Tilapia added to Sturdivant Lake in April, 2005

Here is the story and photos of last year's tilapia project. If I can come up for a breath, I will add this year's info.

Big tilapia were added to Lake Emma Lou at Bar-D and to Sturdivant Lake at the Donavan Club on Wednesday, April 28, 2004. Dicky Odom from Eutaw brought the brood fish to our lakes. The tilapia weighed from 1/2 to 3 pounds. They were all different colors from pink to white to blue. These tropical fish will add thousands of fry to the lakes and the bass and big bream will really get a protein boost.   Lake Emma Lou at Bar-D got a big load of tilapia in April of 2004. You can see these red, white and blue colored fish swimming lazily under the feeders...waiting for the next meal.     Tilabia are phytoplankton and filamentous algae (pond scum) eaters. They will feed on the catfish food that our feeders put into the water three times a day. Please don't catch and keep the talipia until 1 September, 2004. These fish are expensive ($3/lb.) and we put them in the lakes to add forage for the bass and bream. Remind your fellow club members not to keep the tilapia. If this tilapia experiment works, we will do it every year. You can see what tilapia look like from the photos of these fish caught by my brother in his lake in Arkansas.

Ray Wilson, Manager Wilson's brother, stocked his 20 acre north Arkansas lake with Tilapia and got great results and superb table fare. The Tilapia spawned every 28 days and added thousands of forage fish to the lake. Tilapia are outstanding fish to eat..."best tasting fish I have ever eaten"... stated brother Ray.