Tripletail

[Capt Matt]

Nothing better than running miles of Crab pots a week before Christmas in a pair of shorts.
You can have your white Christmas, give me low 80's and calm winds on my quest for a 25# plus Tripletail.
Capt Matt


a 9 and 10 pounder caught by a client yesterday

[wingtime]

NICE CATCH!

[icemanbryan]

Very nice!
I really like your website.
Nice attention to detal.

[Blue Agave]

Fish sandwiches......

[gran398]

Very nice!
I really like your website.
Nice attention to detal.

Agree! Matt, really enjoyed the discussion about the new ride!

http://www.captmattmitchell.com/report09102011.htm

Nice catch too :rendeer:

[seabob4]

Scott, you guys get tripletail up your way?  Matt, used to cruise by marker buoys, crab traps and  the like in Sarasota Bay, hoping to a glimpse of those dorsals or a tail...awesome catch, dude!!  BTW, that pic of the little one with his triple on your site?  Priceless!!  

[gran398]

I think we MAY have them way offshore (break).

 For sure though they are an uncommon catch.

[RickK]

Sweet  :!:  :!:
So you cut the throat and bleed them?

[John Jones]

I think we MAY have them way offshore (break).

 For sure though they are an uncommon catch.

This says all the way to Mass.
http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/Species ... tripletail

The local name for them here is black fish.

[seabob4]

Sweet  :!:  :!:
So you cut the throat and bleed them?

Can't say I've ever heard the need to bleed them (???)...  A sharp knife and a firm grip are needed, as the skin is very tough, but the meat is awesome!  Almost denser than snook, but with a wonderful sweet flavor, they make great steaks on the grill...

Fish traps by local slips and docks are great attracters...

[gran398]

Think Rick is referring to the way the heads are hanging on the bodies. (Throat's slit.)

[seabob4]

Think Rick is referring to the way the heads are hanging on the bodies. (Throat's slit.)

Nope, that provides a convenient way to hold them for pics and the like.  They have VERY sharp gill plates, just like snook.  For snook, we lip-lock them, just like LM bass...

[Capt Matt]

I keep all my caught fish alive in the livewell until the end of the trip then bleed them out. I cut the throats just before coming down the canal.  I find they will swim until all the blood pumps out of them making the fillets cleaner and not blood stained when you clean them, There is nothing worse than trying to clean a live fish, you can end up getting cut when they flip.  
Also if I catch a bigger fish later in the trip and want to cull my catch I can and release the smaller fish alive unharmed . Tripletail are a prehistoric like fish that seem almost impossible to kill, Even 30 minutes after bleeding one out it was still flipping around.
The skin on tripletail would make a great pair of boots or a belt its thicker than any other fish I can think of. They have lots of ways to cut you with the nastiest gill plates that look like a saw blade.

Both fish in the earlier picture I caught on a crab pot in the sound, I catch a lot gulf side but some of the bigger ones I have ever caught along with a 30 pounder I lost one day where in the bay. Any piece of structure, crab buoy, channel marker etc is worth a look. My new tower is the bomb for seeing them in dirty water.
I had one tripletail a few years back that a bull shark grabbed by the boat after missing it the first time and biting my trolling motor, I broke off the fish to let it get away from the shark. The next day i went back to the same crab buoy marked on my GPS and caught the fish, it only had a few scales missing. Below is the picture, you can only just make out the man in the brown suit



Here is one I caught floating with a plastic water bottle.


Capt Matt