Trigger Fish info

[joebhoy]

Folks I am heading out to target some trigger fish on a few marks over the next month and I am looking for any hints or tips. What rigs do you use or reckon might be successful? Float or bottom?


I know that they have small hard mouths and that hook size/strength is important. I also know that they are usually caught on hard back crab when fishing for wrasse. Outside of this I haven't a breeze.

Cheers Joe

[saving private brian]

this is a very hard topic to reply to as triggers are'nt really that well targeted but most of them are caught by luck.howerver im sure there will be guys on here that do target them.down your way and further south seem to be the areas of them being caught more frequent that up here in the n/w etc.i know a guy who caught one last year down in wexford on rag tipped with crab while targeting wrasse over a reef mark.funny enough i seen a local guy have one on the boat here .he brought it in cause he didnt no what it was,,he said it got jammed in the eye of the lobster pot.it was over an hour on the boat and he put it in to a bucket and lowered the bucket with the fish in it to put some water in and when the bucket filled the fish jump out of the bucket and swam away,,,so funny,,moral of the story is they live for ages out of water lol,,,,so i would be guessing that you are better off fishing the bottom after hearing bout him getting jammed in the pots eye,,,,oh also i heard limpets are alright for them too,,so they seem to be found of the same baits as the wrasse so more than likely will be found in the same areas.try the same hooks as you would try for your wrasse and try all types of baits you get info on,,,not a whole lot of info there but best of luck targeting them..let us know how you do

[kstaff]

Hi Joe,

Bill Ryan in Clare has done very well on Triggers over the years as has Bob Moss in Kerry, a google for both yields some good reading.

Best Of luck with the hunt.

[saving private brian]

http://fishinginireland.info/news/sea-r ... are-shore/

[joebhoy]

SPR Kstaff thanks for the replies. Some lovely fish on Bills report especially that beast of a Ballan

I probably will drop a size in the hook department but opt for something a wee bit stronger.

Fingers crossed the weather plays ball at the weekend.

Joe

[fish4fun]

Saw one feeding near the surface around the edges below Dingle lighthouse a couple of years back. Trotted a bit of sandeel at the back of a bubble float to it but didn't take a bit of notice. Talked to a lad last year who fed limpets down the side at Ventry and had some.

[kieran]

HI

Read an excellent piece in IA (?) some time back about triggers and a couple of things stood out...

1. they tend to shoal and if you catch and release, as you should, they seem to spook the shoal and move off, so use a rock pool or keep net if you want to catch more than 1 at a time

2. raw salmon (from fish processing factory) was the bait used on the day in that article and it was very successful. I think most people use smalls strips and small but hard hooks even down to 2s. Mack strip should work fine.

3. someone advocated use of braid in the final snood section as the "beak" can not cut through it as easily as it does mono.

Only caught one, quite by accident in North Clare, float fishing small hardback crabs for wrasse. Great fight for a small fish, initially thought I had a whopper of a wrasse. Was not much over 1 lb...

FWIW

[agardiner22]

if weather allows on saturday,i will be trying for them. i will be using a strip of limpet jigging along the bottom on a strong size 2/3 hook, set up weedless. as i said b4 if weather allows

[redzerologhlen]

if weather allows on saturday,i will be trying for them. i will be using a strip of limpet jigging along the bottom on a strong size 2/3 hook, set up weedless. as i said b4 if weather allows

I headed back west to check out a few marks yesterday that I was never at before, didnt bring a rod or anything but just had a look around. The sea was boiling at the bridges of ross and how does any sane man fish at dunlickey, that place is lethal dangerous. Was going to take a look at baltard aswell but I didnt have a clue how to find it but i would imagine in anything other then the calmest of conditions it would be best to avoid all those marks. I thought I fished a few dodgy places up here but there is no comparison!!