Oh boy ! It´s that magical time ....

[Raul]

down here when the biguns start the spawn, look at what a pal of mine caught this past week from a yak in a lake about 2 hour drive from my home ( I 've been to that lake and have caught numerous 5-6-7 pounders ) 14 lbs 10 oz on his Rapala scale ( don 't know how accurate it is but it sure is one big momma ). 

[shimmy]

mercy me. I am moving to Mexico

[RoLo]

Now there's a Fat Cow 

Anglers in Florida have a strong tendency to rush the seasons.

It's interesting to note that things are just heating up in Mexico.

Roger

[BigEbass]

Man that is one nice fish - likely gave that yak a nice tug 

[roadwarrior]

As my partner would scream, MOTHER GOOSE!

8-)

[Raul]

All the fish from that lake ( actually most of the fish you catch here in any lake ) look like that, just the way I like them short and fat, tilapia is a wonderful forage base. 

The tilapia from that lake get also quite large, catching a 5 pound tilapia is a common event.

Remember what we were discussing about the lake productivity & fertilization ? I mentioned a lake near the town of Tepatitlán surrounded by chicken farms and the manure leaching into the lake, well the lake I mentioned is the place where that fish was caught. It has several names: Calderón, La Zurda, La Red.

[RiverFisher13]

That thing is a frieken monster

[5bass]

Awesome fish! I'd like to see a side pic of that monster

[firefightn15]

Man, that's quite the beer gut! 8-)

[Raul]

Awesome fish! I'd like to see a side pic of that monster

Per request:

[Raul]

Another view &

[5bass]

There it is....man, what a fish! 

[steezy]

Nice Hawg !

He probably pulled that yak a few yards.

[Hammer 4]

What a beauty... 8-)

[JigMe]

WoW.

[Shane J]

I'd say the scale is right! What a fish!

[Bass_Akwards]

Tilapia  huh?   Sounds very El Saltoish, but from the photos, it looks more like Baccarac.  Maybe neither?

Either way, if you told me I could catch that bass next week if I chopped off my left pinky finger, there's a high probability I'd go buy a scalpel tomorrow.

[Raul]

Tilapia huh? Sounds very El Saltoish, but from the photos, it looks more like Baccarac. Maybe neither?

Either way, if you told me I could catch that bass next week if I chopped off my left pinky finger, there's a high probability I'd go buy a scalpel tomorrow.

Tilapia is the most common bass base forage, it 's everywhere, most of government run stocking programs are with tilapia and mirror carp, the intent is in theory to provide ejidatarios with a source of animal protein for them to consume and an alternative source of income ( by commercial fishing ) added to what they can obtain from farming. 

The lake is located in Jalisco, the town on Tepatitlán, 2 hours drive from my hometown.

[J Francho]

Tilapia huh? Sounds very El Saltoish, but from the photos, it looks more like Baccarac. Maybe neither?

Either way, if you told me I could catch that bass next week if I chopped off my left pinky finger, there's a high probability I'd go buy a scalpel tomorrow.

Tilapia is the most common bass base forage, it 's everywhere, most of government run stocking programs are with tilapia and mirror carp, the intent is in theory to provide ejidatarios with a source of animal protein for them to consume and an alternative source of income ( by commercial fishing ) added to what they can obtain from farming.

The lake is located in Jalisco, the town on Tepatitlán, 2 hours drive from my hometown.

Earlier today I made it a point to ask you why Tilapia, when there are plenty of American Cichlids that might naturally occur.  That answers that one.  Thanks!

[Mattlures]

the nutritional value of tilapia is very similar to rainbow trout. That is why those Mexican bass get soo big and fat. Imagine if one of those Mexican lakes stocked little trout in the winter. Oh Man that would be scary. Raul your budy is a stud. That is a hellofa fish!

[intheweeds]

Wow! Huge bass! I can't wait to get out fishing this weekend.

[Goose52]

Outstanding fish. Too bad there isn't a way to keep that bass and train it to pull the yak around the lake - then you wouldn't have to paddle !

[Catt]

Nadine!!! 

[littlefisher]

Am I the only one thinking that that thing could pull me around in a kayak

[Raul]

the nutritional value of tilapia is very similar to rainbow trout. That is why those Mexican bass get soo big and fat. Imagine if one of those Mexican lakes stocked little trout in the winter. Oh Man that would be scary. Raul your budy is a stud. That is a hellofa fish!

There 's no "winter" Matt, in the warm regions of the country tilapia spawn 3-4 times a year, in the "cold" regions tilapia spawn twice a year so all year long there 's a supply of bite size tilapia for the bass to eat, they don 't need the trout.

The situation with commercial fishermen is that of absolute ignorance, heck, most of them barely finished elementary school, so many of them view bass as a fish that eats the fish they fish for and don 't like bass, they want to see it dead and gone; but as I said, they are ignorant, the reason why they have good tilapia fishing is because bass are there eating away the excess tilapia population that the same tilapia produce. They don 't know that in an environment where there 's only tilapia it grows stunted. Tilapia has intersting breeding habits, first of all it 's a mouthbreeder, secondly, it 's very sexually active and most importantly it matures sexually at a very young age, at 6 months of age it 's ready to breed so if there 's nothing there to control their population the population reaches critical numbers in a very short period of time, they eat away every vegetable matter they can chew upon and when that 's gone they become detritophagous ( mud eaters ), since the population is too large and there 's not enough food they can 't grow, they stunt but still are sexually mature so they spawn which adds more numbers to the population, a never ending vicious circle. But stunted fish are not good enough for human consumption because they are too small and they don 't have the minimum legal size ( 10 inches ) they can 't be kept by the fishermen.

Actually what most of us know as tilapia is not really tilapia from the genus tilapia, we have got used to call tilapia to almost every fish that looks like tilapia when it 's actually a different species belonging to the genus Orechromis which is waht the mexican government stocks in these three principal species: O. aureus, O. mossambicus and O. niloticus, plus a few hybrids of those three species.

So for us who fish in Mexico we have this situation where unless it 's woody cover or some plant the tilapia won 't eat like water hyacinth the lakes are weedless, if you want to catch fish here where "tilapia" is present you have to be good as fishing structure beacuse that where you 'll find the fish.