Fun on the St John river this morning:<br>[
](http://s106.photobucket.com/user/Hazmart/media/Big Tilapia_zpsfeeitek1.jpg.html)<br>[
](http://s106.photobucket.com/user/Hazmart/media/Small Tilapia_zpstrufxt3c.jpg.html)<br>The fly I was using…<br>
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Wonderful, those fish are so tasty when caught wild, pleased to see you were successful. Did you target them or was it buy chance.
Those fish grow much bigger than I thought they did. When my wife and I visited our son and his family in St. Augustine, they had lots of them in the small canal/lake in the apartment complex. Some of those guys looked like they weighed 5 lbs or more. They’d be a blast on any rod 5 wt and lighter.
Jim Smith
I was fishing for bluegill and bass, they were an accidental catch. I sometimes catch one on a trip, but never got two. Truth be told, I have only caught maybe 8 or 9 on the fly rod.
I would like to hear more about Tilapia. They are one of our fav fishes for consumption. I have always thought of them as a freshwater species but aren’t the canals in Fla saltwater? Back in the days of the Peace Corps, the volunteers were teaching fish “how to” farming of tilapia in 3rd world countries and I always assumed that tropical temps were necessary for success. Any body know more?
Nope! There is plenty of freshwater canals running through the state!
Nice fish! They are a blast on lighter tackle!
There are many canals here in Florida that are freshwater, and the St John river system runs from just south of Melbourne, Fl, all the way to Jacksonville, Fl. The area I was fishing is part of the St John system.
As far as the temps go, a few years back we had a bad freeze here, temps went into the 20’s at night for about 4 days. I was amazed at how many Tilapia we saw that were stunned from the cold, never knew there were that many in the local lakes. They were everywhere, just lying on the surface, stunned from the cold.
Nice ones! 
Got 5 more today fishing with a buddy, this is the biggest one:
Oooohhh, that’s a nice one!
That just looks like too damned much fun!
Catching Tilapia doesn’t happen often here, the past few days there has been a mayfly hatch and they were coming up and sucking them off the surface. It has been a hoot, may go again and take the 4wt with some dry flies and see if I can get them on top. But with the rain we just got, I would be willing to bet that the hatch is over. May have to try bass fishing with the new Sage 8wt Bolt I just got.
Tilapia mysteriously appeared In the Chattahoochee tail water recently. Water is about 50 - 55 deg. F. Some dummy probably dumped a big aquarium.
I didn’t think they could survive in water that cold. Guess I thought wrong…