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.