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
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