Large Tilapia, Lake Houston, 4\19

greyloon · Post by **greyloon** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 1:27 am

Caught this one while casting my net for bait in a shallow cover. Should have stayed with the net, maybe I would have added to the collection. Catfishing wasn't that good, only caught 4 14-15" blues. They are now residing in my freezer. Unfortunately, the Tilapia slipped out of my hands back into the water. They're as slippery as a blue cat, but more difficult ot hold onto.

Night Wing · Post by **Night Wing** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 5:14 am

How long in inches was the tilapia? It seems huge from the picture.

Beve · Post by **Beve** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 7:22 am

Wow Greyloon that thing is a beast!

I've caught some in the cast net before, but never that big. Do you guesstimate a weight?

Forever Fishing · Post by **Forever Fishing** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 7:31 am

Nice catch!

Lagoonfisher · Post by **Lagoonfisher** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 12:45 pm

holy crap thats a big talapia!!!

greyloon · Post by **greyloon** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 2:37 pm

I'm guessing the thing was at least 18-20" long. My guess on the weight is plus 3 lbs, but it could be more. It was almost as wide as long. If bream got that big, you'd need heavy tackle to bring 'em in. That's an Igloo Playmate cooler, the big one, in the background. It had a tough mouth. Tried to string it, but couldn't get the point to go through. It wouldn't fit in the cooler.

I understand that in California, they have quite a following on some lakes with fishermen. They supposedly will take worms. A fellow that fishes Ben's Branch in Kingwood says they hit a 1/4 oz inline spinner in green works well for them.

daniel78222 · Post by **daniel78222** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 3:59 pm

that is a big ol male talapia

Arnulfo Curiel · Post by **Arnulfo Curiel** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 6:55 pm

Wow, thats the biggest one I've seen, great catch!

rodloos · Post by **rodloos** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 9:57 pm

I'll admit, my first reaction on seeing that picture was to double-check the date of the post to be sure it wasn't April 1! Thought it might be one of those giant fish-pillows!

Truly awesome fish.

greyloon · Post by **greyloon** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:01 pm

If you look at the eye, you may not be able to tell, but it was blind in the one shown. Don't know what it is, but about every fifth catfish I've caught that's over 5-6 lbs appears to be blind in one eye. The largest I co-caught with a friend was a 29 lb blue cat on a jug line and was blind in one eye.

greyloon · Post by **greyloon** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:35 pm

For a bit of perspective, go here and click on the picture:

http://greyloon-greyloon.blogspot.com/

Don't worry, the only thing there thus far is the picture of the Tilapia.

Longhorns · Post by **Longhorns** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:39 pm

I've caught a couple of 1/2 blind cats this year. Wonder if it was damage caused by debris from last years floods?

That was a huge tilapia. Not sure I could have IDed it. Wonder who here will claim you are a criminal for "releasing" the fish and not gutting it.

greyloon · Post by **greyloon** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:55 pm

Longhorns wrote:I've caught a couple of 1/2 blind cats this year. Wonder if it was damage caused by debris from last years floods?

That was a huge tilapia. Not sure I could have IDed it. Wonder who here will claim you are a criminal for "releasing" the fish and not gutting it.

Believe me, if I could have held on, it would be in the freezer right now. Would not have gutted it immediately, though its the law. It would not fit into my cooler, didn't have a fillet knife so couldn't make it fit easily, so the only way to keep it fresh would have been to keep it alive. Would have had to plead ignorance if the game warden stopped me. But, I've seen two game wardens on Lake Houston in 4 years and one was in his truck. So, only one on the water.

I actually wasn't sure what it was when I caught the thing. It looked like smaller tilapia I've taken in the cast net, but it was so large. That's why I took the photo and checked on-line when I got home. There must be at least five different types of tilapia. They are members of the cichlid famly, but the cicilids I'm familiar with are more aggressive.

rodloos · Post by **rodloos** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 9:38 am

greyloon wrote:If you look at the eye, you may not be able to tell, but it was blind in the one shown. Don't know what it is, but about every fifth catfish I've caught that's over 5-6 lbs appears to be blind in one eye. The largest I co-caught with a friend was a 29 lb blue cat on a jug line and was blind in one eye.

I wonder if those are catfish someone caught and released. I noticed when running my jug lines setup with circle hooks a few weeks ago, that MANY of the fish I caught had the circle curve into the eye area.

WATER HOG · Post by **WATER HOG** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 10:03 am

Holy crap don't let EWB see this beast !

Captain Gorton · Post by **Captain Gorton** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 10:35 am

wowzeerz. That looks to be the biggest I've ever seen and it would have made a fine meal. Were you cast netting while in your boat or is this not possible? I know I could not do it cause I can barely throw a castnet from the shore.

Forrest · Post by **Forrest** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 11:36 am

WOW! I heard you can catch em over on the west fork wiht a cast net but I had no idea they were getting that darn big! Thats gotta be some sort of lake record.

deluna-tic · Post by **deluna-tic** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 4:21 pm

WOW, thats huge.

greyloon · Post by **greyloon** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 1:20 pm

Captain Gorton wrote:wowzeerz. That looks to be the biggest I've ever seen and it would have made a fine meal. Were you cast netting while in your boat or is this not possible? I know I could not do it cause I can barely throw a castnet from the shore.

I was throwing it while wading. I stopped at a wooded area to take car of nature's business and decided to try for some fresh bait before I took off again. I'm not good with the net, but can do it well enough to get bait. Can toss a 3.5 footer from my kayak or canoe, not well, but it does work.

castaways · Post by **castaways** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 10:47 pm

Check this out: You may have had a record right there.

http://www.landbigfish.com/articles/def ... fc-9152004

Tilapia record broken again, this time on Lake Hogue Arkansas.
WALDENBURG - For the third time this summer, the state tilapia record has fallen. A Little Rock woman on the northeast Arkansas lake caught a 1-pound 12-ounce fish.

Sheila Easterly caught the 14-inch tilapia on a red worm. The previous record was held by Patrick Green of Manila and weighed 1 pound, 11 ounces. Green had broken his record of 1 pound, 8 ounces. Both of Green’s fish were caught on Mallard Lake in northeast Arkansas.

Tilapia have been stocked in the northeast Arkansas lakes as part of a study to determine whether the fish would significantly enhance the food source for predators such as bass and crappie. One of the unknowns was how well that they would be accepted by anglers. Lake managers have been surprised to see the excitement these exotic fish generated among northeast Arkansas’s fishermen.

Interviews of anglers suggest that panfish fishermen harvest many of the tilapia annually. Most tilapia fishermen use red worms as bait. There is no daily creel limit for tilapia.

Tilapia are semitropical fish and cannot survive in cold water. This cold intolerance causes a die-off during the early winter season when water temperatures approach 47 degrees and fish may be picked up with a dip net.

greyloon · Post by **greyloon** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 11:20 pm

Texas state record, rod and reel, is over 6 lbs. By castnet, over 4 lbs. The R&R record is from Gibbons, the castnet problem from Lake Houston.

castaways · Post by **castaways** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 11:28 pm

Well your's was close enough I bet. I'd frame that picture.