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Photos of Block Island Trip

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alexrom1207

Well-Known Member
Nov 28, 2007
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This summer John (Crazy13) and I took a nice trip out to Block Island, Rhode Island for some spearing. We shot trigger fish and blackfish (tautog) off the Southeast Lighthouse. I've been promising him photos since the summer so I though I'd finally come through.
 

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Reactions: spaghetti, glowworm and foxfish
Some additional photos
 

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cool pics alex!..i have eaten triggerfish before, but never tautogs..they look like groupers to some extent..do they taste similar to grouper?
 
nice haul..see any of those monster striper they have up there near block....there is a huge variety of fish off that island.

I don't envy you all those triggers you had to clean but i am a little jealous of the tasty dinner i bet they made
 
Yeah the cleaning portion of the trip was by far the least fun. Tautog are a nice flaky white fish like grouper. They are the staple of spearfishermen up here in the Northeastern US because they hang out near rocks, are not easily spooked, and can be found at all depths. If you look at some of the record tautogs (in the 20+ lb range, they look just like groupers). As for stripers, John and I saw a school of probably 50-60 swim right under the boat when we were moving from one dive spot to another, all of which were undersized though.
 
Impressive catch! it would seem triggers are found in many places around the world & most of us have the same opinion - nice to eat a pain to clean.
 
foxfish said:
Impressive catch! it would seem triggers are found in many places around the world & most of us have the same opinion - nice to eat a pain to clean.
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I find them "just a Pain" in the red sea they can be very aggressive and have been known to "kick out" scuba divers from the sea, so when i see one, i usually move the other way...not too crazy about its eating quality and there are much better "options" out there, so normally i dont shoot them...they dont look apetizing to me either...
 
Reactions: foxfish
Nice catch!...them tautog, sound like our version of a red grouper...I love trigger, I peel away the skin like a can of sardines (the old cans)...I try to shoot them only when headed back to the boat to unload, as they be some fiesty critters:crutch
 
Kudos!! Hunting Triggerfish is 'real' hunting, because they could turn on you at any time :crutch Even after the fish is speared, it is extremely dangerous, I almost lost the use of my right hand when a large Florida Triggerfish managed to get a bite on the inside of my wrist, a few centemeters deeper and the ligaments would have been severed.
Great photos, I see that the fish are already on ice
 
Fine load of fish. Triggers are mean and do bite - I have the scars to prove it. If I lived in that part of the world I would love to get a big striper.

Dave
 
Reactions: alexrom1207
Yeah, the triggers on this trip were a real pain in the ass. I'll replay a little bit of my process and what happened to me that day.
1. shoot the fish (easy part)
2. Fish goes crazy and tangles the line all around itself and that damn spike
3. Try to ike spike fish (fail)
4. Continue to try to ike spike fish, poke yourself on its spike.
5. Forget trying to ike spike fish (impossible) and decide just to string it.
6. Realize that in the process of trying to ike spike the fish it has entangled itself even worse in the line.
7. Disentangle the fish from the line, spike yourself again on its spine
8. String the fish, going through the mouth thinking this will stop it from biting you
9. Try to remove spear, try to remove spear, try to remove spear
10. Finally pull the spear through the tough skin.
11. Continue hunting, realize that the strung fish is pulling you all around because it is essentially a sail.
12. Decide to bring fish back to boat
13. OUCH!!!!!!
14. Look down at trigger fish with teeth embedded in your thigh (thorough wetsuit)
15. Get angry, try to ike spike fish again, spike yourself on spine in the process.
16. Vow never to shoot trigger fish again
 
Reactions: agbiv, Marwan and stuckinsurrey
Nice haul of fish.I haven't seen or speared a trigger in the water yet.

I will be taking extra care now :martial
 
Great haul!

Trigger is my absolute favorite. I love how dense the meat is, and the cheek is the best piece of meat on those buggers. Scale em, gut em, toss em on the grill.
 
I tried to scale the fish but gave up because I didn't think you could really scale that skin. It's more like shark skin with denticles than fish skin with scales. Do you just scale it like a normal fish?
 
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alexrom1207 said:
I tried to scale the fish but gave up because I didn't think you could really scale that skin. It's more like shark skin with denticles than fish skin with scales. Do you just scale it like a normal fish?
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I don't know, those buggers haven't reached our waters yet. But if the problem with scales is their being hard and tight, you can just dip them in boiling hot water for half minute (not to cook them, just to tenderize the scale/skin junction), then pick them up and try scaling with (maybe) better luck. It's quite a common method over here.
BTW: thanks for pics and reports. Cold over there?
 
You don't scale them you skin them. You slice the top and bottom edges completly.You then start at the tail and wrap the skin around the knife blade. Twist the blade towards the head.This will lift the skin.BTW I have two small scars from trigger fish(we call them 'old wife' in the Virgin Islands).They can be quite aggressive.
 
i actually have gone the gut and grill route and I was quite happy, the skin came off really easily after about 7 minutes on each side
 
Caught/speared many.

Fillet plate back toward tail but not quite through skin, flip back and filet meat away from skin. Thin fillets but skillet sears/blackens/sautes fine.

Bake whole (then you get cheek meat but wifey makes gaggy noises when I do this). :blackeye

Head & bake or grill whole. Skin comes right off.

Fillet with skin on, grill skin down--don't flip, skin comes foff & who cares about the "scales". :friday
 
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