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Info on Triggers (Fish not Guns)

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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Old Man Dave

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Feb 19, 2005
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This is a piece from a report I wrote on the thread “Guernsey Summer Fishing.”
Can anyone help out?

“During my search I also saw 2 holed up triggerfish as well as numerous wrasse. Took a couple of big wrasse and then found a bigger triggerfish. All of the triggers were head in the holes, tail out. I’ve seen a few triggers before but always free swimming. Never shot one though as I’ve always thought of them as just a curiosity. However, Ed shot one last year and told me that they were pretty good eating. So shot this larger holed up one. Could not get it out the hole. Could see it but it had wedged itself in. I believe that they erect their main dorsal spine as a defence mechanism. Eventually freed it by brute force, which snapped the spine. Has anyone ever been bitten by a triggerfish? I have – twice. Have you seen their teeth? Ouch! I couldn’t believe how quick it was. It got me twice on the left hand before I finished it off. A two and a half pound triggerfish may not be in the same category as Jaws but it’s got my respect.

Okay so anyone out there able to fill in details on triggers. Culinary qualities? (Haven’t eaten mine yet). British record? Eligible in competitions? Fishing techniques? Frequency of capture? They’re rare here but are increasing in terms of numbers seen each year. Angling publications seen to indicate they’re common on the south coast of England – Chesil Beach region? “

Thanks
Dave
 
awesome eating...one of my favorite fish...clean by cutting the skin along the outer edge of the fish all the way to the tail...the you can rip the skin off by hand. (tear from tail to head.

they bite! and HARD! so dispatch them.
 
Very good to eat. Also, they derive their name b/c they have a locking first dorsal spine (which you've now figured out after having to rip it off the fish). Next time reach in and pull down the second doral spine, and the fish will come right out of the hole, with nothing left to wedge itself in the rocks.

As for cooking think ceviche...yummm....
 
The taste is great and the texture is remarkably unfish-like. I know that this sounds like a joke but the texture, not the taste reminded me strongly of chicken breast. The taste is in a world of its own . . .

Yeah, they can bite! In Mexico the limit is 7/day. In April I will use that as my goal.
 
Grey european trigger fish,

very very tasty
my biggest was around 4 kg

they are stupid enough to hunt with any style but perfectly done droped methog guarante the success. If they holed up be carefull they are even harder to get out from groupers when stucked. They bite and they cut what they bite, very very small one (baby actually, the first trigger i shot last year) bit me on small finger tip and opened a wound through a leather gloves.

Can be found any depth, my shallowest was 4 meters and deepest was 24 meters. They respond aspetto but not always and not as fast as bream type fishes. Fisrt thing to do after the shoot is to kill the fish with a knife, if you put them alive on the stinger there is a fair amount of chance that they will either bite you finger while hanging other fishes or cut the mono line of the stinger and you will end up with loosing all the catch. The big ones like to travell as pairs, if you lost the contact stay where you see them at first and they will some back after some time. They used make hole like shapes on the sandy grounds. If you see them thats a trigger fish home They should be around. There is only skeleton inside of the fish and the skin is like armor so make your shoot close doesn't matter much from where you hit it, they will not rip away. If you cook it on the coal BBq there is no need to take off the skin.
 
Wow! I have bumped into trigger fish a few times around the Dorset coastline. I never realised they where classed a delicacy (thought they where wrasse related). They are noisy buggers as well! You can usually hear them if they are feeding in your vicinity (sounds like two stones grinding together). I always thought these fish quite rare so not sure on the ethics of killing these. Anyone got an ethical angle or law about this?
 
triggers are my favourite eating fish, and are increasingly common in the UK. I won a competition a couple of seasons ago with a big catch of them, plus some other stuff. They tend not to survive the winter in the UK as the colder water kills them, so ethically I see no problem with shooting them!
British spearfishing record is 2.938kg
They tend to be quite territorial, I have a number of spots where I can pretty much guarantee I can get a couple if I look hard
My favourite way of cooking them is to dip the skinned fillets in egg and breadcrumbs then fry.
I normally fillet them like a flatfish, then take the skin of the fillets. This way you are mainly cutting at the skin from the inside, which tends to bugger up your knife less!
cheers
dave
www.spearo.co.uk
 
Interesting! I saw one in Worrbarrow bay the other day that must have been a good 5lb. I might just have to return for him and if they are territoral like you say then shouldn't have to much problems locating him again

Thanks for the tip on the Skin.

Does anyone else have any Recipes?

 
You said it Sarge!!!

