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Photo: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons
Lobotes surinamensis
How to catch Tripletail
Tripletail feed in 70–90°F water and bite best at 76–86°F. Fish Scouter's season calendar follows them in 16 waters.
45 pts · trophy at 28"Feeds 70–90°FBest 76–86°FIn season nowMarker / buoyBeach / surfOther
About
The tripletail: a brown leaf that floats on its side under a crab-trap float or a channel marker, pretending to be flotsam. One of the best-eating fish in the state.
How to fish it
Run the trap lines and the markers, look for the shadow, and drop a shrimp two feet in front of it. Quiet — they spook — and net them fast.
What it eats
live shrimpsmall crabsa shrimp-imitation fly
Live bait for it
Live shrimpUnder a popping cork or free-lined, hooked under the horn on a #1 to 2/0 circle hook; on a jig head for the bottom. The universal inshore bait.
Blue crabsWhole and small for permit and tarpon; halved or quartered on the bottom for black drum, redfish and cobia.
Pilchards (whitebait)Free-lined or under a cork, hooked through the nose on a #1 to 2/0 circle hook. The one bait that catches everything inshore.What to fish it with
the sizes that fish itLeader30–40 lb fluorocarbon
Hook1/0–3/0
Jig head1/8–1/4 oz
Braid15–30 lb
The rule
not confirmed hereMinimum size and bag limit apply; confirm the current numbers at MyFWC.
The current rule →Where it is, month by month
PPeakSSpawningAArriving·AroundLLeaving
Florida
Gulf of Mexico
South Atlantic
Mid & North Atlantic