Tripletails, Triple the Fun

Mississippi Sound waters provide great opportunities to catch blackfish.

It was a typical summer day on the Mississippi Sound: sunny skies and slight southerly breeze creating a small swell just off Mississippi’s mainland.

On this outing, I was accompanied by Van Clark, my son-in-law, and Joe Gonzalez, both of whom had never caught the species of fish we intended to target.

Both had been warned that the type of fishing we were about to take on wasn’t a numbers game, and that if we caught one or two fish, it would be a successful adventure.

With that introduction out of the way, we left the Point O’Pines boat launch in Moss Point, and motored out of Bayou Cumbest into the vast Mississippi Sound. 3

Our quest would be for one of the most mysterious and interesting fish, whose visits to the Mississippi Sound start in late April and often last until early October if the weather remains mild.

The fish being referred to is the tripletail, a.k.a. blackfish, an odd-looking creature that acquired its name from having the appearance of sporting three tails and an ebony colored, scaly armor. With its dorsal and anal fins set back and extending well along its dark-hued body — nearly as far back as its tail fin — it has the look of a fish with three tails.

Once well out of Bayou Cumbest and into the open waters of the sound, our attention was focused on locating any sort of structure either floating or protruding from the surface. Channel markers (buoys, range beacons, pipes, and pilings), duck blinds, wrecks, logs, buckets, weed lines, fish carcasses, and especially crab-trap corks are all prime examples of where you might find a tripletail basking in the sun.

Soon, we picked up on a line of crab traps and began to run parallel to the floating corks, keeping just close enough to spot a fish lingering at the surface. After passing a dozen or so traps, I spotted a dark, shadowy object just behind one of the corks. Slowing down and giving our wake time to settle, we approached the cork slowly from downcurrent while focusing in on the fish.

With polarized sunglasses — a necessity for hunting tripletail — the fish could be clearly spotted lying on its side with its nose tucked in tightly under the cork.

Van took the wheel and positioned the boat just within casting distance of the cork and its dark-hued guest, and I proceeded to make an intentional cast well upcurrent of the cork. I was able to hold my rod tip high and guide the bait back within inches of the fish as the current carried the bait along in a natural fashion. Take note, a bait or cork tossed on top of or close to a basking tripletail will usually spook the fish, so make sure the bait presentation comes from a distance drifting slowly back to the fish.

As the cork passed the tripletail’s nose, he slowly turned away from the crab-trap cork and began to stalk my bright, fluorescent bobber. Slowly and deliberately, the fish keyed in on the cork, and to turn his attention to the bait, I had to reel extremely fast so the bait would be placed in front his path. Suddenly, the fish was closing in on the fresh squid, and when he got within inches of its tantalizing tentacles, he vacuumed it into its tough mouth.

At the moment the hook was set Van put the Yamaha outboard into reverse, a tactic used to apply added pressure to the fish before it can dart back into structure. Even with the added pressure, the tripletail nearly made it back to the crab trap, but luck was on our side, and the fish was soon running away from the cork. Slicing along the surface, using its powerful tail and fins for propulsion and guidance, its initial run easily stripped the 12-pound monofilament off the small Shimano spinning reel. At boatside upon seeing a forthcoming landing net, a couple of sudden bursts of vertical dives added to the diverse fight. However, Joe was eventually able to make a swift scoop and net the hard-fighting fish.

Rigging for tripletail can vary from angler to angler depending on the area being fished, size of the fish being pursued and the type of structure fish are being caught around. Having sought out and caught blackfish for the past 35 years, my gear basically varies by the type of structure being fished. When fishing open- water structure like crab-trap corks and various other floating debris a small spinning or baitcasting outfit will usually suffice.

For example, a Shimano Spheros SP4000FA or Stradic ST4000MgFA spinning reel mounted on a 7-foot graphite medium-power, fast-action St. Croix spinning rod loaded with 12-pound-test Yo-Zuri Hybrid line fills my needs for such situations. Although most tripletail in Mississippi’s waters run around 4 to 6-pounds, fish in the 12 to 15-pound range are common, and bruits of 20-pounds or better are taken each year.

To rig up for blackfish, especially for fish spotted under corks, a 2- to 3-foot length of 30-pound-test Seaguar fluorocarbon is tied under either a Cajun Thunder or Paradise Popper X-Treme cork and is finished off with a 4X Strong No. 4 Gamakatsu Treble Hook. My bait of choice is a large live shrimp, or fresh dead gray squid. A fresh dead shrimp will usually work too, and other live baits like small crabs, pinfish, croakers, and menhaden are good choices.

Baker on blackfish

Few people in this region have caught more tripletails than Alvin Baker of Ocean Springs, and his old-school tactics are still effective. Baker caught his first blackfish at age 12, and at 65, he still loves to pursue these remarkable fish.

Baker likes to rig for bear when hunting blackfish, employing a Penn 209 or Ambassadeur 6500 reel spooled with 50-pound-test Dacron; he mounts them on old-style 8-foot Hurricane Rods.

