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
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