Smart Tilapia

[fifis101]

Hey guys,

I went down the Kedron Brook this arvo hoping to catch my first Tilapia.

Walked the 500 or so metres between the Bradshaw St bridge and the Gympie Rd bridge to see if I could spot a few.

I saw a heap of turtles in the deeper water up near the Bradshaw St bridge so I stayed away from them. Though I did catch one by hand about the size of a 50c piece so the wife could have a pat.

When I got down near the Gympie Rd bridge I found about half a dozen about 35cm+. They seemed to be sitting in nests of cleared out sand about one metre in diameter.

I tried everything I could but couldn't get them to eat my bait. I was even landing the bait right in front of them and they didn't even give it a sniff. I was using peeled prawns from the supermarket. I would have thought that they would have gone for that? I found a group of about a dozen smaller ones and they were smashing my bait but no hook-ups as their mouths were too small for my bait.

It was driving me nuts . I was only metres away from these fish but may as well been a mile away.

Was I just using the wrong bait or was it the fact that they knew I was there so it put them off?

[tomca]

when they are like that I use live earthworms and set them under a float so the bait sits in their face until they can't resist and have a nibble. Wait for long enough that the hook is in and lift the rod a bit to set the hook

[Uthrax]

You could also try putting a lure in front of the nesting ones. They sometimes try to chase them off and end up hooked.

[qbkami]

I usually have success with white bread on a float.

[Bommie]

You could also try putting a lure in front of the nesting ones. They sometimes try to chase them off and end up hooked.

like this

[tomca]

Lightly weighted soft plastics like a Damiki Bing cast past the nest and erratically retrieved throught the nest works too

/>http://www.australianfishing.com.au/forum/freshwater/434927-they-re-back-i-used-my-white-bucket

[fifis101]

You could also try putting a lure in front of the nesting ones. They sometimes try to chase them off and end up hooked.

Tried that with no luck.

I saw them chasing off smaller tilpia so I thought I'd try a lure but they just swam away scared of it.