Thread: Tilapia

Fun Bun (Black Warrior Lures), ties a fly that mimics a water spider. Perhaps use one of those?

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Bread works!


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Originally Posted by RobertFL

I used to hook and line fish for mullet to they are so much fun to catch. We would chum them with laying mesh and rolled oats.. One bait I used for mullet was Small pieces of mango..I wonder if tilapia would eat that? I knew one guy who used doy cakes to chum up tilapia..Tilapia are really interesting..they are mouth brooders..meaning they will hold their eggs and fry in their mouths when they feel danger nearby. I have had them spit eggs or fry out all over the deck of my boat many times. Tilapia will eat small minnows and aquatic bugs along with algae.

When i first moved to Florida now almost 25 years ago, i moved to the Keys, and i lived on a wide canal.
It would be very common at certain times of the year especially to have large schools of mullet all leap out of the water as a result of a predator being after them, like a large Tarpon for example. A site you never get tired of seeing. I have never fished for them, but have used them live for Tarpon bait.
I had a 25 ton license when i moved there, and not long later i answered an add for a tarpon guide. Rode Runner Charters from Marathon ran the add, and i got hired on. It was actually a very easy gig the way he went about fishing for them.
He bought 6 live mullet per boat every day at 5 dollars each even back then. We also used live pinfish which we trapped ourselves, and small silver dollar size crabs, which we bought in local tackle shops at 50 cents each.
I later got hired on at the Hawks Cay resort for running half day mostly reef trips with my own boat.
I often used rolled oats and also cracked corn as a supplement along with the chum when reef fishing.
On average i would burn thru 6 10# blocks of chum per 4 hour trip, plus the oats or corn.
So all this fresh water stuff is relatively new to me, and like everything else and every where else there is a learning period.
When you watch very successful people like Richard Gene for example, you have to ask yourself if the places he fishes match the places you fish.
If he were to move here, he would no doubt be using different methods than at least some he uses now.
But rest assured he would still be successful.

Originally Posted by Slab

How you ben catching them, net? I'd really like to catch them with hook and line. Love to know how.

Red worms in 4 ft of water


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