usually larger than males,
however, there are no significant external differences bewith Capt. Eric Dumas, Living A Dream
tween males and females.
Guide Service!
Tripletail can attain a maximum age of seven to ten
Top 3 Baits:
years.
Live shrimp, cocaThe life history of triplehoe minnows and
tails is not well undersmall pogies
stood and very little is
Favorite
known about their reproArtificial Bait:
ductive biology in the
Small crab, crab fly
Gulf of Mexico. Scienand shrimp fly
tists at the University of
Southern Mississippi
Rod & Reel & Tackle Set Up:
Gulf Coast Research
6' medium/heavy Castaway rod with Penn
Laboratory - Institute of
Battle 2 3000 with 20 power pro and cork set
Marine Sciences have
6-8 inches over the bait.
been studying this
Best time of the day:
quite extensively and
RECORDS:
When the sun is at it
discovered that in the
World
high point.
northern Gulf of MexAngler: Steve Hand
11:00-2:00pm
ico, females appear to
Weight: 42 lb 5 oz Date: 6/7/1989
Location: Zululand, South Africa
spawn once every
Best time of the year:
three to five days durLouisiana
August
Angler: Mrs. Jimmy Toups
ing the spawning seaWeight: 39 lb 5 oz Date: July 1959
Favorite location:
son of June through
Location: Unknown
Lake Borgne
August, or 18 to 31
times per season
Where’s the oddest location you’ve ever seen
(Brown-Peterson and
(or caught) one:
Franks, 2001). Brown-PeUnder a floating dead Nutia Rat. There were
terson and Franks, 2001,
two fish under it, actually.
found that a high percentage of females samThe best tactics when targeting tripletail?
Find anything floating and fish them under a
pled during the months of
cork.
April, May, and June were
in the immature and early
When targeting tripletail, how many floats do
stages of spawning, with
you look at (in an average trip)?
July being the peak spawn500 floats
ing time. They also found
Continued on page 38
that most reproductively active female tripletail apwaters also showed that 50% of female triplepeared to be well offshore, and most of
tail are spawning capable at a total length of
the tripletail they encountered within
17.6 inches and one year of age, while 100% of
inshore waters were either non-reprofemales are mature at almost 20 inches
ductive during April through June or
(Brown-Peterson and Franks, 2001).
post-spawn females during August
Tripletail are opportunistic ambush feedthrough September. It then necesers
that
lie motionless until prey comes close
sarily follows that most of the tripleenough, and then they rapidly strike. They
tail we see inshore along the
feed on fish and small crustaceans, including
northern Gulf Coast this time of
Gulf menhaden (pogies), Atlantic bumper, Bay
year are pre-spawn fish staging for
anchovies, blue crabs, and shrimp (Franks, et.
offshore spawning. This scientific
al., 2003). The tripletail’s ambush feeding bestudy of tripletail in Mississippi
TripletailTACTICS
34
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