wolfglen
Well-known member
How many of you guys out there are interested in tilapia fishing? Remember they are a cichlid, just like peacock bass but with different habits.
Jack
Jack
nice, love hearing about non typical species. if I had anything out here that looked/fought like bigger bluegills, cleaned easier and tasted better I'd likely be pretty darn good at it, and have a freezer full of fillets. Enjoy them if you have access, to my knowledge, tilapia are restricted to private aqua farms here & not available on public waters. My neighbor has several in his basement to grow his vegetables all winter but he's not harvesting any till Mothers day when we put the gardens in.How many of you guys out there are interested in tilapia fishing? Remember they are a cichlid, just like peacock bass but with different habits.
Jack
Much of it depends upon your situation.I would like to know more about what flies to use and how to fish for them.
Clearly not chumming...It there's an area you go by a lot where there are tilapia, throw a handful of cracked corn in a few places each time you go by. You're not chumming, you're offering an alternate meal which they come to think of as an appetizer or desert instead of a regular meal. Use a small yellow sally the size and color of the corn and weight it so it has a sink rate the same as the corn.
My largest to date is a 12 lb. blue tilapia.
Jack
And everyone thinks I'm crazy for not eating them in restaurants!This has nothing to do with fishing for tilapia, but if you buy them in the supermarket you might be interested in this article (March 8, 2015 issue, it will be up for a few days, but after that you will have to search for it, titled "A CICHLID BY ANY OTHER NAME"):
Fly Fishing In Yellowstone National Park
This sounds kinda like my Piranha catch. I had no idea of what it was and stuck my finger in his mouth while attempting to unhook. He latched on and wouldn't let go. It was a big fish and fought like crazy. You never know what your going to catch in Florida these days.I caught my first one when I was fishing a wildlife management area where they had put in fish feeders for the bluegills as the water was pretty sterile.
I tied brown beetle flies which were the same color and size as the pellets they were feeding them with brown spun deer hair, short brown palmer clipped hackle and a foam back. I was having a ball catching bluegills and giant golden shiners (my largest of them was 14" and about a pound. When you get them it's like fishing for pond brookies.) Then something grabbed my #12 with the 2 lb tippet and It took probably 20 minutes before I could get it to shore. It was 9 1/2 lbs and had coloration like a blue gill. In fact, I thought I had a world record 'gill when I first saw it in the water.
Jack
Which species did you catch? As I remember there are somewhere around 24 or 26 species of which only four are dangerous.This sounds kinda like my Piranha catch. I had no idea of what it was and stuck my finger in his mouth while attempting to unhook. He latched on and wouldn't let go. It was a big fish and fought like crazy. You never know what your going to catch in Florida these days.
It was grey with a dark back and probably around 10 lbs. I just looked up the Pacu and it looked just like my catch. It was really fun until he showed me his teethWhich species did you catch? As I remember there are somewhere around 24 or 26 species of which only four are dangerous.
I had pacu in my ponds a few years back until the cyclic cold years set in and killed them. They were in the 30 lb range. What a fish to take a dry fly.
They have the power of a permit and I've seen them break 30 lb test on casting rods on the strike when an angler would try to snub them.
Pacu are charchins also. It's easy to tell them apart as the pacu's teeth are much more rounded instead of meshing perfectly like a bluefish/s Easy way to tell, pick it up like a bass by the jaw. If you're thumb is crushed and bleeding badly it's a pacu if you don't have a thumb it's the other one!!It was grey with a dark back and probably around 10 lbs. I just looked up the Pacu and it looked just like my catch. It was really fun until he showed me his teeth