I was invited this past weekend to go catch some tilapia, reds and some cat fish. Never fished for tilapia before so didn't know what to expect but I knew they tested good so off I went. I was told all I needed was cat fishing gear. Come to find out we net the tilapia. While doing this I admired the fish and its feistiness. I started thinking these would be fun on a fly rod so I did a little research.
I believe they mostly eat vegetation but have read they eat other things also. Including poop! makes me think twice about eating them. Has anybody evey fly fished for them and what did you use?

Never fished for them myself but did stay at a Holiday Inn Express... Googled "tilapia on the fly" and found this .

As far as their diet, they sell them in the grocery store and fish markets and also, what might catfish be eating down there on the bottom? Just sayin'

I hope you tie into a few, let us know how it goes!

I have caught a tilapia, once. It was incredibly hard and pretty much just dumb luck. I probably spent nearly two days trying to catch it. I had a small black fly, that I kept casting to some grass it had a particular interest in. Finally I made it mad enough and it ate it.

So, I don't really think that would work for any type of numbers. I recently had a friend tell me that he catches them all the time, and this is what he uses:



I haven't had a chance to try it out yet.

All I can say is good luck!

Thanks you for the replies. I'm finding out they might be not worth the trouble. They prefer vegetation too much and they had plenty there. Thanks anyway it was just a thought.

they are tough to catch, but that fly looks like it would work for sure!!

IIRC, Meadowlark has proven success at catching tilapia from his ponds.
He frequently posts on the Ponds Topic below, so maybe he will chime in.

I give him credit for pioneering and popularizing stocking tilapia in Texas farm ponds, introduced a number of years ago for algae control and forage for LMB.

Not that this is fly fishing related, but tilapia have made their way into Randol Mill pond in Arlington. My kids and I catch them all the time on earthworms when fishing for bluegills in the shallows.

They do fight well. The ones we catch are not big enough to eat though and I doubt I would eat anything from there anyway.

they are tough to catch, but that fly looks like it would work for sure!!

I have caught tilapia on flies tied to look like a large fuzzy ant in both black and brown dubbing on 12 to 16 size hooks. Griffiths gnats also work well.
Caught as many as many as a dozen in 40 minutes I have during lunch each day. The biggest problem I have is keeping the bluegill and goggleyes off the fly. Random Mill park is where I am fishing by the way.