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John's Journal... Entry 145, Day 3

TRIPLETAIL OFF GEORGIA'S COAST

What You're Going To Catch

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: Greg, tell me about the best of tripletail fishing you've ever had off Jekyll Island?
Answer: Last summer my wife Delaine and I tagged and released 17 tripletail in a 6-hour trip. The next day we went back and tagged 13 tripletail in a 6-hour trip.

Question: Why are you tagging tripletail?
Answer: To my knowledge, there hasn't been very much research done along the Atlantic Seaboard on tripletail -- especially on the south Atlantic Coast. I'm tagging these fish for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. I hope they'll get a grant to do an extensive study on tripletail -- much like the study that Jim Franks and Reed Hendon are doing on the Mississippi Coast in the Gulf of Mexico. I want to know where these Atlantic Ocean tripletails migrate, what their spawning habits are, what their growth rate is and whether some of the fish that we tag on the Atlantic Coast may be some of the same fish going into the Gulf of Mexico by swimming around the tip of Florida.

Question: Have you had tagged fish that were returned yet?
Answer: I have had only one of my tagged fish re-caught. It was caught two days after I tagged it. So we didn't get any information from the fish. In the past two years, I've measured and tagged 70 tripletail, but so far I haven't heard from any of them.

Jim Franks and Reed Hendon however have learned quite a bit about the tripletail that they have been tagging and studying for the last four years.

Question: Reed, what have you learned about tripletail that most people don't know.
Hendon: Tripletails are extremely fun to catch, but they can be very skittish. One afternoon Jim Franks and I were out in the Gulf of Mexico and spent more than two hours trying to catch one fish. That particular tripletail just wouldn't take the hook. We were trying to get that fish to age him and bring him back to spawn. Tripletails seem to have an on/off switch when it comes to feeding. Sometimes you can throw a shrimp out and if there is more than one tripletail, they will fight to try and get the shrimp. Other times you can throw a shrimp out, and the tripletail will just ignore the bait.

Question: Jim, why is your study group considering the tripletail as a possible aquaculture fish?
Franks: The tripletail has tremendous growth potential and delicious flesh. Tripletail are easy to maintain and grow in tank systems. I believe the tripletail to be an ideal aquaculture fish. We're conducting aquaculture studies on the tripletail now and are making our first spawning trials of it that have been held in captivity.

Question: How fast do the tripletails grow?
Franks: They grow to about 5 to 6 pounds in one year, a trait that makes them a highly marketable fish to the aquaculture trade. We learned about their growth rate by capturing the juveniles in the wild over the last few years. Reed and I were very fortunate several years ago when we found some sargassum (seaweed) full of little tripletail that were about 2 inches long that had just been spawned. We dip netted them and were fortunate enough to bring them back alive. We raised these tripletails for about a year, and they all grew to weigh more than 5 pounds each. So, we know that in captivity, the tripletails' growth rate is phenomenal. We feel that what we've learned in the laboratory mimics the growth rate of tripletails in the wild.

* 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

 

 

Check back each day this week for more TRIPLETAIL OFF GEORGIA'S COAST ...

Day 1 - Fun Catching Tripletail and the Equipment You Need
Day 2 - Weird Ways to Catch Tripletail
Day 3 - What You're Going To Catch
Day 4 - The Secret of Blackbeard's Tripletail
Day 5 - When Do the Tripletail Start Invading the Channel Markers?


John's Journal