Sunday Afternoon on the Safari 1

[DIRTYFOOT2]

Current was rippin and bite was slow most of the day. Bite turned on like a switch @ the pm major. Picked up some beefy lane snappers, and a few nice triggers. 53' of water, SE of St Lucie inlet, aboard the Safari 1. If the wind drops back this weekend it should be a good time to come on down and try your luck. Tis the season for fresh grouper dinners

[Boboe]

I heard that they went 12" FORK on triggers. It used to be overall length. Is that the truth? (no longer fish for a living and too lazy to go search the regs online)

[DIRTYFOOT2]

Yup shore did. Most of da ones we caught that day were bigguns. No need for measurin. Just learned how to post pics w/ my reports. So hopefully there will be more to follow.

[CAPTAIN RON]

your definition of a "few" in reference to your triggerfish is very modest. superb catch! we get them on wrecks or under floating debis. good day for the drift.

[DIRTYFOOT2]

They can be trip savers for sure, and one of my favorite fish to eat. Find alot of folks turn thier noses up @ them, or say they're too hard to clean. I'll take em! Clean them with your knife cutting from inside to out so you don't fight the hide and your golden. Worse thing about them is when the littleuns gang up in the summer and pick your baits to death. I've seen a ball of triggers keep a 20 oz bank sinker from sinkin, until they've picked every shred of bait off a chicken rig. Thats when its time to move

[Boboe]

Yeah, but they're awesome when you can drop anywhere from 15' to 150' down the rig leg and load up your however-many-hooks-you-want-to-build-into-this-rig rig on each drop, and they're all BANJOS!

[DIRTYFOOT2]

Originally Posted by Boboe

Yeah, but they're awesome when you can drop anywhere from 15' to 150' down the rig leg and load up your however-many-hooks-you-want-to-build-into-this-rig rig on each drop, and they're all BANJOS!

No doubt. People think I'm joking, but they are one of the best eating fish there is, and 5 banjo size ones on one chicken rig will wear you out
Read this book called " The Hell Divers Rodeo" about these guys who spearfish the rigs. The author tells about all the members of thier club missing ear lobes, and little chunks from the tops of thier ears from the triggerfish munching them while diving They are the oceans Pirahna

[blackfish]

hey, DF2 nice catch of triggers! been catch'n more and more over the years up here in jersey. just wondering what kind of rig,type of hook/size,and favorite bait you use. i haven't found a good rig to use, those little suckers are more tricky than tog. but dems some good eat'n!

[Boboe]

I take 40-50# and snell on tiny little #4 bronze Mustads. I use squid that I cut up freaking tiny and put just one or two tiny squares on a hook. By "freaking tiny" I mean <1/2" x <1/2" Anything more than that and you'll waste bait.

I've caught triggers on much larger hooks, but you can catch them from huge to tiny on those little #4 Mustads. You'll miss more fish with larger hooks.

[reefling]

Originally Posted by DIRTYFOOT2

No doubt. People think I'm joking, but they are one of the best eating fish there is, and 5 banjo size ones on one chicken rig will wear you out
Read this book called " The Hell Divers Rodeo" about these guys who spearfish the rigs. The author tells about all the members of thier club missing ear lobes, and little chunks from the tops of thier ears from the triggerfish munching them while diving They are the oceans Pirahna

yeah i seen em bite a guys nipple off on our boat when he was spaerfishing wasnt good .but yes they are one of the best eating fish out there
poor mans lobster taste great! we havent been getting nuthing on our trips beside sliperydicks " sand tile fish" and baracuda no grunts triggers blue runners or snapper on the 20 person trip we ran we only caught one mutton 16 and a 1/8 inch! what is with the water temp normaly it is high sixtys this time of year it is 79 on the bottom and 78 on the surface. no wonder the gags have not been biting. but who knows.

reefling

[DIRTYFOOT2]

Yeah Sean its been a strange winter. No real long cold spells to get the gags moving. Maybe its going to be an early spring thing. We'll see. Can't wait for the Muttons to start showing up strong again. We got a couple real nice ones last year in late april, and May. Best one was 23lbs , and a few over the 15 mark. Look at it this way. It can't be any worse than this windy
ars winter we've had.

[reefling]

yeah who knows i think the gas might be here through summer thats what this 90 year old commerical fisermen said hes be fishing thes watter 89 years he would know. he said when we dont get long cold spells to keeps the water cold they stay all summer long until the next winter and they bite all summer to so lets hope!!!!!!

reefling

[Boboe]

That was back in the day before they had sonar, gps, etc, and it took 4 hours to finally get onto a piece of hard bottom. Once you were there you bailed the fish for 2 hours and had the boat filled the gunwhales. You then came home and sold your catch. Sorry, that doesn't happen any longer :/

[DIRTYFOOT2]

Originally Posted by Boboe

That was back in the day before they had sonar, gps, etc, and it took 4 hours to finally get onto a piece of hard bottom. Once you were there you bailed the fish for 2 hours and had the boat filled the gunwhales. You then came home and sold your catch. Sorry, that doesn't happen any longer :/

True enough. There are a handful of grouper spots we only fish during the TCBA Tournament now for that very reason, and if there is another boat in sight we skip those cuz everybody loves to run up on ya and mash thier GPS TO GET YOUR #'s. We won the grouper division two years back fishing one of our " secret spots ". Real hard to keep anything secret anymore. Most guys would rather run up on ya than studying the charts, and scouting on thier own. Luckily we spend some time every summer scouting, and occasionally happen across a new to us spot in need of further investigation.
Some of those excursions can be a lot of fun, or be a real bore. But when you find a rock out in the middle of no-where it can be pretty rewarding.

[Boboe]

On summer weekends we wouldn't fish anything worth a damn. There were way too many boats around. When we fished our chicken coops, we'd make one drop, drift off it, and haul ass once we boated all of our fish from that one drop. Week days were when we could really fish what we wanted.

Running up on somebody is a good way to get shot.

[Disco Lady]

COÑO!!!!!!!!!! Butch, just saw your post brother. Nice catch i love them triggers, great eating fish but those lanes, are sweet... too. Hope all is well with you buddy glad your fishing still.

DL,

[GrillN]

nice catch. hope to see more pics.

[miamiangler1]

Originally Posted by Disco Lady

COÑO!!!!!!!!!! Butch, just saw your post brother. Nice catch i love them triggers, great eating fish but those lanes, are sweet... too. Hope all is well with you buddy glad your fishing still.

DL,

Cono DL you are only 2 years late

[novomarine]

Originally Posted by miamiangler1

Cono DL you are only 2 years late

CONO!!!!!!! 2 years late!!!!!!!! HOLLY COJONES!!!!!!!!!

[Disco Lady]

COÑO!!!!!!!!!!!!:drink :

[surfinsteve1]

come on man

[mneptune]

Better late than never, I always say....