# Big tripletail in Georgia



## JoeZ (Sep 30, 2007)

Went over to Jekyll Island, Ga., last week for a wedding of two of my best friends. Oneo f those about-damn-time events where everyone you haven't seen in 10 years shows up and gets retarded all week long.

We had an off-the-beach house for the week and I planned to take the bride-to-be on an inshore trip with a captain who came recommended from one of my editors at Florida Fishing Weekly. 

Wow!

I did some research first and figured out what was THE thing to target there and really wanted to hit some tarpon. Well, poon don't run there until July or August so Plan B, tripletail.

I've never tried to target them here, just not enough of them from what I can tell.

There, they've got bus loads of them and they're about as big.

We were pitching shrimp under corks at the river bouys and first cast BAM, fish on. I set the hook, Captain backs us up and I see this monster white flash, a splash and then a shrimpless hook and cork flying back at my head. Fish off.

That thing was huge! I mean trash can lid big. Not a little tin one, the on the street giant black plastic ones. Big SOB.

Second shot results in a wee little 5-pounder but he was fun and the skunk was off.










My buddy Fred steps up and gives it a shot. Cast, plop, BAM fish on and it's about 10 pounds bigger than the first. Hard to tell in the water but we were only 20 feet away and the Captain put it at about 30-35 pounds. 

Flash, splash. Fish off.

Traci is giddy at this point but too scared to touch the baitcaster after seeing me screw up three times with it and get yelled at (not yelled at but very sternly explained to) about how to work the stupid thing.

She lets me have another crack at it.

Cast, hey I didn't screw that one up, plop, drift, Where'd the cork go? What was that? Holy sh*t that's big. 

Captain drags it away from the bouy with the boat and I start fighting this submerged Buick of a fish. I see it once and it's large. It dives. I get line back. It dives. I get line back. 20 minutes later, we got dinner and I'm tired.










Went 16 pounds on the Boga.

We hit a few bouys out toward the Atlantic and Traci was up.

She was a pro with the baitcaster but couldn't set the hook for sh*t. She lost a good one and set the hook before another one ate. She got jumpy and saw it coming and just jumped the gun.

The tide started pciking up and we weren't getting any hits after an hour or two so it was time for trout.

We ran around Cumberland Island to a little washout with the falling tide. We anchored in about 6 feet of water, maybe 10, and drifted shrimp over some submerged stumps for the last two hours of the trip. 

Traci -- Ms. I've never fished before -- caught no less than 25 nice specks (2 over 5 pounds and one pushing 7) while Fred and I made a mess of bluefish. Fred started getting bored and pitching bait of the front of the boat while the Captain says "He'll never catch anything up there." 

Three flounder later, Captain Ken eats his words. I'm still troutless at this point.

I get bored with the baitcaster (more bored of the tangled mess I've created) and steal an ultralight spinning combo from the rack with a DOA on it and finally get a few trout -- 10 or so.

We left them biting as we ran out of shrimp and time and Captain took us back to the dock on Jekyll with a pile of fish to clean.

It took two hours for me and Fred to clean all the fish (40 something trout, 3 flounder, 2 sheepshead and one big ass triple -- those things are armor plated by the way, bring a chainsaw). Well, two hours of clean a fish, drink some beer, smoke a cigar, clean a fish ...

The camera we took all our dock pics on got stolen that same night from Fred's wife's purse so I don't have a pic of the log jam that was the cleaning table. 

Oh, there was a wedding at some point that week but that's a different story.


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## JoeZ (Sep 30, 2007)

Thanks E.

Having never caught a triple here, is 16 big, average or what. I've seen a few in Mobile that were 16ish. The captain said it was average for over there and he's regularly pulled upper 20s and some 30s. State record there is like 40 something. Here it is 32.


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## Dylan (Apr 15, 2008)

Nice catch Joe Z! Ive always wanted to catch tripletail but have never had the chance..Are they as good to eat as everyone says? Now that your are a Georgia tripletail pro you will have to become one here so you can tell us how to catch one at the seminars...


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## Wharf Rat (Sep 27, 2007)

Nice job! Never heard of em being caught in P'Cola Bay. Got a buddy that catches them in Mobile bay by throwing shrimp on a popping cork around the crab pot bouys, bouys and pilings.


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