THREE TAILS ATale of
Big, delicious and powerful — the tripletail is drawing a lot of attention from scientists and anglers.
Text and photos by Will Drost T 18
HERE IS JUST something magical about sight-fishing. Be it directing a tight- looped-fly near a pair of hungry redfish or swim-
ming a well-placed lure in front of a curious cobia, nothing heightens the fishing senses like seeing a targeted species eat through polarized glasses. And perhaps none is more entertaining than the aggressive tripletail. The uniqueness of
the species is
only outdone by its vast nomenclature. Labeled rockfish, blackfish, drift fish, and buoy bass in other parts of the country, they are simply tripletail here on the Cajun Riviera. A second pair of dorsal and anal fins that extend far back on the body make them appear to have three tails. Their colors range from dark brown with a grayish silvery tint to mottled white and yellow, and they enjoy a chameleon-like ability to match their surrounding structure of choice.
They protect themselves well with a sharp, spiny dorsal fin and a set of wicked, serrated gill plates. Their prowess as a gamefish is remarkable with those three tails providing amaz- ing propulsion. Think of a sac-a-lait on steroids or a colossal crappie. Perhaps their power is only surpassed by their aggressiveness. Jeff Kaiser, a research scientist associate with the University of Texas Marine Science Institute experimented with eight tripletail ranging from 12-20 pounds. “The fish is really tough,” he says.
“We spent considerable time trying to get them to spawn, but it seemed all they really wanted to do was fight.”
SEEING IS BELIEVING Primarily a surface fish, tripletail
prefer to hang out under just about any kind of
surface-oriented structure. When they cannot find a bucket or a tree limb, or some other Gulf flotsam, they will simply lie on their sides to
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mimic debris, allowing baitfish to gather under them mistakenly think- ing they are finding protection from predators. They are opportunistic eaters
Primarily a surface fish, tripletail prefer to hang out under just about any kind of surface- oriented structure.
and feed on a variety of small finfish and invertebrates. Many times triples appear docile — even curious, says Capt. Brett Stansel, who successfully targets them throughout the summer. “Tripletail like big patches of
Sargasso weed, wellheads, buoys and any kind of flotsam. Rest assured,
TIDE
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