More tilapia

[agelesssone]

Finished the morning with 162 tilapia Friday. Stopped at noon.
My 30 gallon bait tank was full of good sizedbfosh.
We caught a couple of redears, some yellow bass,and the rest were tilapia.
My friend Loc took home 138, totally full cooler.20161202_125919.jpg

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[Alphahawk]

That's a whopping mess of fish.....good job. But I am sure glad I ain't the one that has to clean them....LOL.


Regards

[skillet]

Originally Posted by Alphahawk

That's a whopping mess of fish.....good job. But I am sure glad I ain't the one that has to clean them....LOL.





Regards

You read my mind. You've got them dialed in Merv...good job


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[Saltwaterwalt]

Looking at Merv's tilapia catch in the last 48 hours, I think we can safely assume that Old Hickory Lake has a good population of them things!

[A Hawk]

Are there any striper at GSP yet? Thinking of taking the kayak there this week for some of that tilapia action, but would like to cast swimbaits and topwater for stripers if they are there.

[thehick176]

I was out there last weekend and saw a few yaks out there. One had a good blow up but didn't connect. Still a little early for the big girls in there I think.

[Transplanted Sportsman]

Doing your share of cleaning up this invasive fish, great job Merv, I'm with Mr Randy don't want to clean that many on one day

[Tennoutdrsman]

We didnt do too bad today either,lol!

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[Halli]

Originally Posted by Saltwaterwalt

Looking at Merv's tilapia catch in the last 48 hours, I think we can safely assume that Old Hickory Lake has a good population of them things!

Not for long with creels like that.

[thehick176]

Hopefully the Bass and Stripers are eating their fair share of Tilapia too!

[XxthejuicexX]

I had to go and see if Merv was telling the truth. He was I can't tell you how many I caught today. At one point i was either catching fish or missing a fish on every cast for over a hour. I only kept maybe 30 decent sized ones. I caught a couple more nice crappie to top it off. No stripers, I did not fish to much for them. A couple of the guys said they caught some early in the morning.

[Pinwheeled]

Merv, I didn't realize that was your rig. I was up there Thursday and Saturday in the small Crestliner. Was anchored right next to you Thursday. I definitely took home my share. Cleaned fish for almost 5 hours altogether. I just wonder how long these kind of numbers will hold up.

Doesn't seem like Stripers are in there good yet.


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[agelesssone]

Originally Posted by Halli

Not for long with creels like that.

I believe our total catch was 678 for the week.
304 were kept by various people. (I personally kept 36 tilapia, three shellcracker and one crappie).
The rest were released.
And I'm certain those numbers are not sustainable especially when every boat out there was catching as many as we were.
We shall see as the winter progresses.
I know a couple of years ago, the tilapia were thick in Bluegrass cove/marina but then they were either fished out or moved out. I suppose that could happen to the steam plant too. Although the discharge canal has a lot more square acreage of water than Bluegrass has.
Having said all that, tilapia are a fast growing, prolific breeding species and should continue to thrive in the Cumberland.

[Saltwaterwalt]

I had a couple hours to burn yesterday afternoon so I ran out there just to see if all the hype was true. Caught my first tilapia of life by the second cast ... scrappy fighters! Three other boats out there, one had 50+, one had more, and one guy was catching stripes and crappie at the mouth and didn't seem real interested in "foreign" fish. He said he preferred crappie.

I wasn't in the mood to clean a bunch of fish on a Sunday night, so I kept 6 nice ones for supper for the wife and I. They were good. Better than the frozen tilapia you get at Publix for sure. One thing I learned quick, their spines are even sharper and quicker than bluegills! Handle with care.They also have a lot tougher skin then crappie so I better a cooler full would dull a filet knife blade pretty quick.

I used a slip bobber with a small hook and a chunk of worm about 3' under the float. I want to go back and try my flyrod, that would be fun.

[Tennoutdrsman]

We had a Blast Saturday..Thanks ti Melvin and Merv who let us slide in beside them and catch our share.We gave out hole up t Woody and Don to fill their live well as well....Maybe go back this Sat if the weather is ok..