Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Tilapia Observation

Just an interesting observation about trapping Tilapia. In my nursery pond I have only CNBG and Tilapia. The way I harvest both is with traps. The traps I use are rectangular wire mesh with openings on all four sides. The traps are about 2' x 3' with a compartment in the center for bait. A friend gave me an old handmade trap that was made of wire mesh. It is about 2' x 3' and has only one funnel shaped opening on top. I tried the old trap to see if it would work. To my surprise it caught only large Tilapia. After six trap runs the old trap will average 10 Tilapia in the the 6 to 10" size. Only 6 small Tilapia and four small CNBG have been caught in the six runs. The same bait is used in all traps (dog bisquits).

In the regular traps I normally catch a mixture of both species and a mixture of sizes. It is rare to catch more than two large Tilapia in one regular trap.

Don't know why, but thought it was interesting.

Hey David! I was just thinking of you last week, wondering how you were faring during this drought. Good rains today, looks like.
I have a question for you. Since you have both tilapia and bluegill in the same hatchery pond, do you feed them? If so, do they interact similarly?
I stocked five pounds of tilapia in May into a 3/4 acre bass/bluegill pond. When the feeder goes off, I see two or three large tilapia and 75-125 large bluegill with a handful of 3-4" bluegill. The smaller fish won't come, and the tilapia seem only to come once the bluegill have filled themselves and are moving away.
In another pond, with tilapia only, behavior is quite different. They come to the feed with more energy.

Hello Bob! This rain is wonderful. The ponds were all down but none at the critical stage. I am working on a project to get well water to all ponds.

I have an umbrella net under the feeder. Usual catch in the unbrella net is mostly medium size bluegill. Once in a while I catch a one or two large Tilapia and several medium Tilapia. If you lift the net several hours after the feeder has gone off the catch is usually small bluegill. I seem to never catch small Tilapia either in trap or net.

Liked the pictures of your new house. Enjoy the building process it's the best. Best of luck.

This was my first year stocking Tilapia and I am hooked. Even with low water this year and record temperatures these fish are amazing. First of all they accomplished what I wanted as far as algae controll. Haven seen any after the first couple of months. This weekend is the first luck I have had catching them. Corn on a small hook and we wore them out. It's amazing how fast they grow. A lot of them are 10-12 inches and at least a good pound to pound and a half. Amazing. I can't wait till the cold weather to see how many are actually in my 1 1/2 acre pond. Started with 10 pounds from Overton and am ready to place my order for next spring.

Ditto Mine have really done well in growing. I posted a pic of one we caught the other day. And yes it was one of Overton's finest!! Now if I could just get more water I would be groovy

Tentmaker,

Last weekend I purchased one of those Academy traps you recommended and am anxious to trap some Tilapia.

For four years, I've observed the interaction of Tilapia and BG. Clearly, the BG is the more aggressive fish and negatively affects Tilapia behavior.

If you want to reliably catch Tilapia by fishing for them, in my experience, you must separate them from the BG. Whenever I have been able to do that, in the fall of the year in shallow water(baiting) after a cold front and after the sun warms the shallows, I've caught Tilapia continuously on every cast. Those days are just around the corner, again, and I can't wait!