By: Capt. Joel Brandenburg
Keeper tripletail are not very prevalent in the Florida Keys and it’s kind of rare to catch one. Tripletail are in my top three eating fish. They kind of look prehistoric. They have a very tough hide and sharp, strong fins.
We find them in the Atlantic next to floaters like pallets, logs, gnarled up loose lobster buoy’s and lines tangled up, buckets, helmets normally anything floating on the water bigger than a water bottle. In the Gulf of America, we find them under lobster trap and crab trap buoys.
A tripletail’s scientific name is Lobotes Suringamensis but there’s all kinds of nicknames for them depending on which region you’re in. In southern Mississippi and Alabama, they call them blackfish. Off the coast of Georgia, a lot of people call them black grunts, or black perch, north of Georgia on the eastern seaboard many people call them flash fish or sleep fish and in the Bahamas their nickname is Concky leaf fish. In Florida we just call them tripletail. Also, the IGFA international game Fish Association recognizes them triple tail as well.
The world record triple tail was caught in 1989 in Zululand South Africa and weighed in at 42 lbs. 5 oz. the biggest ones I’ve ever seen in North America typically come out of Mobile Bay around Fairhope Alabama.
Tripletail here in South Florida and the Florida Keys are a little smaller on the average. The other day I had some anglers from Richmond, Virginia and we were out mahi fishing. And in about 2000 feet of water we came upon a floating pallet. The pallet had about a dozen tripletail swimming under and around it. We spotted 4 that we’re definitely over the 18-inch minimum limit.
Like all floaters that I see with a keeper tripletail on it, I tried to stay casting distance away from it so I don’t spook the triple tail off of the floating object. We’ve used several different baits to catch tripletail over the years, such as chunks of ballyhoo, pilchards, shrimp, etc., but in this case, we casted half a squid at each one, and got all four keepers in the boat quickly.
Tripletail are chameleons. They change color, depending on what type of floater they are hanging around. If they are hanging around a white floating bucket, they turn themselves almost white. If they’re floating around a dark brown log, they turn themselves dark brown. If you put them in the cooler for a few minutes, they start changing multiple colors as you can see in the picture of the four guys holding tripletail after they were in the cooler for five minutes.
They are hard fighters, and their instinct is to bury their self into whatever floater they’re hanging around once hooked up, so your goal is to pull them away from the floater as soon as possible.
You are allowed to catch two per day per person they must be 18 inches or over from the tip of their pinched tail to the tip of their bottom lip down the lateral line of the fish. You are not allowed to net them, spear them, gaff them, snag them or use a multi hook system to harvest them.
Sometimes they will eat just about anything you cast at them and sometimes they won’t eat anything, but when you see them have multiple baits on standby. We usually don’t specifically target them, but we are always ready for them.
We see most of our triple tail during late spring to early fall and anytime in between that time of year. Most of the local mahi tournaments include triple tail as one of the target species to win prize money in the Calcutta’s along with wahoo, blackfin tuna, etc.
If you would like to catch a tripletail and take it off your bucket list and see how good they taste now is the time to catch one in the Florida Keys.
For a charter with Capt. Joel Brandenburg and Ana Banana fishing company call our cell 813-267-4401 or our office 305-395-4212. Or visit us in person at ponchos fuel dock located at 1280 Oceanview Ave. Marathon Florida Keys.
— To book a charter with Captain Joel Brandenburg of Ana Banana fishing Company call 813–267–4401 cell or 305–395–4212 office or visit www.marathonkeyfishingcharters@ gmail.com or come visit with us in person at poncho’s fuel dock located at 1280 Ocean View Ave. Marathon Florida Keys.