tilapia fishing

[wolfglen]

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

 

[ia_trouter]

I am interested in most any game fish. I originally thought they were related to the bluegill/sunfish but learned they are not even in the same family.

I assume they are fun to fly fish for and reasonable to maintain or they wouldn't be in your ponds? Are they tropical?

 

[oldskewl808]

I like to Tenkara for them.

 

[the_pyromaniac]

I fish for everything. I'm down!

 

[red feather troutbum]

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

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.

 

[james w 3 3]

Tell us more! Where, what, etc.
Details?!
Looks like a blast. Fished bluegills last evening on a golf course after a round of golf with my Tenkara rod. Off the hook wide open!!
Always looking for something new . . .

 

[cpiercem]

I would like to know more about what flies to use and how to fish for them.

 

[wolfglen]

I would like to know more about what flies to use and how to fish for them.

Much of it depends upon your situation.
In some places they come up and rise to spent mayflies and such on the surface. In other spots they scrape algae off of rocks and logs. Sometimes they're rooting for nymphs in the muddy bottom.

If you can see them, drop a small nymph above them and let it settle. DON"T move it. I know that's the natural reaction when seeing a trout of bass near a fly, but it USUALLY doesn't work on tilapia.

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

 

[ia_trouter]

...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

Clearly not chumming

How large do tilapia grow?

 

[the_pyromaniac]

It depends on the species, but some grow to pretty good sizes. My brother-in-law has caught Nile tilapia in Brasil up to ten pounds.

 

[swflangler]

Freedom park here in Naples FL is loaded with them. https://www.google.com/maps/@26.17454,-81.7897,360m/data=!3m1!1e3

 

[mcnerney]

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

 

[swflangler]

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

And everyone thinks I'm crazy for not eating them in restaurants!

 

[ia_trouter]

Have some thawed in the fridge and ready to cook. Not clicking your link until after I eat. Or perhaps it's better if I never click it.

 

[wolfglen]

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

 

[swflangler]

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

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.

 

[wolfglen]

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.

Which 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.

 

[swflangler]

Which 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.

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

 

[wolfglen]

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

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!!

 

[lacivic99]

I just caught my first tilapia on the fly. I tried a bunch of bedding fish that day without success, until I found one that wouldn't budge. She bit when i pulled a black and purple clouser onto her bed. It wasn't an aggressive strike, she just mouthed the fly to move it off the bed. It took a ton of patience and I doubt I'd go back to harass those bedding fish.

Sounds like they're tough to catch on rod and reel unless they're keyed in on something like corn or pellets. Hopefully this helps someone in their quest for tilapia on the fly.