Catching Big Triggerfish On The Gulf Coast

For a long time here on the Gulf Coast, anglers who ventured offshore to chase after snapper and other delicious tasting and hard fighting fish scorned a very common offshore resident of our waters. It was not that long ago that when a triggerfish was hooked and brought to the boat, groans of disappointment and perhaps a few choice words of the coarser type would be heard.

My, how things have changed. Today, legal sized triggerfish are welcome additions to any offshore reef fish catch combination. Anglers have discovered that these funny-looking fish fight hard, bite very aggressively, and best of all, taste wonderful when prepared for a big fish dinner.

However, just because there are lots of triggerfish in the Gulf, that doesn’t mean that anglers can just run offshore a few miles and start catching big, bragging size triggers anytime. There are some things which can improve our chances of escaping the hordes of undersized bait-stealing triggers and finding the big, keeper- size and even trophy sized triggerfish.

Expert Triggerfish Tips

Captain Harris Scruggs of Team Aquatic Fishing is an Alabama native who moved to Panama City, Florida with his family as a child has fished the inshore and offshore waters of the northern Gulf for a long time, and he knows quite a bit about catching triggerfish, especially, big triggers. He offers us some very good advice when it comes to catching triggers.

First, triggerfish are very common in the Gulf at this time. In fact, the swarms of smaller triggers can really complicate things for anglers who are looking for bigger fish such as snapper, grouper, amberjack due to the fact that can and will strip cut bait and even live bait intended for these bigger fish in a matter of seconds.