Anyone been cast netting for tilapia at Fairfield lately?

Edumacate me... Can you do that legally? I guess you can call the small ones bait but not sure.

Yes it is legal they are not gamefish. Neither is bream have caught some very large bream cast netting.

yes, its legal to net tilapia, actually if you catch tilapia its illegal not to kill them, and never ever use tilapia as bait or bring tilapia to a different body of water than you caught it in, meaning if you catch a tilapia at lake A, you may not leave lake A and go to lake B with it. if youre using them for bait, make sure if you dont get a bite and the tilapia is still wriggling on the hook before you leave, make sure to kill it before tossing the carcass in the water. Also, make sure you kill and plecos you might ever catch.

There was a post on the TFF recently about a survey that TPWD did on Fairfield. In that report, it mentioned how anglers were catching tilapia with nets. I don't recall it saying how well the tilapia had bounced back after the big kill, just only that people were catching them.

Spot on - do ALL you can to stop invasions! Most, maybe all, states have that as law, can not catch bait fish in one body of water and transport to any other body of water.

I went out there a couple of years ago about this time of year. I canoed from the campsites across to the warm water outlet. First time that I ever threw a cast net. Caught about 50, even though I could only throw a "taco". If you take a boat, be careful using the south ramp. Theres a big hole right off the ramp that everybody was getting stuck in.

My son caught several last year in a throw net. Boy, they were great eating!

It's a shame how Fairfield has gone down hill in the last 10 years. It used to be a great place to catch reds and hybrid stripper.

Any news on bass fishing, and is the lake still generating hot water??

903 389 4514 this is the number to the guard shack at the entrance to the park. They could give you some info.

fished it yesterday and did okay, lots of 12 to 14 inch fish, several 14 to 16.5, one 17 1/2 and one 18-1/4. fish and lake looked good, water level is a couple of feet low but both ramps were fine.

spoke to guy from Louisianna at the ramp, they were cast netting for Tilapia, last year at this time they went home with 2300 tilapia.

2300 wow that is overkill I wonder if they sold some?

I asked the same question, he said nope, they were filleted taken home and eaten. they filled a stand up freezer, he said he would never eat another tilipia.

his three sons caught 'em and he had to prepare them.