Well I heard that Newport had gotten a slug of new tunoids this week so I headed up yesterday with my buddy Derrick. We launched out of Pt. Judith at 0530 and saw Sean McDermott at the ramp. We all headed out to a beautiful sunrise and huge schools of breaking fish.
Most of them were teethy critters and not what we were after so we pressed on. All the way over to the Newport area we ran across schools of surface feeding fish but none seemed to be the target species. We got over to Lands End and found sporadic schools of Albies and teeth. We ended up catching 6-8 Albies on both spin and fly and although there were many schools of fish feeding all over they were difficult to approach and get shots at. At one point we drifted over a pot buoy close to shore and when we got hungup on the buoy I looked over the transom and saw these little critters.
I rerigged the flyrod with a small clouser and sight fished them. After only 2-3 casts I got this one to take the fly. What a cool fish these Triggerfish are. They would make this very unusual clicking snapping noise when we handled them with their mouths. I think they were doing something with the crushers in the back of their throats to make the sound obviously being nervous. We released them to return to their tropical climates although I am told that they are fine table fare. Not a bad day of fishing but the numbers were a bit disappointing. Nice day on the water with great company and a few surprises.
Most of them were teethy critters and not what we were after so we pressed on. All the way over to the Newport area we ran across schools of surface feeding fish but none seemed to be the target species. We got over to Lands End and found sporadic schools of Albies and teeth. We ended up catching 6-8 Albies on both spin and fly and although there were many schools of fish feeding all over they were difficult to approach and get shots at. At one point we drifted over a pot buoy close to shore and when we got hungup on the buoy I looked over the transom and saw these little critters.
I rerigged the flyrod with a small clouser and sight fished them. After only 2-3 casts I got this one to take the fly. What a cool fish these Triggerfish are. They would make this very unusual clicking snapping noise when we handled them with their mouths. I think they were doing something with the crushers in the back of their throats to make the sound obviously being nervous. We released them to return to their tropical climates although I am told that they are fine table fare. Not a bad day of fishing but the numbers were a bit disappointing. Nice day on the water with great company and a few surprises.