Baker said, “My favorite bait for blackfish is a fresh dead squid, and when fishing pilings and buoys, I’ll make 6 to 10 casts at each structure at different depths even if I don’t see a fish. I prefer use a large cork made out of real cork and adjust its depth with a wooden peg. First, I slip the cork on the main line and then tie on a barrel swivel. I’ll then tie in a small length of leader, slip on a ¼-ounce egg sinker, and tie on another barrel swivel that holds the sinker in place. Now I’ll tie on a 3½-foot length of leader and tie on an 8/0 or 9/0 stainless single (J-style) hook.

“When fishing structure like pilings, the cork is set at different depths to determine if and where fish are lurking below,” he said. “Often I’ll fish depths ranging anywhere from 3½ to 12 feet by adjusting the cork’s peg. Many times I’ve fished pilings or beacons seeing nothing on the surface, and still, in the blind, pull 5 or 6 fish off that structure. I always approach from downcurrent and cast beyond the structure. My fishing is done between the boat and the piling, meaning that I want to hook the fish as it chases the bait swimming away from the structure.”

As soon as his cork goes down or he sees the fish take the bait he’ll put the boat in reverse before he sets the hook. With the extra pulling force of the boat and the no-stretch Dacron line, he’s able to control big fish and keep them from cutting the line off on objects like barnacle-encrusted pilings and buoy chains.

Fishing for blackfish goes way back in the Baker heritage. He said that as far back as the 1890s, his grandfather knew the tricks of catching tripletail and caught numerous fish on man-made structure outside Deer Island off Biloxi.

Baker said that his grandfather would shove 300 or more pine saplings in the Mississippi Sound’s bottom about a quarter- of-a-mile off the island. According to Baker, this was where the hard, sand bottom turned to a softer mud, and the saplings could then be worked into the softer bottom. The saplings were set out in a big horseshoe or U-shape, and periodically, fishermen would row out to the stakes to fish for tripletail. To this day, the waters outside Deer Island are still a favorite area for locating these fish.

They grow fast

According to Read Hendon, an Assistant Research Scientist at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory in Ocean Springs, the growth rate of young tripletails in captivity is extremely fast.

Read said, “Small captured fish approximately 3 inches in length were fed daily in tanks, and (they) grew to about 8 inches in length in just 2 months. In four months, they attained a length of around 11 inches, and in 7 months they reached 15 inches in length with a weight around 2 pounds. Within one year they reached a length of 20 inches, and an approximate weight of 5 pounds.”

Read also said there isn’t enough data gathered to compare these growth rates to fish in the wild, but it’s suspected they are fast growers in the wild as well. For further tripletail information Read Hendon can be reached at: (E-mail) read.hendon@usm.edu, (Phone) (228) 872-4202, or (Fax) (228) 818-8832.

Final thoughts

From state line to state line, the Mississippi Sound offers a 60-mile stretch of nutrient-enriched waters filled with all sorts of tripletail attracting objects. Also, there is great tripletail angling on the Alabama side in Grand Bay and Mobile Bay, and to the west in Louisiana’s Lake Borgne. Excellent areas to fish are channel markers running off the Magnolia State’s coastline in a southerly direction into the sound.

Some of those include: the Gulfport Ship Channel running out toward the west end of West Ship Island; the Broadwater Marina channel markers; the Biloxi Ship Channel off the west end of Deer Island; the Ocean Springs Channel off the east end of Deer Island running out toward Horn Island; and the Pascagoula Channel markers running out toward the west end of Petit Bois Island.

Speaking from past experiences, times during the summer months, when large masses of sargassum weed find their way into the sound, there always seems to be an influx of tripletail. If an angler can time it right and locate these inshore rips, one can usually expect some exceptional tripletail action.

As for Van, Joe and me, our outing delivered four more tripletails, all hard-fighting fish. Van’s fish wasn’t huge, say 5 pounds or so, but it made two incredible leaps beside the boat. Joe caught the biggest fish of the day, a 12-pound beauty that sucked in a squid fished near a piling. This fine specimen wasn’t seen on the surface, and after a couple of casts along the piling, it came out of nowhere and swallowed the squid. On the light spinning gear, Joe’s fish put on a spectacular surface show, often ripping the 12-pound-test off with ease in bursts of speed.

By sticking it out and making a couple of casts to a structure with no fish visible on the surface, Joe’s patience paid off with a prime, double-digit tripletail. With five blackfish in the box, a good catch by any standard, we decided to head home with our highly regarded and delicious eating catch. Although Mississippi doesn’t have a size or creel limit on tripletail, it’s best to take just a few of these amazing fish and leave some for future seed. In time, I hope that a two-fish daily creel limit is imposed — Florida has one — a good move that will help protect this unique species.

Last summer was extremely good for tripletail anglers, and the lack of rain and high salinity levels pushed fish far to the west into Louisiana’s Lake Borgne, and a rare catch of a 15-pound fish was made well into the Back Bay of Biloxi.

Tags, ’tails, T-shirts

The Tripletail Tag & Release Program is coordinated through the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Research Laboratory in Ocean Springs. It is funded by the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources.

Anyone interested in participating in the tagging program should call the GCRL at 228-872-4202. A tagging kit is free and comes with an instruction booklet on how to properly and safely tag tripletail. Anglers who tag three tripletails will receive a free T-shirt sporting the artwork of noted local artist Marty Wilson.