UrbanFlyVentures » Tilapia

FISH OF THE WEEK

Sean Fenner — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 06:07:33 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve gotten the chance to catch a Tilapia. I was going through my pictures the other day, and found this one from a trip up to the San Gabriel River Bed last year. The last time that we were up there it looked really dead, just one cruising Carp. I heard a rumor from someone that DFG only stocks male Tilapia in California waterways, so as not to overpopulate them. Now I don’t know if this is just in the recent years or if this is true at all. I guess we will just have to make a trip down there to find out ourselves. Please if you fish there practice catch and release. If this is true there are only so many fish to be caught, and if not I don’t think that they would be safe to eat anyway.

FISH OF THE WEEK

Sean Fenner — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:50:00 +0000

This is a photo of a Tilapia that I caught on the San Gabriel River Bed at Whittier Narrows. I was using an Olive Woolly Bugger Size 12 and I caught about 20 Tilapia in the couple of hours that I was there. Tilapia are a great easy fish on a fly, and they will hit just about any fly that you throw in the water. I try a dry fly (bright colors) in the Early hours of the day and nymphs and small streamers work very well if the are fished on an extremely slow retrieve. There is also really good sunfish action at Whittier Narrows in the late Spring to early Fall.

TILAPIA?

Sean Fenner — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 05:03:00 +0000

I started my Whittier Narrows fly fishing experience by exiting the 605 freeway north at peck road. It was sunny and I was ready to catch some fish. Not knowing what I was going to be catching I grabbed my 4-5 weight fly rod and w/floating line and a 3 pound leader. I decided to tie on a size 16 parachute adams w/ a dropper size 18 prince nymph (I used about 6-8 inches for the dropper leader). Before I knew it I pulled out a couple of small Green Sun Fish and a couple of juvenal Blue Gills. After amusing myself with these small fish for about an hour, I started to realize that I was seeing bigger fish out a few more feet, so I tied on a size 12 bead head olive woolly bugger and got the surprise of my life. I must have pulled out about 20 Tilapia in the next hour all on the same fly. After having my fair share of Tilapia and the weather started heating up, I decided to pack up my stuff and headed home. You can fly fish almost anywhere in Southern California, so grab you gear and get to you local lake, stream, river, or whatever and start catching some fish.