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John's Journal... Entry 145, Day 4

TRIPLETAIL OFF GEORGIA'S COAST

The Secret of Blackbeard's Tripletail

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.

The Barrier Islands off Georgia's coast are where the legendary pirate Blackbeard hunted and plundered merchant ships. Many believe there may still be pirate treasure buried on these Barrier Islands. We do know however about the treasure called tripletail that for some unknown reason begin to appear in April and May off Jekyll Island.

Question: Greg, where do you see the tripletails swimming in the open water along Jekyll Island?
Answer: The fish usually show up on the north end of Jekyll Island -- from 500 to 1,000 yards off the beach out to three miles. Some of the best fishing is right out from the BeachView Club on Jekyll Island. So if the fishermen stay there, we won't have more than a 10-minute ride before we start fishing.

Question: How long does tripletail fishing last at Jekyll Island?
Answer: We usually sight fish for tripletails from April until the first week of June. But then when commercial fishing starts -- generally during the first or second week of June -- the shrimp boats move within the 3-mile limit, and the tripletails for the most part disappear off the beaches.

Question: Where do the tripletails go next?
Answer: They move out to the channel markers, the floats that are put out to mark crab baskets, and they will hold on to any type of structure in the water.

Question: What's the most unusual piece of structure that you've caught tripletail around?
Answer: Last year I spotted one piece of marsh grass only about 1/4- to 1/2-inches wide, and I caught seven tripletails under that one piece of marsh grass.

Yesterday we talked with Jim Franks about his aquaculture study on tripletail. At the time of this writing, no brood has been produced from the tripletails that Franks is holding in his laboratory in Mississippi.

Question: What do you hope to do with the brood fish that you currently have?
Franks: First we want to find out if we can successfully spawn these fish in captivity. If we're fortunate, then we'll have some eggs and hopefully raise some small tripletails. Right now we're concerned about how to spawn the fish.

Question: What's the hang up with the spawning?
Franks: We have to give the fish a little incentive. We have some hormone treatments that we subject them to, and it doesn't seem to bother them. Our hope is that they will spawn naturally after being exposed to the hormone. If not, we may have to strip spawn them, which is done routinely in aquaculture.

Question: How old do the tripletail have to be before they can start spawning?
Franks: We like the females to be about 2 years old. We think the males mature at about the age of 1. So to be on the safe side, we hope to have some 3-year males and 3-year females to spawn. However, one of the problems is we don't know the sex of any of the fish that we have. Just like the cobia you can't determine the sex of a tripletail by just looking at the fish externally. The males and the females are identical. So we won't know anything until we can initiate our spawning trials, investigate the egg quality and see if the males are producing sperm. We really hope that we don't have tanks full of tripletail that are all the same sex. But we don't know yet.

* 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