Tilapia on a fly?

[mickmcco]

I have been asked by a friend to help him clear some tilapia out of a spring-fed lake he is responsible for, or at least catch a few together on flies.

Any suggestions on flies or techniques to catch these fish?

[aged_sage]

The typical Tilapia found in our waters are vegetarian; thus making it difficult to recommend a capture method other than netting or trapping; and trapping requires a suitable bait. I personally know one individual who bow hunts them inthe summer when the mulberries along the banks 0of his 'home' lake are ripe, and falling into the water, as the tilapia congregate there to feed on the ripe mulberries. If you want to catch them on hook and line, they might be trained to feed on dog chow, which could then be used as bait, or a fly tied to resemble the dog food. Such flies are know locally as "PDF" of PFC" flies---Purina Dog Food, or Purina Fish Chow. The 5mm pompoms found in craft stores make excellent flies when superglued on a #8 hook, if they will feed on such chow. Half of a coffee bean (CBF) superglued to a similar hook also works .

[Gandolf]

Hi Mickmcco,

I am sure that I read somewhere, perhaps on one of the bulletin boards here, that although tilapia are primarily plant eaters, that one of the guys has caught them on pheasant tails, or other small nymphs. He says streamer patterns have never worked for him, but again small nymphs had.

Regards,

Gandolf

[Goduster]

I usually catch all mine on crystal white wooly buggers.

[Bill-B'klyn]

If they take mulberries or dry pet food, use deer hair flies. Pictured are some of the deer hair flies I use during "mulberry" season.

[RHenn]

Sponge spiders seem to work on occasion for me.

[Uncle Jesse]

If they take mulberries or dry pet food, use deer hair flies. Pictured are some of the deer hair flies I use during "mulberry" season.

Bill, I think that is the most unique collection of flies I have seen. You have really matched the hatch for your prey.

On the subject of tilipia I think back to the first time I heard of a tilipia was in the "Progressive Farmer" magazine, a hog farmer was planning on placing tilipia in his runoff collection pond to process the waste from the pigs. If you can figure the pattern out, you might want to try a "Pig Poop" pattern.

[Chuck S]

I was corresponding for awhile with several folks world wide on these fish and the flies they like. From South Africa I found that they like myself, found the fish to like a super slow moving fly suspended under a strike indicator. There fly of choice was an earthworm to olive to green colored San Juan worm. My favorite and the one I caught the IGFA All Tackle World Record* on was my BS fly, a small dark olive, marabou wing and tail copper beadhead streamer. (BS = Bluegill/Sunfish) Around the time I caught that one I also caught many others and all were BS Fly caught ranging from 4-6lbs in a smaller pond in Orlando, Florida. I also have seen great populations of these fish in Texas and Arizona waters and have heard of them in catchable numbers across the southern US.

* the reason for the All Tackle rather than a Fly Rod record was the IGFA didn't have fly rod categories for the Blue Tilapia and still haven't. Currently another person holds the All Tackle Record but it wasn't fly caught at all. The IGFA folks tell me they are considering including the Tilapia for inclusion with fly rod tippet records but I'm not holding my breath.

Sister Carol's Grass Fly should be another great one for these fish as they are vegetarians for the most part. During their spawn the male, I believe, keeps the smaller fry safe by allowing them to swim into his mouth when danger presents so I'm betting that a very small fry fly would be a natural during this period for the fish. Don't worry about distupting the spawn as it's a good thing rather than a bad thing as they most generally overpopulate and become a nuisance. Also catch and keep as this is a good thing as these fish are superb table fare and much better than store bought Tilapia. I just notice a nice one caught with a size 16 BH Olive Scud with the shiny mylar back on Rick Pope's Facebook Page for those of you who are Facebookers and I'm betting the do eat a lot of scuds.

[EdD]

<snip>On the subject of tilipia I think back to the first time I heard of a tilipia was in the "Progressive Farmer" magazine, a hog farmer was planning on placing tilipia in his runoff collection pond to process the waste from the pigs. If you can figure the pattern out, you might want to try a "Pig Poop" pattern.

They would have been eating the fragments of corn left over. That adds a whole new meaning to the term "corn chips".

Ed

[Chuck S]

When I mentioned Rick Pope above, on facebook, it seems his TFO rods are a sponsor here so I did a bit of searching and found it: GSome good pics and tips. http://www.beaversbendflyshop.com/fo...-16-bh-scud/p1