Trigger fish I call the chicken of the sea. One of the best tasting and most huntable fish in the ocean. I love trigger fish. Im sure the area where I go holds the world record for Finescale triggerfish. One of these days Im going to do an exclusive triggerfish expedition.

4 days x 7= 28 triggerfish x 2 fillets each = 56 fillets

Because they are easier to hunt than other species peole often pass them by. But if you are hunting for the flavor of fish in your freezer you cant go wrong with triggers.

See ya in april Sarge...... :wave

GTB
 
Hi Dale,
But you forget that of those 56 fillets, a good half will never see the inside of a freezer, unless I climb in!
 
Now qualified to pass comment on the eating qualities of triggers (euro ones anyway). Fried up a boneless, skinless fillet and scoffed it for my tea.
Definitely a meat like fish in terms texture. Quite strange really. Tasted very much like our bass, perhaps even better. Slightly oily (moist really) white flesh.
However, and this is a personal point, I also ate some small plaice fillets and I just don't think you can beat them. Fry them up with the skin on, in hot fat, so that the skin is crisp but the flesh still moist. This is still my favourite. Rather eat small plaice than fish costing 10 times their price.
Trigger is very good though and I will take some more given the chance.
Across the pond you guys never seem to mention spearing flats but when I was in California a couple of months ago there were lots of flatfish in the aquarium Monterey). They looked like our euro flats. Do they taste good?
Dave
 
We have a variety of flatties here, from little soles to gigantic Pacific Halibut that are regularly caught (on rod and reel) in excess of 300 lbs. The SoCal specialty is the California Halibut. It is so prized that the state Fish and Game had to put rather strict size limits on the beasties in order to ensure that ones big enough to spawn managed to survive long enough to do so. They are quite well thought-of and one of the real joys of the polespear crowd. Taking a 28"+ flatty on a polespear should get your juices running just a bit. Can't imagine what it would be like on a 300 lb. barndoor, even with a blue water gun.
 
300lb flatty! That beats my PB by 275lb. Have to revise my title of "King of the Flatty Bashers".
Thanks for the info.
Dave
 
Just a quick postscript. Went rod fishing for a couple of hours last Sunday with my brother in his 14ft ali boat. Guess what? He caught 2 trigger fish. He had caught one before, a few years ago but had never eaten one. On my suggestion he took both home for a feed. Another convert. Shows they must be around. Gotta have another go.
Dave.
 
Useless piece of information. In the days of old forum you could get negative karma for expressing your opinion that spearing palm-sized titan triggerfish on scuba is not something to brag about.
 
Sorry you lost me there. I caught my trigger of 2.5lbplus while breath hold spearfishing and my brothers 2 were caught on a fishing rod and of similar size. My point is these tasty fish seem to be putting in a welcome appearance. Until I posted this bit on triggers I was rather ignorant on the species and now I'm not so. Isn't that the point of the forum. I for one don't consider such an exchange of info "Boasting" and so far my key board hasn't fed back any negative vibes let alone "Bad Karma".
Dave
 
Sorry, I did not have you in mind.

[ame="http://forums.deeperblue.net/showthread.php?t=50528"]test pic[/ame]

As you said, this is what forum is for. Anyway, I am off the topic...so just ignore me.
 
And one of the best for Ceviche. Most of the ceviche in Baja is made with triggerfish "Cochi" ó "Cochito".

Salud

Carlos
 
Octopus. Followed your link. See your point. No need for sorry. We're all big boys here and it was more of a crossed line.
Lately I've been forced to analyse my own motives for killing fish, especially following one or two threads that I've read or responded to.
I only take fish to eat and certainly nowerdays would never dream of killing any creature in the name of sport or for the thrill alone. However, I choose not to kill everything that is edible. I suppose this makes for complex reasoning but then I consider myself a human being not a mindless killing machine.
Of all the issues in spearfishing this issue of ethics is the hardest to self justify and the easiest to critisise.
Dave
 
Reactions: DeepThought
Being a rather predator sort myself, I look at from the simplest view. The only reason I'm alive is that thousands of other things are dead. Plants, animals, microbes . . . they are all alive. You eat them, they have to be dead . . . except possibly in the case of cheese mites and oysters. Either you take the responsibility for your own food or you hire someone else to do it for you. Either way, you ate it, you are responsible for it. Even plants demonstrate distress, albeit chemically, so vegetarians get no positive karma on the issue either. Let's face it. We're organisms, organisms eat and in the end organisms get eaten. Balance restored.
 
Reactions: DeepThought
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