Thread: Fishin today (14th)

From the number of dead ones floating in Lake Harris thought maybe they had all died off from the cold, no such luck but sure a lot of 'stinkers'.--shu

Originally Posted by chucker

Danny:
I took the Kev-Man back to the hole about an hour after you left. We got into some large ones. Don't how many we snagged, but kept 6 very large one for the frying pan.
Some guy can down there with a net and tossed it out right beside us and ran all of the fish away. I had a few word with him, but I don't think he understood English. He had the mentality of a jackass. So we left before I got into trouble.
Going to check them out in the morning.

See, ya didn't take your pistol, so now there's "still" an azzhole walkin around ! !
How many times I got to tell ya, "elimination", "elimination", "elimination", ! ! !

Yeah, ya'll done the right thing .......

Originally Posted by Phantom309

das;
These fish (Tilapia) don't bite a hook (except on very rare occasion, like catching them on a small bread ball)
They are vegetarians, I think they were either created/or/ imported to eat the hydrilla in the lakes, but they have prospered beyond believe and are considered a pest/invader to our local fish ($4.00 a lb at Wal-Mart).
I'm not sure what the damage they do to our present population of local fish is, but, the FWC says you can take as many as you want (truck load) and no size limit either.
You can shoot em, cast net em, snag em, any way you choose, have all ya want.
So, I have been "snagging" them if you'd like to know, etc.......
Do a search for "Tilapia+History" and you might learn more, etc, etc, etc
Danny

I know i used to bow fish for them. not allowed to do that anymore because in order to bowfish i have to take the bow on county or state operated boat ramp and with a no weapons ordinances on public parks I dont want to risk the ticket. its a grey area in the law because is a bow a weapon or fishing gear?? Talapia is alright but not worth the ticket. and cast netting is difficult down here in tampa cause on the bypass canal there is no cover to hide my shadow.

FWC has been studying these things since the 70s. The end result is that they caused some disruption in the fisheries, but eventually everything kind of adjusted. Bass don't particularly like to eat them, but an increase in tilapia causes a decrease in gizzard shad size and numbers. Bass will get lean for a few years, then start eating the tilapia young and recover. There is little noticeable impact to specs. Bream numbers tend to go up and size down for a few years after tilapia establish, and may never get back to being huge in size in a lake with large numbers of big tilapia. All of these statements come from reading blue tilapia studies by FWC started in the early 70s and running into the 2000s. FWC is not doing as intensive studies on tilapia any more. Not 100% sure why, but the studies do indicate tilapia are mostly harmless, and have been somewhat of a positive financial commercial fisheries. Consider that commercial fishermen use to target crappie and harvest them illegally and sell them at .25 a lb.

Now this years fish kills in my neck of the woods (central Florida) have decimated the large tilapia population. Since the osprey and gators and wading birds have been using them as a food source for a while, I am not sure how it is going to affect everything. Right now the gators are sitting pretty full, but eventually all the dead fish will rot, and in the middle of the summer when the gators need to eat more often (higher metabolism) it is going to get interesting. We may see a surge in native species to fill the gap left by tilapia. I won't be taking my yorkshire down for any walks near the lake though.

This is how bad the fish kill was:
Extreme Cold Spell Leaves Lakes Full of Dead Fish | Environment & Natural Resources > Ecology & Environmental Science from AllBusiness.com

"I'd say there's every bit of a million and half pounds out there. It's real bad,"

Ben:

I read this article when it was published, and had some questions
about it.

"Wadley said he was netting more than 30,000 pounds a day on Hancock before the cold settled in. But he tossed his net a few times Jan. 11 and didn't catch a single one.

"You aren't going to go out there and make a living anymore," he said.

Despite the destruction on Lake Hancock, commercial fishermen aren't heavily impacted because they can go to other lakes and phosphate pits where they survived in deeper water.

Thomas said the price he pays commercial fishermen for tilapia has dropped from 45 cents to 25 cents per pound because netters have found them bunched up elsewhere."

Does anyone believe this guy was making $13,500 a day with tilapia?

Also the story said:

"A fisherman caught 1,200 pounds in one cast. He made a second cast and caught another 1,200 pounds," Thomas said of another lake."

How the heck can you lift 1200 lbs in a cast net? Boat crane? $1080 in two throws?
I am in the wrong business!!

Can anyone confirm numbers like this?