For the past few nights i've been taking my little brothers out bass fishing. By our green light ive noticed alot of talapia, ALOT! They dont seen to bite anything. I've read when their spawning or on beds you'll catch them, but after that people say they dont bite much; to cast net or foul hook them. Is this pretty much it? These fish are about 12-15 foot deep, 100's. Castnet would scare them i think. Just want some fish for the kiddios to put in a box and eat. Tried bread and earth worms. Obviously they didnt take the bass baits. Any help would be appreciated!

and is it legal to foul hook these fish?! Seems crazy to me that many places say people are foul hooking them and keeping them like it's no big deal. Never heard of foul hooking for sport, seems fishy.

I have caught several last year on flies with my flyrod. I also caught them on night crawlers.

Ive always just used worms but the bite here in SA has pretty much died I catch a little one now and again

I caught a lot of Tilapia this last year and got em all on worms. The fish were staging at the ends of currents.




As for foul hooking them I would call the Game Warden and get the correct answer! I have not heard of or am I aware of any game laws involving foul hooking Tilapia.

Tilapia is not a native species and can be taken by traditional hook in mouth, foul hooked, cast netted, bow fished, etc.

^^YEP^^

That southwest sportsman guy has a youtube episode on talapia on squaw creek. Caught a lot on night crawlers.

Barry Stokes is the guy for SW sports. I saw that episode & he was catching some nice ones with crawlers!

Good eatin if caught wild.. I don't eat farm raised talapia or shrimp.

I'd like to qualify that statement....

BEFORE eating ANY fish or shellfish, check the "COOL" (Country Of Origin Label) label. Yes, a lot of tilapia and shrimp are produced and processed overseas in unsanitary conditions. HOWEVER, SOME tilapia and shrimp raised on farms in the US, and a few other countries are good, healthy, and nutritious choices. Avoid anything from China, SE Asia, India, and some others. Generally if from the US, Norway (or other Western EU source), Chile, Canada, and a few other places it has been raised under sustainable and consumer protection regulations.

Remember, there are no checks of imported fishery products for consumer safety, only what is done at the country of origin.

Then there is the problem of a lot of wild fish being potentially contaminated with environmental toxins like PCB and dioxin. There you just need to know about where you are getting your fish and what advisories are out for those places. Not all "wild" caught fish is clean.

LOL, If you ever go out to West Texas towards Carlsbad you will be rolling along in the desert and you will suddenly see a Giant Red Shrimp wearing a cowboy hat on a sign on the side of the road. ??? They have shrimp farms out there! That used to be the floor of a huge inland sea. The Guadeloupe Mountains are actually a fossil reef. Anyway the soil is salty so all they have to do is dig a shallow pool pond fill it with water and start farming shrimp. Whooda thunkit???

Across the Big Pond they feed them Feces........all kinds.

Btw...those Talapia at SQ are very.....very.....good eating. So much better than store bought. But...wow...they are some funky looking fish as far as their guts go. uck! lol..