber the will chew on it like mice. My pacu last winter chewed some of the outer sheathing of a heater cord.

thats interesting Brian. The line going to my aerator in the pond, is leaking like a sieve! I figured something had been chewing on it..Maybe the pacu are the culprit..

hotgogs........now i gotta try some of those

They are good with tickles, bunions and custard.

BTW, what does pacu taste like? nice fleshy white meat?? easy to fillet? lots of bones?

tickles, bunions and custard huh? I'm scared to ask.

DD1,
The condiments for hotgogs

Dave
Excellent white meat, firm and tasty, they have a 'y' bone that leaves bones in a filet. We cook as a whole fish or cut into steaks.

Where did you get the pacu? I might try putting some in one of my small ponds to try out.

Thanks

Texas715...

If I remember correctly you are down south of me by Houston. They will have Red Bellied Pacu in just about every pet store that sells fish. I don't know if it is a different breed, but I remember seeing that they can grow up to 24 inches if the tank is big enough.

Texas715,
ezylman is right, they will get big, I have the red bellied. When you visit the pet shop ask them if anyone of their customers has one or more they want to get rid of, they can out grow a tank fast and you might get a big one or two to add to the pond.

They don't breed in pond environments, so it will be catch and release or replace.

They eat almost anything, including any pond plants.

It looks like if you can overwinter tilapia, pacu will make it as well.

You only need to catch one to make a believer out of you. This one was stocked 1 1/4" long on Mar 24, 05, caught 9 lb 9 oz on Sep 6 08