Let's Talk Triggers

Let's take us back to Plymouth in August; the weather is beautiful, there's feathers being chucked everywhere and there's tropical fish in the harbour... 

It was quite possibly the worst kept secret; the fact that if you knew where to look, you could easily find grey triggerfish in good numbers. The nights are drawing in now and the temperature is dropping, so it feels like a good excuse to reminisce about those warmer days. 

The name - grey triggerfish, doesn't really do them justice.

I have to say I'm a huge admirer of the species. A fish this bizarre looking ticks all my fish geek boxes. So let's talk triggerfish and hopefully my ramble about them might provide some new information for you. Not being an expert, I have only managed to catch two so far, one in 2017 and one this year. This year they seemed much more numerous though, making me sure if I had targeted them more I would have had a few. I will talk about that a bit later in this blog, but first a bit of background on this species. 

My first ever trig'

Summertime in the South-West brings with it so many things, hoards of tourists, unpredictable weather and a large variety of fish species. One of those species is obviously the grey triggerfish. Triggerfish are more commonly found around the West Atlantic but, as with so many species, the Gulf Stream has carried them over to the Eastern side too. A warm water species, the relative cool of the British Isles doesn't appear to be ideal habitat for them - global warming, it would appear, is making a rapid change to that. Over the last thirty years our local average water temperature has increased by nearly 1.5 degrees Celsius; a considerable margin and enough to encourage subtropical species like the triggerfish here every year.

The 'trigger' fin on full display, the fish can use this to lock itself in snags and holes in the rocks.

Plymouth isn't the only place they frequent; Chesil Beach is probably the most reliable mark in the country for them. Any wrecks along that beach being a fairly sure bet for finding one. There is also evidence, mainly from dead triggers found on beaches, that they travel as far north as the west coast of Scotland. Where these fish come from isn't well researched, I am certainly curious. My theory is they get their spawning done in warmer waters during spring, then let the currents take them to our shores. Whether or not they do this as a migration, returning every year, or that they simply come here by mistake and die in the winter, is up for debate. Not being a marine biologist, I'm not in the position to answer. The fact that so many triggers are found washed up after the first winter storms, certainly adds credence to the mistake theory. It makes more sense to me though, that lots make it back safely, to make the journey again. Which would be why we find them turning up at the same marks year after year.

I found this image on https://www.glaucus.org.uk/Triggerf.htm which is full of interesting sightings, it would appear the majority of trigger deaths are for fish that stay into December. 

So what do they feed on here? Triggerfish are methodical predators and scavengers, feeding on crustaceans and shellfish by investigating the rocky seabed and walls, finding their prey and crushing their shells with their incredibly strong mouths. Their teeth are very tough but their mouth is small in relation to the size of the fish. This has given them a deserved reputation of being 'bait stealers' (in this trait they remind me of goldsinny wrasse and they feed in a similar way, just on a much larger scale). It would appear that one of the easiest ways to tell it is trigger's attacking your bait/lure, is to find clean but small chunks taken out of it. Not even ballans are as strong-jawed and a trigger will rarely leave bite marks like a wrasse, they just take full chunks away.

In Plymouth the majority of the triggerfish are caught in areas where you expect to find wrasse, this makes sense as they share a similar diet. You can certainly expect to catch a lot of wrasse whilst fishing for them and that isn't really a hardship! Harbour walls at high tide, or deep water marks at low tide seem to produce the most consistent fishing, although they are far from common. From the evidence I have seen, they are a fish of habit. They will stay localised until either fishing pressure puts them off, or they run out of food items. If you are lucky enough to see one naturally in the water, you will notice it swims almost nonchalantly, gliding slowly and effortlessly. Never underestimate them though, when they want to use that big tail, they are capable of bursts of great speed. Something that may surprise you when you hook one.

That streamlined dinner plate shape cuts through the water with ease.

Bait choice is simple, use what they eat - crabs, limpets and worms, but it would appear that the majority are caught unintentionally on slivers of mackerel or squid. Whether or not this is due to mackerel being the most commonly used bait in the summer, or an actual preference from the species is up for debate. It does set them apart from wrasse though, as ballans do not seem so keen on fish baits.

My second trigger, caught this year on ragworm.

