The "other" Crappie ?

Hopefully no one gets sideways over this post . I couldnt find a place on this forum to post up about Tilapia . We went to the nuclear power plant lake out by Glen Rose , Texas yesterday . Its a by appointment lake and i have heard some really good stories about the truck loads of Tilapia it has and how fun and easy they are to ketch . Well i had a tip or 2 and none of them played out early . We found drum and catfish at first doing what the local folks told us to do . so after about an hour of not ketchn Tilapia we started to just do our own thing . The rig has an 1198 on it and we just cruised the shore line a bit and side scanned . We set her at about 40 foot and didnt go far before we came up on some cat tails and the imaging suggested there was a herd of fish up by them .
Well between the 3 of us it was a cast or 2 and it was on ! Once we understood them we slayed them beyond reality . They are pretty good fighters with a bream like thing at first and then power once they realize what the deal is . we filled up 2 48 quart ice chests by lunchtime and called it a day . They wanted pcs. a worm on gold wire hooks about 18 inches under a float in about 2 foot of water . sure did take a long time to clean all them fish though ...:banghead
Anyway i told yawl i was going and thats what i did ....
and as we say in these parts KABOOM .... :highfive
till my next adventure hope you have a great day :ThumbsUp

Sounds like ya'll had a blast! And interesting to know that Tilapia are stocked in lakes in some parts of the country. If you gonna eat them, then your doing it the right way. I don't any farm raised aquatic species, not tilipia, not shrimp, heck not even catfish anymore. Wild caught is the way to go.. nice job Ketchn, and great post as always!!

Very nice catch,bet they did take awhile to clean.

Looks like lots of good eating there. I like to bake them with butter and Old Bay seasoning

Good to see someone is catchin', cleanin' and eatin' them. Have been told it is unlawful to toss them back into the lake in that particular lake. Nice haul.

We stocked our 100 acre club pond with Tilapia to help control weeds. The Hatchery folks told us that when the water temp got to the 50s they would come up to the surface and we could net them for a fish fry. They must have found a thermal stream cause we never saw them again.
Did catch one every now and then, good eating.

That cooler is more like a "treasure chest" when you consider what the price per pound is (whole fish weight), which is between $3.00 - $3.50 :biggrin

We can buy'em at the store or in some restaurants, but I don't know of any lakes around here that have them.

With all that fin coverage, I suspect them critters can give you some good pullage !!

Never eat one, do they taste just like chicken?

When you turn out the lights do they glow?:biggrin:biggrin

Nice catch. Those somehow got into Old Hickory Lake in Gallatin, TN. At first folks were only catching them at the Gallatin Steam Plant discharge canal. Then they started showing up at different spots of the lake. People have caught cooler fulls in areas of the lake in early winter when water temps were at 48 degrees. The theory is they are climatizing to the cold weather.


Regards

First time ever seeing one,betta they was fun to catch.
LittleJohn

Nice job and thanks for posting, I enjoyed it!

Sounds like a blast

thanks for the kind words yawl .....sure was some fun ....let me say this though ....i saw a video where an ole boy was using kittyfish grabbers when he landed them ? i thunk sissy boy for sure ,,,,till i tried to hold one with out getting finned to beat the band ...LOL our hands looked like screen doors when it was over i tell ya ....
my bud sent me some photos of where he fried up a bunch of the little versions ....said they were REALLY GOOD ....
and yes you must keep and clean all you ketch on this water body ....
and the sign says watch out for dangerous reptiles as well .....
so i would call it a pretty cool adventure ,,,,and to top the chart off .....
we saw only one boat on the water .....:highfive

A screaming drag is for sure a good sound & I'm sure y'all heard lots of it on that trip.....WTG

Nice, I didn't know it was a stocked fish.
We buy Talipia at the local grocery store. Good eating, it's a white meat and tastes kind of bland to me. Needs spices.

i think the original plan was to put them there to control vegetation . now because of the year round warm water they are in large numbers and considered dangerous to other water bodies . they have strict regs. on killing and gutting them before removal . funny you mentioned the taste of them as bland because they have almost no fish odor when handled as well . and let me add this one little information fact to all ....THEY ARE SOME kinda funky to clean .....the green juice spraying out of them is quite repulsive and the black body cavity lining is really strange as well ....you must gut them and rinse them before you fillet them due to the yellow/green juice issue tainting the meat as well as being part of the regs. on them anyway .
glad yawl enjoyed the adventure but i am not sure i will be doing it again myself and my other half said dont bring any of them nuclear fish home anyway ...LOL

Nice catch.

Wow! I know you had a good time catching them. Thanks for the report and pictures.

far out....

I would love to see them stocked around and in Middle east TN. Good story, thanks.

Those things are built like tanks! The green goo and black body cavity is some kind of strange!


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No cats tast like chicken so Im told.

I used to tie into them when I lived in south Florida. Between those, the Mayan Cichlids, Peacock Bass, and other exotics it was like fishing in an aquarium versus a lake. You have some fine eating for a good while with that cooler!

They aren't shy to bite a jig. Too.


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Y'all cleaned up on them! Nice going buddy!

Skip

I think the cleaning to longer than the ketchn .....:Rofl

Didn't know u could ketch them on hook
Heard they fed plankton. Oh well u always bring the heat on your adventures!

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Never saw one before