Lures Meant to Imitate Tilapia
The concept of “match the hatch” has been drilled into every angler’s head since they first picked up the sport, so when bass fishermen head to Mexico many of them seek out lures that replicate tilapia. It makes sense – even though bass at lakes like El Salto and Picachos feed on other baitfish, it’s the prolific tilapia population that helps them grow so big. I’d guess that on every second or third trip we find a 7-plus-pound bass floating on the surface having choked to death on a full grown tilapia.
Despite all of that, I’ve never done really well on baits meant to imitate this forage. Maybe it’s just me, but a Citrus Shad crankbait, a black/blue worm, a white Rico and a watermelon Senko have far outproduced the hyper-realistic patterns I’ve tried South of the Border. Nevertheless, I know that many anglers are wedded to the idea of true-life imitations, so here are some of the variants I’ve found. Please note that even on a given lake the tilapia may have vastly different looks.
Of course, many of us not only want to match the hatch in terms of coloration, but also in terms of size. In Mexico, that may mean swimbaits. Before our 2020 trip I obtained the JDM Imakatsu Bassroid glide bait. It’s a true thing of beauty, both in and out of the water, and while I didn’t get it to work for me, I probably didn’t give it enough of a chance. It’s headed back down on future trips.
Many of you likely remember the now defunct Tru-Tungsten brand for their role in introducing tungsten sinkers to the US market, but you may not also remember that they made swimbaits. My friend Clark Reehm got some great coverage at an Elite Series event on Lake Amistad using one successfully.
Mattlures, one of the most well-respected swimbait manufacturers bridging the gap between garage-produced and mass-produced, also has a tilapia imitator.
On our first May/June trip to El Salto, back in 2013, there was a really good offshore bite on hollow belly swimbaits and one group who’d run out of them was going from table to table at dinnertime asking to buy any Yum Money Minnows that were available. I believe the best colors that trip were white and shad, but they also used to come in a color called Tilapia. I still have a bunch in the garage.
Historically, a wide variety of hard baits have been produced in patterns called Tilapia, but for some reason either the paint job or the lure itself seems to get discontinued. One such example is the hard-to-find XCalibur series of rattling baits, like the XR50 and XR75.
Same with Koppers (Live Target)
Bill Norman, which for decades has made popular crankbaits like the Deep Little N, DD14 and DD22, used to have a tilapia color, but it seems to have been discontinued as well.
Talon Lures previously had both spinnerbaits and flutter spoons available in tilapia patterns, and Hanna did very well on the spoon last November, but they seem to have discontinued those options.
One spinnerbait that’s still available in a tilapia replica is the Spot Sticker Mini Me, the lure that produced my single best El Salto spinnerbait fish (albeit in chartreuse/white).
One relatively new company that has bought into the tilapia mythology is 6th Sense of Texas. Several models, including their Cloud 9 crankbaits, might be good choices if you’re intent on matching the hatch.
In the world of soft plastics, several companies produce a range of shades of tilapia imitators. Big Bite Baits may have the widest variety of offerings in this pattern, in baits including their BFE Creature Bait, Fighting Frog and Pro Swimmer.
Zoom also offers the color in a limited range of lures, including several of their most popular options like the Z Craw and the Baby Brush Hog.
If none of these really excite you, but you still think this is a valuable path to follow, you can pour your own soft plastics or pay a custom painter to produce picture-perfect imitations. The choice is yours – just be sure that the fact that you paid a premium for them doesn’t prevent you from throwing them in the thick stuff (and don’t forget about some of the tried-and-true patterns that don’t look like anything found in nature).
