Fished three rivers in the Great Southwest this week and was able to catch a few nice Tilapia. Caught a nice fish on the West Nueces River in Kinney County. The fish was 14.75" in length with a nice fat girth of 12.50". The weight of the fish was 2.53 Lbs. There has not been a record Tilapia on the West Nueces River but there will be one soon. Paper work was sent to the Texas Parks&Wildlife for the Tilapia Record for the West Nueces River. Fish was caught by a shallow grass bed using worms with ultra light tackle. The fish was later released. Love fishing the great Southwest of Texas. It is some very beautiful country loaded with a lot of wildlife.

Wow, you are on the big Talapia this year. Congrats on another record fish

[quote=banker-always fishing]Fished three rivers in the Great Southwest this week and was able to catch a few nice Tilapia. Caught a nice fish on the West Nueces River in Kinney County. The fish was 14.75" in length with a nice fat girth of 12.50". The weight of the fish was 2.53 Lbs. There has not been a record Tilapia on the West Nueces River but there will be one soon. Paper work was sent to the Texas Parks&Wildlife for the Tilapia Record for the West Nueces River. Fish was caught by a shallow grass bed using worms with ultra light tackle. The fish was later released. Love fishing the great Southwest of Texas. It is some very beautiful country loaded with a lot of wildlife.

Outstanding....When that fish certifies, how many records will you now own?

Thanks Jamie and Zip-ur-Fly for the replies! Jamie: Yes Sir been reading up on their history and patterns. Over the past couple of years I have also been watching em a lot in those crystal clear river waters of various rivers and creeks. Starting to get a pretty good feel for em. Zip-ur-Fly. I do not really have an exact count. I just love catching some super fish and enjoying the outdoors. A lot of fish I target not many anglers do. That leaves more for me to catch!

congrats chuck on another record! nice tlapia

Thank you Sir! Will be giving you a call next time I am fishing in your backyard. We will have to check out that Pizza Place.

Hmm sorry but if I catch a big tilipia its dinner lol love me some lemon pepper tilipia !Congrats Banker!

I agree with you Aquiles but I have plenty of fish in the freezer. Will be making some room very soon for both Bluegill and Crappie!




Side Note: Tilapia are some of the best eating fish you can catch!

sounds great! i'll b expecting your call

Nice!

Chuck, some likely new tilapia records have been caught on Squaw Creek in Glen Rose. I can't recall what is listed now as the record but I am supposing many by now have been caught that greatly exceed the existing record, just not any interest in claiming a record.

One I caught last year while LMB fishing from the banks was a little over 16" so I slid him along my size 13 boot for a pic. Then, I caught one even longer, 18" or so as I recall, and a bigger girth a few months ago. Second pic and it likely weighed close to 3 lbs.

Finally, two friends were out with Dannie Golden, a well known guide in N. Texas, and they caught two tilapia in the 3.5 to 4 pound range on the same lake while bass fishing.

There is a no-throw back rule on Squaw Creek. The hot water lake really grows monsters.

If you get in the mood for a tilapia fest, some of the guys get way back up in the Squaw creeks during the summer and pull them in, big ones too, by the dozens.

Hey! A nice record for the waters you are fishing!

Brad

Thanks Brad for the reply! You are right. A lot of anglers are not interested in Records and surely there have been bigger fish caught that could have easily been record fish if the angler chose to do the work on getting it certified. The current State Record Hybrid Tilapia which is the most common is 15" in length and weighed 3.75 Lbs. The Blue Tilapia which is the bigger of the fish current State Record is 21.50" in length with a weight of 7.75 Lbs.



Side Note: I have not targeted Tilapia in the past but have recently started to. Still learning the identifications. Your first fish could be either a Hybrid or Blue. The second in my opinion is a Blue. Did you catch any of them on artificial baits or lures. If so that is very rare. Tilapia usually do not bite on artificial baits. Also nice fish Brad! Love the fight they give especially on UL tackle.

Nice fish Chuck. Congratulations on yet another record fish! Keep em coming.




Side Note: I see a lot of Tilapia on some of the rivers I fish. I have used both live worms and soft plastics to try to get them to bite with no success. Seems you are catching them a lot using live worms. Anything you can add as for tactics or ways of making them bite?

aren't tilapia supposed to be a controlled species? how do you apply with parks and wildlife I assume for a water body record for a fish that is not supposed to exist in that body of water?

I mean guess obvious answer is that they do exist because they've been illegally transported at one time or other. seems like TPWD would frown on that. especially that it was also released.

not meaning to be a downer, just curious. a nice fish all the same.

That Chuck has really got it down to an art!The Picasso of texas fishing