Aug. 18 2004

MANILLA - For the second time in as many weeks, a 14-year-old fisherman from Manila has broken his the state record for tilapia.

Patrick Green caught the 1 pound 11 ounce fish that eclipsed the 1 pound 8 ounce tilapia he caught in July. Green caught the fish again on Mallard Lake in northeast Arkansas.

Tilapia were stocked in Mallard Lake this May for the first time as part of a study to determine whether the fish would significantly enhance the lake’s food source for predators such as bass and crappie. One of the unknowns was how well that they would be accepted by anglers. Lake managers have been surprised to see the excitement these exotic fish generated among northeast Arkansas’s fishermen. Interviews of anglers suggest that many of the tilapia are harvested annually by panfish fishermen. Most tilapia fishermen use red worms as bait. There is no daily creel limit for tilapia.

Tilapia are semitropical fish and cannot survive in cold water. This cold intolerance causes a die-off during the early winter season when water temperatures approach 47 degrees and fish may be picked up with a dip net.

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