Lure choice is simple too, use as scented a lure as you can find. A section of large Gulp Sandworm appears to be a favoured choice but I am convinced a small crab imitation would also do well - something I wish to experiment with in future. I caught my first on the all conquering Ecogear Aqua Shirasu. I know anglers who have caught them on Isome worms too. The key element here is attraction by smell and taste. These fish don't seem to want to chase prey, they inspect and nibble so a flavoursome lure is vital. They aren't stupid though and when I could see the fish, I witnessed them ignore my lure repeatedly. I believe this was because these fish had already been under pressure from anglers, leading them to be overly cautious - more on that in a moment.

Technique and tackle wise, I can only go by my catches. Both times I have caught them I was using a light size 10 Decoy Rocket Jighead. I used my trusty LRF gear rated to 7 grams, six pound braid and four pound fluorocarbon leader. If they are in close I think you are doing them a great disservice by catching them on heavy gear, although having a bit of strength to bully them is helpful. You are definitely better off using a long-shanked hook or else you are very liable to be bitten off, don't go cheap and you should be fine. I do, as always, recommend using a pair of pliers to 'de-barb' your hooks though, just in case you are bitten off, at least then the hook can easily fall out. Personally I don't see the need for a wire trace when fishing for them, just strike early and the hook should set well in the thick lips or just behind the teeth

Some serious dentistry! 

It's worth telling the story of my first trigger, as I felt as overjoyed as I did guilty. 

I would love to say it was all my doing and on pure fishing brilliance alone I caught it, but that wouldn't be the truth... 

I was actually fishing next to Simon Kingdom (owner of the brilliant Osborne & Cragg tackle shop) who was targeting them specifically. The large piece of drop-shotted gulp he was using was getting absolutely shredded, so he went to replace it. I (shamefully) figured it was worth a drop into the spot he was fishing, using my favourite pink Ecogear Shirasu. Instantly I got strange bites and then struck into a decent fish. My rod bent in two as the fish put up a great scrap. A few moments later the trigger came to the surface! Simon graciously netted it for me and I could have jumped for joy. My top target for that summer - my first ever grey triggerfish, achieved. Lucky enough Simon is the forgiving type and also a top-notch angler, catching his own a couple of days later from the same spot. I breathed a sigh of relief when he did!

My 'stolen' fish.

Simon with his well deserved fish, caught on Gulp Sandworm.

The second came this summer, the day before, myself and Scott Dyer had walked around Sutton Harbour looking for one. Scott had already caught one while I was away (looking on quite enviously) in France on holiday. As we peered over the edge we saw at least six of them, cruising just under the surface casually. Tried as we might we couldn't tempt one to take a lure of any kind, they looked like they had wised up. 

Scott with his trigger, caught on red Isome

So the next day I agreed to meet Scott at the same spot, bringing Ryan Goudie along for the ride. Ryan wisely persuaded me that bait was the best option. With a jighead baited with ragworm we tried again. Yet still they wouldn't be fooled. I started chucking small chunks of worm to one on the surface. The fish started confidently munching the freebies. I used this confidence to sneak my baited jighead in next, instantly it attacked the worm. I waited until I saw the jighead enter it's toothy mouth and struck... All hell broke loose! The fish shot off at breakneck speed, my reel screamed. I just managed to stop the fish burying itself in weed when it shot off again. It took another two runs before it came to the surface, a real dinner plate of a fish. Ryan landed it for me and I shook his hand in delight. After a rather indulgent photo-shoot the fish went back. That same evening, Ryan caught one of his own and Scott lost one as it snagged him up. Both of their fish fell to half a peeler crab. The ferocity in which they tore apart the crab, made it clear that is the number one bait for them. 

Ryan's fish wolfed down half a peeler crab in seconds.

I didn't go back to target the triggers more, mainly due to word getting round quite rapidly they were there. It meant the spot was almost always full with anglers, so I was quite happy with my singular fish. It will be interesting to see if any of them turn up in angler's catches during the autumn. If not then there's always next year. Hopefully this has been of some interest to you. I have done a fair bit of research on this fish and I really wanted to collate that in the form of a blog post.

As always thanks for reading and check out my Instagram and Facebook pages - search benbassettfishing.