when I’m cruising the open Gulf I am looking for any object on the surface,” he says. “I especially like to look for current breaks just off our coast. Generally these rips will hold them all summer.”
Action-packed sight-casting for tripletail develops off the Louisiana coast from late June through October. Early fronts that lower the water tem- perature send the fish on a southerly migration. “Typically, when we find them they
are in small schools of three to five. However, I have found groups of 15 fish or more,” says Stansel. “They are an extremely aggressive fish. They attack my offerings and make power- ful runs and, surprisingly, occasionally they jump.”
Stansel, who guides clients in South- west Louisiana from his Hackberry Rod and Gun Club, notes two distinct runs. One starts early in the summer at the nearshore platforms, wellheads and buoys consisting primarily of fish weighing 5-15 pounds. The second occurs in late summer and fall, when it is not uncommon to find 25-pounders lurking on the surface.
Capt. Stansel likes a 7-foot, medi- um-action rod spooled with 20-pound
Knowing the migra- tory patterns of a pelagic species is important for manage- ment of that species and gives information which would support the protection of stocks in the future.
Power Pro joined with a double uni- knot leader of 30 pounds. He prefers a 1/8-ounce jig head with a loop knot, and is fond of Texas Tackle Factory’s Hackberry Hustler in the “mumpy” color. He also likes a Berkley Gulp 3- inch shrimp as well as live shrimp when available. “I have rarely seen a tripletail refuse a live shrimp,” he says.
TELLING THE TALE
Jim Franks and Read Hendon, fisheries scientists and biologists at the University of Southern Missis-
sippi Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, are beginning to shed some light on the species once deemed the least understood gamefish roaming the surface of the sea. The two men have been studying the species for more than 10 years and launched a volun- teer tag and release program in 2000. Since then, approximately 2,500 triple- tail have been tagged, and approxi- mately 200 have been recaptured. “We wanted to understand the sea- sonal movement patterns and migrato- ry trends of the species. Knowing the migratory patterns of a pelagic species is important for management of that species and gives information which would support the protection of stocks in the future,” says Franks.
Their special tags have been inserted into tripletail from Florida to Texas, and their findings suggest that tripletail undertake a seasonal offshore-onshore migration — overwintering offshore and migrating inshore with the onset of warm waters in the spring and sum- mer. The theory seems plausible, as anglers have observed them under floating Sargasso weed in water as deep as 1,500 feet and near floating objects in water as shallow as 2 feet. Their winter haunts remain a bit of a mystery.
TIDE
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