5 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

Got this big bream off the dock yesterday evening…

Perfect frying pan size!

Got a couple hours in Thursday evening. The water is fast!!!! And white bass love it 

 

had another couple hours to spare this morning, I set out some striper bait and casted around with a second rod. I lost the same nice sized LM twice in the same spot. ? This little green sunfish was my consolation prize. He kept me from being skunked and sight fished it haha

Went out this past foggy Saturday morning looking for those same smallies from last trip. No dice there, but got a really nice pickerel (24”, 4#) on a chatterbait. Also managed a couple crappie and perch on a trd ticklerz just to see if they were around. I’ll go back this week and keep a dozen or so. 
 

I also learned this lake has tons of white perch. There was a school of at least 10k fish in the backwater. I had to snag one to see what they were. I thought they were shad at first. 

 

 

Florida Fish and Wildlife: "TiLaPiA aRe RaReLy CaUgHt On ArTiFiCiAl LuReS"

 

Me, who seemingly cannot escape them:

 

I've caught almost 50 of them already this year, all hooked in the mouth on aggressive strikes. No big ones so far this year, one ~5lbs. I've caught a few over 7lb and my biggest is 8lb 10oz, good fighters when they get that size, great at using their flat sides to their advantage.

7 minutes ago, Aaron_H said:

Florida Fish and Wildlife: "TiLaPiA aRe RaReLy CaUgHt On ArTiFiCiAl LuReS"

 

Me, who seemingly cannot escape them:

 

I've caught almost 50 of them already this year, all hooked in the mouth on aggressive strikes. No big ones so far this year, one ~5lbs. I've caught a few over 7lb and my biggest is 8lb 10oz, good fighters when they get that size, great at using their flat sides to their advantage.

I wonder what you caught them on?

22 minutes ago, Robert C. Gates said:

I wonder what you caught them on?

 

That one was on a 1/2 oz Booyah One Knocker (pictured, but it's top down so hard to identify). Lipless cranks have been my most productive lure for them, my PB was caught on a Red-Eyed Shad in chili craw. I have also caught them on jerkbaits (which they react very strongly to), chatterbaits (tougher to hook them on, they usually will short strike and bite the tail off the trailer, but again they are very aggressive towards it and I often have them "hunt" it all the way to the bank), and soft plastics.

2 hours ago, Aaron_H said:

 

That one was on a 1/2 oz Booyah One Knocker (pictured, but it's top down so hard to identify). Lipless cranks have been my most productive lure for them, my PB was caught on a Red-Eyed Shad in chili craw. I have also caught them on jerkbaits (which they react very strongly to), chatterbaits (tougher to hook them on, they usually will short strike and bite the tail off the trailer, but again they are very aggressive towards it and I often have them "hunt" it all the way to the bank), and soft plastics.

Thank you for that information. That is very interesting. I know they are present in the lake where I fish from shore. I fish about three or four times a week, mostly at dawn and just after, with a wide variety of baits but I have only caught one Tilapia and that was foul hooked in the gill plate. I often fish lipless lures and chatterbaits and catch bass, but not Tilapia. I wonder what you are doing that I am not doing?

That I cannot answer, perhaps I am just the Tilapia Whisperer™ ?

 

I'm not sure what, if anything, has changed. I have fished these types of lures for years but have only started catching tilapia in significant numbers over the last 18ish months. Plenty of vegetation and their usual forage available, but they are just super aggressive in a few of the ponds I frequent. I thought it was just aggression protecting their beds around the spawn when I first started getting them, but it's become a year-round bite.

4 hours ago, Aaron_H said:

That I cannot answer, perhaps I am just the Tilapia Whisperer™ ?

 

I'm not sure what, if anything, has changed. I have fished these types of lures for years but have only started catching tilapia in significant numbers over the last 18ish months. Plenty of vegetation and their usual forage available, but they are just super aggressive in a few of the ponds I frequent. I thought it was just aggression protecting their beds around the spawn when I first started getting them, but it's become a year-round bite.

and they are supposed to be tasty I hear.  5 lb fish on the regular that taste like crappie and are an invasive fish?  I’d be keeping a couple week. 

Hundreds of hungry herring were happily had 

The alliterative angler.

6 hours ago, ATA said:

Slabs!

I was fishing a live bait rig for some Spring Perch. With my polarized glasses I saw this guy swim slowly up from the depths and engulf my bait.

 

First Brook and Rainbow Trout that I have caught! I caught this Brook Trout and a few more of them in North Carolina and the Rainbow Trout in Kentucky.

2 hours ago, TheBasslayer said:

First Brook and Rainbow Trout that I have caught! I caught this Brook Trout and a few more of them in North Carolina and the Rainbow Trout in Kentucky.

Oh heck yeah.

 

ive got some trout pictures coming too hopefully. Going out with a friend shortly. Caught one already today. 
 

How’d you like Carolina?

4 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Oh heck yeah.

 

ive got some trout pictures coming too hopefully. Going out with a friend shortly. Caught one already today. 
 

How’d you like Carolina?

It was a fun trip! Not too much fishing as it was a family trip, but the fishing was good.

Nice one today on a Kastmaster spoon

 

First one of these jerks for the season...Pretty sure this is the earliest in the year I've ever caught one (yesterday, 4/3).  

 

Thought this was a mega smallie.  Hooked him right in the top of the mouth.

This little 34" or so muskie absolutely SMOKED my A rig with about 6' of line out, then proceded to go ballistic at boat side. It went into, then mostly back out of the net, but the A rig was hung in the netting so I just used the net to boat flip it. LOL. What a catastrophe!!! 

 I tried my Tharp Guntersville Special out as an A rig rod for the first time yesterday. It's a 7'11" Heavy. Listed as fast but it's definitely on the slower side of that. It does a great job with the rig. The long handle takes alot of the work out of throwing it, vs a shorter rod, and it has a nice parabolic bend with plenty of power. It made short work of this joker. Nice to have a second use for it. Previously it was just for jerking fish out of matted grass.

 

 

 

 

 

I realize conch and welk aren't exactly a latest "catch" but they were a fun grab and release.

On 3/25/2022 at 5:51 AM, TnRiver46 said:

Hundreds of hungry herring were happily had 

From college in Nashville, would visit my grandfather on his farm in McNairy Co. 

Picwick was close, and remember April days with a fly rod below the dam.  Could sit on the ramp and troll the fly rod in the generator eddy - and catch Tennessee tarpon at the rate of 100/hr. 

I was finally able to get out and catch some Trout. Only a week since the season opener…

 

 

Almost a limit. The last one got off before I could land it.