FISHING TIP # 196
Tripletail
Ever Caught a Tripletail?
By Capt Ken Roy
For most folks, the answer is no. For some others, if you ask a few questions, you will find out that they have caught maybe one or two--by accident. Then, there are guys who target Tripletails on a regular basis. Fortunately for those of us who live on the Nature Coast, Tripletails are common all summer long but you gotta’ know what to look for.
Tripletails are often well camouflaged and they have the ability to change color triple to match their surroundings.
The most striking example of their ability to change color that I can remember was the coloration of two Tripletails lying in or on a large clear plastic bag off Fort Pierce. They were just about the color of the bag. Sometimes they are difficult to spot. Free swimming Tripletails, out in open water, are often mistaken for a patch of floating grass. I miss them occasionally even when I am specifically looking for them. I tell folks to look for an old greasy rag that seems to hold position in the current near a buoy or piling. There are exceptions, even common exceptions, with fish that appear gold, white, black or copper.
Tripletails are easy to hook---if you can find them. I’ve caught them in 2’ of water and in 2000’. When they are inshore on this coast, I expect to find them most often hanging around crab traps in 8-20’ or so. Some channel markers hold fish too with some channel markers being far more productive than others. If you find a few Tripletails around a channel marker, store it in your memory bank and look for them there at a later date. Some buoys attract fish in the incoming tide and others on the outgoing, more data for your memory bank or log book.
Tripletails are tough to land because they are extremely strong fighters and are most often hooked around pilings, buoys, crab traps and even FADS deployed to attract Tripletails and Cobia. I strongly doubt that a Trippletail has enough sense to run around a piling or crab trap line to cut you off. They often get lucky and foul the line because they change directions often and sometimes pull twenty or thirty yards of line against the drag.
Tripletails eat just about anything that will fit in their mouth. They hang along side buoys and traps eating any small critter that happen by. They are dash and crash feeders. They can cover 2 feet in the blink of an eye to capture a fish, crab or shrimp. Tripletails have a strong affection for shrimp and live is best. Small crabs and baitfish work fine too.
As in most fishing situations, if there are several Tripletails in one spot, they are far easier to catch. Competition becomes a real ally for the fisherman and proves the downfall of the fish. Single fish are sometimes finicky.
Small jigs work well for Tripletails. Shad tails and twin tail grubs work well for me with bright colors attracting more fish but sometimes being refused at the last moment. A twin tail grub in root beer/ gold flake, clear/ gold flake or clear/ silver flake are usually eaten on sight. When you find a reluctant Trippletail, a simple hair jig with a small tip of cut bait or shrimp often gets bit. A live shrimp or small crab is seldom refused if it comes close to the fish.
Tripletails take crab or shrimp imitating flies readily. In fact, Tripletails may be the easiest of all saltwater fish to catch on a fly. A Clouser minnow in a dark shrimp-imitating pattern catches Tripletails better than any other artificial. When a Tripletail follows the Clouser without taking, let the fly sink. Lots of times the Tripletail will follow the fly all the way down and eat it right off the bottom.
On a cloudy day, when Tripletails are hard to spot, a small weighted spinner with a single hook and a little bait will often catch fish that you’d never see otherwise. Tripletails are one of our better table fish, easy to catch and great fighters.
What more can you ask for in a fish?