Where to catch good Talapia?

[MudRiverDan]

Where are the good areas/Dams/Rivers to catch a few?

And what type of bait and rig is best?

Keen to do a bit of freshwater angling for an outing and I figured targeting a few Tilapia might at least be a bit of fun.

Cheers

Dan

[Bruce Micheal]

Hi Dan

My elderly father goes to Somerset Dam (Villeneuve end on the Stanley River). He catches a lot of Tilapia around the 20 to 25cm mark.
He is fairly basic in his fishing gear and uses a hand reel with 20lb mono, a 3 to 1 size hook with a running sinker and garden worms for bait. The trouble is he catches a lot of turtles too!

[Feral]

You need to wait for warmer weather, but Samsonvale and Somerset definitely have some monsters, and they go hard.
I've found cray flesh the best bait for me, on a number 4 hook on the bottom.
Yeah turtles are bycatch when fishing for them. I use circle hooks, makes it easier to remove the turtles from the line.
This is typical of the ones in NPD.


Tilapia.jpg

[kingcray]

Dan

Look for Golds Scrub Lane off Mount Samson Road. There is a cemetary at the end. Park and walk through down to the water. Theres a fairly big grassy area you can fish from.
On a nice day i am sure you will see a bunch of happy people catching large tilapia. Of the 3 times i have gone there the same group have been fishing there. All with buckets full of them. All about the size Feral mentioned above. Fish the bottom with garden worms or baby crays.

[netmaker]

there's no such thing. only good tilapia is a dead one

[lifestyle]

Dan

Look for Golds Scrub Lane off Mount Samson Road. There is a cemetary at the end. Park and walk through down to the water. Theres a fairly big grassy area you can fish from.
On a nice day i am sure you will see a bunch of happy people catching large tilapia. Of the 3 times i have gone there the same group have been fishing there. All with buckets full of them. All about the size Feral mentioned above. Fish the bottom with garden worms or baby crays.

I thought that area was closed to fishing . I hope not as it seems like a nice place to go

[MudRiverDan]

Thanks for the info guys, some great tips.

So they go off the bite in the cooler months?

Dan

[kingcray]

lifestyle news to me. i dont fish the dam at all myself but i like to throw red claw traps out now n then.
There are always people having a fish there.

[scuttlebutt]

I catch quite a few in the upper reaches of the rivers up here on 3.5cm blades. Got a dozen last weekend amongst the sooties and jp's.

[Feral]

Yeah they go very quite in SEQ in winter, if it gets below 10 degrees for a few days they start dropping like flies. Huge kill of them a few years ago in NPD.

[Rainbowrunner]

this is upstream from youngs crossing

http://youtu.be/Qn7AsGRKLG0

[Fitzy]

Most popular places in SE Qld are Lakes Somerset, Wivenhoe and Samasonvale. Rivers both upstream and down of these lakes also have them in good numbers, but the bigger fish tend to come from the lakes. Plenty in Kedron Brook and many other SEQ streams.

Make sure you kill them all, even the little ones & bury them well away from the high water mark (eggs and babies can like in parents mouths for a long time)

Cheers,