Tiliapia

[catfish]

Here is a picture of some tiliapia I shot close to home.

[jeffe]

Yuuuuum ! great catch, how many in a daily limit ? How many in a possesion limit ?:)

[catfish]

Tialipia are not native to Florida. They were imported from Africa back in the 60's. There is no bag, season or size limit. I only try to get the big ones 2lbs. or more. I see lots of smaller ones but they need to be about 2lbs. to filet. There are 36 of them in the picture. I see gators from time to time.

[jeffe]

What does the meat look like ?
Do they fillet out like a crappie ?

[catfish]

Tilapia is a mild white fish. Walmart, publix,WD sells farm raised tilapia. They taste alittle better than the wild fish. If the pond is muddy you can sometimes tast a little of it. I like to put them in a baking bag with butter tamatos onions .

[PaulR]

Let me know if you want another person to go freshwater! I am here in indialantic.

[jeffe]

Your recipe, and the fish sound goooood !
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Tilapia is a mild white fish.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~:)

[KRISISREADY]

I THOUGHT FRESHWATER SPEARFISHING IS ILLEGAL?
IN FLORIDA
BUT FROM THE LOOK OF IT I COULD BE WRONG
AND ANYONE PLEASE CLEAR IT UP FOR ME

THANKS

[OceanEd]

PaulR, you met Catfish at the first Melbourne spearfishing club meeting. He was talking about spearing the tilapia in his ponds, but I had no idea until I saw this picture.

Congrats, Catfish.

[catfish]

hey is PaulR the kid.

[PaulR]

I am proudly the youngest member at 17.

[OceanEd]

Catfish, dive with PaulR and talk to him a while and you will find that he isn't a "kid". I look forward to diving with him when I get back to the USA in April.

[fernandezh]

Freshwater spearing is illegal Florida for several species. I netted some Tilapia as a kid (on a fish farm :D) and thought the meat tasted like mud. You know it doesn't taste good when even my mom begs me not to bring it home anymore.

[jeffe]

CATFISH,
What time of the year do they nest ? Do they wallow out a nest on the bottom ?

[jeffe]

I just spent nine days on Lake Ouachita Spearing and frying fish !
Every time we would get the oil hot, I kept expecting JFG to walk into camp with a plate in one hand and a fork in another, sayin' "didja' fry em' up yet ?"
A couple of Spearboard Lurkers that I know did make it however, and they brought some Tilapia with them. The oil was hot, and they had already filletted the fish so we fried em' up.
It turns out that the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has stocked some in two Northern Arkansas Lakes. I can't remember which two, but they were Lakes that had no meaningful overflow or discharge. They said that the water was too cold and that the Tilapia weren't adapting very well, so they would probably just dwindle out of existance.
Oh, yeah, bout' the taste, not bad, not at all bad. Of course it wasn't a fair taste test, I also had some Bluegill on the table.
If ya' geta' chance, ya' need to give em' a try. Pretty meat, great texture, good taste !
It was my first, and it won't be my last.

[floridiot]

That's ghetto fish boys

[jeffe]

Originally posted by floridiot
That's ghetto fish boys
do they go well with sweet taters n' cornbread, yep they shure do !
I ate them while on the Lake, they was alright there, first chance I get to try them in the ghetto, I will, they might taste even better there !

[jfg]

Originally posted by floridiot
That's ghetto fish boys

That's ok, I hear that about catfish too..I like Tilapia, a county boy can survive:D

[freediver74]

Is ther some reason you need a 48" gun to shoot tilapia?

Seems like overkill to me.

[jeffe]

Originally posted by freediver74
Is ther some reason you need a 48" gun to shoot tilapia?

Seems like overkill to me.
I expect the ol' boys will fetch em' with what ever is at hand.
However I like to use this one for pan fish, it's fast and if you keep your stringer in your other hand it's also fast, especially when stringin' thru both eyes, before removin' the spear.

[from the sea]

Originally posted by freediver74
Is ther some reason you need a 48" gun to shoot tilapia?

Seems like overkill to me.

it probabally is like skeet shooting........