Mystery Skykomish fish

[Sthao92]

I recently went fishing on the skykomish river and caught this fish that i think is a tilapia. I have contacted WDFW and sent them pictures of the fish. So far i haven't heard anything from them since i sent them the pictures but will let you guys know if i hear back from them. Also, has anyone else seen these in the skykomish river?

[kzoo]

Looks like a TIlapia to me, I've got some photos somewhere of me catching them in Taiwan. I'll have to dig them up. Incredible that they'd be in the cold river waters.

[Sthao92]

If you could post those pics, that would be great to have somthing to compare them to. I ways pretty surprised to see these in the sky too. I figure someone just let them go in to the sky because they got too big for their fish tank but wanted to see if anyone else was seeing these.

[OFFDAAHOOK]

whatever it is it aint from around here. it do look like a talapia thou? someone musta released it in the system

[MotoBoat]

I was going to say weird looking rock bass. But that thing is what, 2 or 3 or 4 pounds? Guessing based on the size of your jighead.

[chongo469]

Here are some pics I took off the net..
http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&s ... ih=356#i=3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&s ... h=356#i=59" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[OFFDAAHOOK]

actually it does look like rock bass.

[oneshot]

hybrid!

[Sthao92]

That fish is actually not very big maybe a pound and the jig head you thought you saw is actually a corkie. It was close to shore so i put some bait on and tossed it in front of its face and it took it. There was actually another one beside it but didn't catch that one.

[rseas]

Tilapia

[losaturn]

Tilapia. Go to any Asian Supermarket like Great Wall, and they will have tanks full of live ones.

[FishBaitThe2nd]

That is a tilapia, caught tons of them in arizona. They averaged 1-2 pounds.

[knotabassturd]

So there's this river fish joke...

One night in a bar a seaweed slick rock bass said to a svelte carp...



OK not really. I'll just go with the crowd.
It's a tilapia.

[schu7498]

Blue tilapia, they can survive in colder temperatures..

[Sthao92]

Alright thanks for all the info guys. Now we know the identity of the fish, has anyone ever seen or caught them in the sky or similar places? Also, i have not heard back from wdfw about the fish yet.

[Idstud]

Thanks for posting this thread. I sure hope those fish dont destroy our salmon and steel head fishery in that river. I cant wait to hear what the WDFW have to say.

[blurock]

It will be very interesting to hear what WDFW has to say. Thank you for posting this thread.

There are a lot of asian markets around with Tilapia this size live. I wonder if there's some animal rights activist out there buying them and releasing them into the Sky? Like the lobster lady in Mukilteo? Amazing that they could survive in the Sky... Seems like there would be better places to release them if you thought you were going to save some cichlids from becoming dinner haha. Hope there's not many of them and they all die off this winter! :/
This could become a serious issue...

[Shad_Eating_Grin]

how was the fight with the fish? Scrappy? Or like a wet sock?

[Sthao92]

Yes i will let you guys know what they say when i get a response. I was wondering too if someone was buying them and purposely putting them in there trying to make a large population of them or something, but i guess that part we'll never know till we find out how they got there. The fish was small(like a pound) and close to shore so no fight at all.

[knotabassturd]

Blue tilapia, they can survive in colder temperatures..

Ummm just out of curiosity schu, how in the world did you know that was a BLUE tilapia?

Impressive.

Sthao92- Hopefully it is just an outlier and we don't have a new river infestation potential problem.

Given the girth and look of it though I would have thought it would be more like a bluegill on steroids fighting (very feisty). Maybe the cold water kept it sluggish.

PS- did you floss that thing? Just poking a little fun. Glad you rid the river of the monster and as others have mentioned- I'll be curious what the WDFW reports back to you if/when they do.