We’re down in the Keys right now. Yesterday we were out about 5 miles in about 60+ feet of water. There were weed patches everywhere and several times we would see something fairly large under the patches just kind of laying under the patch, occasionally a fin would come up out of the water like it was laying on it’s side feeding or something. Not a shark fin, looked dark in color. Cobia? I threw a Gotcha plug all around the weed patches but could not entice anything to take it.
“Apathy is the Glove into Which Evil Slips It’s Hand”.
We commonly see game fish under the weeds offshore. Most commonly you’ll see dolphin, but you will see others such as barracuda, cobia; I’ve seen kings and a few wahoo. I’ve seen plenty of sharks, but they typically are cruising and aren’t hanging out under the weeds. If it was a big slow fin, you could have been seeing a turtle or even a sunfish. Sunfish look like they were assembled incorrectly at the factory and until you see one up close, its hard to envision.
Tripletail seem to lay on their sides sometime. Google it and see if it’s your match. Never seen a sunfish hanging under weeds and, although I did see one last week, I mostly have seen them in cooler water (upper 60’s - low 70’s).
Triple tail is the likely culprit. They can be a bear to put a bait at if they’re surrounded by a bunch of little Almaco Jacks and triggers. I would take a handful of small cut up chunks and throw them about 10 ft away. The little fish will far over towards the little chicks, then I would cast my bigger chunk right towards the Tripletail. They’re slow moving fish but if they don’t want to eat something, thy sure wonmt and it can get frustrating as hell.
I found a 10+ pounder once under a pallet and my crew reeeeeeelly wanted to catch it. We spent an hour at it and he finally ate my last live pinfish with te find snipped. We fought him for about 5 minutes on a 10lb rod and he spit the hook about 10 ft from boat and disappeared into a weed mat. Those kids sure were disappointed!
They get a lot bigger and less cantankerous but that was the biggest one I’d seen!
Hadn’t thought about tripletail but the fins looked dark like one so maybe. I will definitely try throwing some bait around if we see such a thing again. Hoping to get out tomorrow.
“Apathy is the Glove into Which Evil Slips It’s Hand”.
Lots of ocean triggers there. They stay suspended and often at the surface alot like spadefish. Free line a fresh shrimp to them. Let it sink and they will find it.
I know the difference between a cobia and a tripletail. All I could see was a dark fin flapping up through weeds. Could not see any part of a body as it was completely under the weeds. I thought cobia because I knew they would cruise the surface. Did not know TT would get under weeds.
“Apathy is the Glove into Which Evil Slips It’s Hand”.
Triple Tail for sure. One time I was down there I came across a pallet floating on a weed line and there was a nice size Triple Tail laying sideways up in the pallet. We coaxed him out of there with a shrimp and had him for dinner. Good stuff!
Triple Tail for sure. One time I was down there I came across a pallet floating on a weed line and there was a nice size Triple Tail laying sideways up in the pallet. We coaxed him out of there with a shrimp and had him for dinner. Good stuff!
