Tilapia...love 'em or hate 'em?

I love them. I don't know a single pond owner who hates them.

On a three weight fly rod, they are as sporting a fish as there is anywhere for their size.

Every fall I harvest many before the cold water kills them...and it is an absolute blast on a fly rod.

The largest of the ones pictured went 4 pounds 3.25 ounces and is the pending state record for the fly rod. I've raised/caught them to 5 pounds but not on a fly. The Prince Nymph, my favorite pond fly, was the fly of choice.

Raised in ponds where you know exactly what food is available to them, these are supreme eating ranking up there with the very best tasting fish.

My wife would love this!

I used to catch these fish in the wild in Zambia and Zimbabwe which was then the Rhodesia's. Best tasting fish with a flavor of thier own. Caought a few on the fly mostly with worms before I learnt to flyfish. Nice specimens you have there.

AWESOME!

What size do you stock them at?

From TP&WD:

It is a violation to:

Possess or transport any exotic aquatic plant or animal listed as harmful or potentially harmful. This includes: plants such as hydrilla, water hyacinth, and giant salvinia; fishes such as tilapia and Asian carps (grass, silver, and bighead carp); and zebra mussels.

Possess tilapia, grass carp or any other fish listed as harmful or potentially harmful, without immediately removing the intestines, except on waters where a valid Triploid Grass Carp Permit is in effect. In those waters, it is illegal to possess grass carp. Any grass carp caught must be immediately returned to the water unharmed. Please see our list of waters with Triploid Grass Carp Permits.
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Thank you, Junior Game Warden.

The sale of Mozambique Tilapia is a multi-million $ cottage industry in Texas where it is perfectly legal for pond owners to purchase, stock, and consume at their pleasure...but thanks anyway for posting.

My grilled Tilapia tonight will taste just that much better, thanks to the Game Warden on patrol.

Fitz,

Thanks for the good question. I stock as early in the spring as water temps allow. The stockers are small. I'd guess about 4 ounces. They have a phenomenal growth rate reaching 2 to 4 pounds by fall while producing thousands and thousands of fry that the bass and big bluegills absolutely love. They start reproducing quickly and have a new brood every 28 days or so. Most of the offspring are consumed as forage and the original stockers can get to very good eating and catching size when fall rolls around.

Been doing this for many years...was one of the first to use them seriously for production of trophy bass and bluegills. In the right environment, the Tilapia is darn near a perfect fish

A friend stocks them in his ponds. The last freeze he lost quite a few; he said he had several well over five pounds that died. I use my half weight in his ponds, but so far I've only caught the dinks. I've only caught them on small streamers; I'll have to try the Prince Nymph. Thanks!

Interesting.

Over 5 pounds must be fish that made it through at least 1 winter. Mine all die each winter so 5 pounds is the upper limit I've seen.

The lake I live on has a self sustaining population. That's not how it was advertised when they were stocked, but I guess the depth, plus being 13 miles from the coast and several mild winters has made it possible for most of the fish to survive winter. I hooked a big one by accident on a woolly bugger, but lost it messing around with landing it.

My daughter cast nets them and uses the little ones to catch bass and catfish. Her big catch on the catfish was a 22# channel cat on a live tilapia. She had a really big bass take one, but it spit it out at the dock. I haven't eaten a tilapia from the lake yet. The ones we cast net run a up to a couple of pounds.

Yes, Karstopo, when the State decided, years ago, to allow private stocking of the Mozambique Tilapia, they had concluded that the Tilapia would all die out every winter except in the "extreme" southern parts of Texas or where the water was otherwise warmed.

Recent winters have seen several locations just south of Houston that had survival over the mild winters.

Landowners should carefully consider this factor. Studies have shown that in Mexico where the Tilapia all survive every winter, bass lakes with heavy netting of Tilapia performed better than bass lakes without netting. The implication is that the larger Tilapia, those generally over 5 pounds, may become predatory on bass fry. Something to consider in making stocking decisions.

At my location, there has not been any winter survival for decades.

What is the temp at which they die off? My place is north of Sulphur Springs so I imagine none would survive to hurt my bass population.

They start dying at 55 degrees water temp and at 50 degrees all are dead.

We get some dead ones in the winter that will show up on the bank. It's been several, many years since any have been stocked, but there's all sizes. Sounds like if we get an old fashion winter like when I was a kid they may all die. Lake has a substantial area, acres, that is over 10 feet deep and probably has areas that are closer to 15 feet.

The bass numbers seem to be healthy. Plenty of catfish, too. If anything is suffering, it's the various bluegills and sunfish. Those are much harder to find than before the tilapia got put in the lake.

I never see dead ones, ever, in my ponds. They get consumed by the bass and other members of Nature's crew. Before dying, they enter kind of a stupor during which the bass literally gorge themselves on Tilapia. Its something to watch. A LMB will eat whatever it can get in its mouth and that includes some sizable Tilapia.

Saw a bald eagle yesterday looking for stunned Tilapia...but doubt he found any as its too early. He will be back along with a partner in a few weeks eating more than their share...really cool!

The only ones I've seen dead are big. Bigger than any large mouth bass could swallow.

Do they eat all the vegetation in the pond?

I don't know, but that was the idea behind putting them in the lake.

The particular lake I live on way back when used to be sprayed with cuperous ammonium Acetate and I think it was copper sulfate to control coontail moss and other native vegetation that would end up choking parts of the lake with unnavigable matts of greens. Then Grass Carp were introduced to do the job of the chemical. Then tilapia were stocked.

There is no visible submerged vegetation so something is eating it up. The only tilapia I normally see are smaller ones, very small, tight to the bank and a lot of the time with their mouths at the surface sipping something. If we dump a handful of range cubes off the dock, some bigger ones will come and gobble up that. Mostly I see the big grass carp. They like Spanish moss to eat because any that falls in gets worked over by them. The grass carp also like water oak acorns. They do not like whatever fly I present to them. The tilapia really doesn't either, but I never see one to cast to.

I think some extended cold weather will be good to thin out the herd of tilapia. If they get wiped out, we can always stock more. But I can't look anywhere up shallow against the bank and not see tiny tilapia.

A few years back I caught some tilapia out of a local DFW lake (very well known) in the middle of winter. I called the game warden about it and he asked that I freeze it. He couldn't get by the house, so he asked that I send a picture. He said "yep, that's a tilapia" and that was the end of it. He never did anything with the information to my knowledge.

They are algae eaters...don't actually eat plants, but they will sometimes kill plants while sucking the algae off them. Working together with grass carp (which do eat certain plants), the vegetation in a pond can be controlled nicely.

Nice fish.

It will be interesting this winter to see what happens with the tilapia in relation to the water temperatures. I think I want to get a thermometer that can take temperature readings at different depths. Anyone have a good thermometer to recommend?

I think I will get some this spring for my bass/bluegill pond and my catfish/bluegill pond!

See a lot of really big fish but anything I've seen or got over 4lbs have come out of power plant lakes where they live year round.

Several years ago, I overwintered several in a heated indoor environment,just for fun. Those grew to easily over 5 pounds the next summer.

...but the fastest growing fish I've ever encountered is the red belly pacu. Pet Smart sells them as cute little 2-3 inch fish...soon those cute guys outgrow everything and become monsters. I raised one to 17 pounds one year in a pond by overwintering it two winters. It got too large to handle. Amazing, stunning growth.