TRIPLETAIL OFF GEORGIA'S COAST

Weird Ways to Catch Tripletail

EDITOR'S NOTE: If you've never experienced tripletail fishing, you've missed one of the finest sports in all of salt-water fishing. The tripletail resembles a giant bream and got its name because its anal and pectoral fins sweep back towards its tail, giving the appearance of the fish having three tails. This week we'll take you with us on a tripletail-fishing trip to Brunswick, Georgia, with Captain Greg Hildreth. We'll also bring you up-to-date on some of the latest research on tripletail conducted by Jim Franks and Reed Hendon, fisheries research biologists at the University of Southern Mississippi's College of Marine Science Center for Fisheries Research and Development. Tripletail live in the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the western Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. But anglers nor scientists know very much about this fun-to-catch and delicious-to-eat fish.

Question: Other than live shrimp, on what are you catching tripletail?
Answer: When I first started catching tripletail, I noticed that they would attack the cork -- many times even after they had eaten the live shrimp. And sometimes a tripletail would attack the cork instead of the live shrimp. So I decided to try and fish for them with the same surface lures that I used for bass fishing. To date, I've caught tripletails on the Zara Puppy Spook, which is a small Zara Spook lure that walks from side to side. The tripletail will follow the Puppy Spook and then attack it. I've also taken tripletails regularly on the Rebel Pop-R in the fire-tiger color. The tripletails seem to be attracted to bright colors. I'll cast the Pop-R past the fish, swim the lure up and right in front of their faces and begin to twitch the lure, which the tripletail will attack. Another lure I've been extremely successful with is the DOA Shrimp, which I'll rig under a popping cork. If you're making a long cast to a tripletail and throw your live shrimp off, you can quickly and easily pick up the rod and cast the DOA Shrimp to the tripletail, which will take the DOA Shrimp. If while we're fishing for tripletail our live shrimp die or we have a difficult time finding live shrimp for bait, the DOA Shrimp is a great substitute. Also I have anglers who prefer to fish with artificial baits instead of live baits so they can fish with those artificial baits.

Question: Greg, why did you start fishing these artificial lures?
Answer: I knew I could catch tripletails on live shrimp, and I just wanted to see what other kinds of different baits I could use to catch them. These artificial lures are conditioned baits. With lures like the Puppy Spook and the Pop-R, you have to fish these baits when you're not fishing in a heavy ocean and a strong west wind. When you're fishing surface lures, you want to be able to make long casts and have plenty of time for the fish to see and watch the bait work before it attacks. In a heavy ocean or a strong wind, I want to cast right to the tripletail and get the fish to eat the bait as soon as it sees the lure, before the boat can blow in on top of the fish and spook it.

Question: Greg, how do you fish the DOA Shrimp?
Answer: I fish a DOA Shrimp underneath the Equalizer cork, just as though it's a live shrimp. I take the weight that's in the DOA Shrimp out of the lure. This way the bait doesn't sink and tends to suspend more.

We asked Reed Hendon to give us more information about the research that he and Jim Franks have been performing for the University of Southern Mississippi's College of Marine Science for four years on tripletail in the Gulf of Mexico and specifically what the State of Florida is doing to manage tripletail. Hendon: Currently, the State of Florida has a 15-inch minimum-size limit on tripletail and a two-fish per-day bag limit. We're seeing more states beginning to manage tripletail and beginning to sell the fish.

Question: Reed, what have you learned about the tripletail?
Hendon: We haven't learned anything about the migration of tripletail. We believe they migrate like the cobia do, because they seem to hang out in the same general area and appear about the same time. I think that if we're going to have a problem studying tripletail, it will be in tagging and recapturing tagged fish. Tripletails are found primarily along weed lines and generally tend to hold in the same areas for a period of time. Therefore, if someone tags a tripletail one day, someone else may recapture it a couple of days later. Right now we have very-few tagged tripletail out in the water. We have just sent out tagging kits to anglers to get them to start tagging fish for us. Our study has a real need for people to tag tripletail. So, if any of your readers are interested in tagging the fish, just have them e-mail or call us for a tagging kit.

* To plan a trip to the Georgia coast to catch tripletail this year, contact Captain Greg Hildreth at (912) 261-1763. You also can visit www.georgiacharterfishing.com to learn more.
* I recommend you stay at the really nice Beachview Club with its spacious rooms. The majestic water oaks surrounding the hotel help to shade the pool and the rooms. Too, you can look out your window and see where you'll be fishing the next morning. You can write the Beachview Club at 721 North Beachview Drive, Jekyll Island, Georgia 31527, phone (912) 635-2256, fax (912) 635-3770; you also can e-mail this hotel at beachview@technonet.com
* To learn what all you can do on Jekyll Island, contact Maxine Smith at the Jekyll Island Authority, phone (912) 635-2236 or (912) 635-4076, fax (912) 635-4004 or e-mail her at msmith@jekyllisland.com
* For more information about the type of sunglasses you need to wear to see the tripletail, contact Don Dingman of Ocean Waves at (904) 509-0026 cell phone, (904) 276-1164 home phone or by e-mail at snole1@fbn.com
* To tag tripletail and help fisheries scientists with their research, contact Jim Franks or Reed Hendon at the University of Southern Mississippi College of Marine Science Center by calling (228) 872-4202 or e-mailing jim.franks@usm.edu or reed.hendon@usm.edu

TOMORROW: WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO CATCH