Big Triggers are moving inward around SE Fla

[Johnoly]

Went out with Jupiter Dive Center on Saturday to shake out a new Spearfishing Specialties 52" Commercial muzzle gun. Wow, great punch and the long muzzle really improves the accuracy. Water cooled down just a touch at 79 degrees and we had to search for some viz but ended up around 35 feet.

Grabbed 2 sheeps and a nice 18" Trigger. Mini-season scouting is up next to check our secret spots and make sure the we know where the big boys are holed up.

 

[Mambo Dave]

Triggers are edible? I was always thinking it was I who was edible to them, the little punks.

 

[TropicalDiver]

Watch out for those pearly whites and their razor dorsal - string in the mouth out the gills or they'll take a piece of you with them...........they dull the knife when filleting, but are VERY tasty!!!

 

[Mambo Dave]

very cool - thank you!

Perhaps a valid target for our pole spears (we do it the hard way, sorta - we're not freedivers).

Besides dulling the knife, how tough are they to fillet? Bones, descaling, etc. ? I suck at filleting, but I guess I'm getting better.

 

[rigdiver]

very cool - thank you!

Perhaps a valid target for our pole spears (we do it the hard way, sorta - we're not freedivers).

Besides dulling the knife, how tough are they to fillet? Bones, descaling, etc. ? I suck at filleting, but I guess I'm getting better.

Only way to go is with an electric knife. Gut em and break head off. Now run electric knife along top of spine. You are only cutting a very small amount of the tough skin on the top and bottom. When you get about 1" from the tail flip the part you've just cut over and continue cutting with a sharp angle on the knife. Triggerfish skin is very tough. Don't even think of trying to scale one. The meat is very tasty. Be sure and cut off any that is red.

 

[Johnoly]

Triggerfish skin is very tough. Don't even think of trying to scale one.

It's like a thin piece of sheet metal, very very stiff. I was thinking a Dremel tool with a cut-off saw attachment would be better than a knife. If you have some weak bands or a sideways shot, I figure your spear would just glance and bounce right off of it.

But Triggers do have one less brain cell than a Hogfish. A hog will try to hide and change colors, a trigger will swim towards your gun and try to eat your speartip. Tropical_diver is right, they will bite you underwater and leave you trailing a blood chum line.

 

[Mambo Dave]

Thanks all!

I've got a paralyzer tip on mine, and my bro has a single tip - both poles are single bands. Based on what I've read about multi-prongs not penetrating tough-sided fish (like sea bass), I may be at a disadvantage.

 

[cubanismo]

Just finished filleting one the other day with no problems. Trick is to fillet with the sharp edge of the knife up, so you are cutting from the inside out. Trace an outline of the fillet then slowly pull the skin off the meat starting from the tail. Took all of five minutes for both sides!

 

[PalauDiver]

My favorite way of preparing trigger fish is to throw the whole fish on a barbecue. The thick skin and scales will protect the meat and keep it extremely moist and flavorful.

 

[Stone]

Speaking of big triggers. . . here is the 2nd largest trigger I have shot.