Texas Gulf Coast Fishing

Triggerfish

Triggerfish have a roundish, laterally flat body with an anterior dorsal fin. They can erect the first two dorsal spines: the first one locks and the second one unlocks. This prevents predators from swallowing them or pulling them out of their holes. This locking and unlocking behavior is why they are named 'triggerfish'. They have a small pectoral fin, fused to one spine. Unlike the spine of a filefish, the spine of the triggerfish can be held in place by a second spine to make the fish more threatening to the predator. Their small eyes, situated on top of their large head, can be rotated independently. They have tough skin, covered with rough rhomboid-shaped scales that form a tough armour on their body. A big, angular-shaped head extends into a snout with strong jaws and sharp teeth, made for crushing shells. Each jaw contains a row of eight teeth, while the upper jaw contains another set of six plate-like teeth.

GRAY TRIGGERFISH - Balistes capriscus Family Balistidae, LEATHERJACKETS

Description: entirely olive-gray; dorsal and anal fins marbled; caudal fin lobes elongate in large adults; one or more enlarged scales behind gill opening; 26 to 29 dorsal fin rays; 23 to 26 anal fin rays. Young: large darker saddles on back (these saddles sometimes persit in adults); blue spots and short blue lines in dorsal fin and on upper half of body, becoming white below and in anal fin; upper rim of eye blue.

Where found: hardbottom, reefs, ledges. The Gray Triggerfish is a very common fish found offshore near reefs and oil rigs and at times near shore at the jetties. It has a gray body with irregular dark markings. There are small blue spots on it's upper sides and spinous dorsal membrane. Their small tough mouths that are well adapted for browsing on the organisms that are attached to the rocks and oil rigs around which they congregate. These small tough mouths make them very resistant to capture with a hook and line. None the less they will readily steal your bait. At times they are so thick around the rigs that it's difficult to get a bait down to the bottom to the snapper that your after.

Young Trigger Fish are often found in the patches of Sargassum weed and other objects floating about the gulf.

QUEEN TRIGGERFISH - Balistes ventula

Description: Greenish or bluish gray on back, orange-yellow on lower part of head and abdomen, with two broad diagonal curved bright blue bands running from snout to below and in front of pectoral fins, the lowermost continuous with a blue ring around lips; a broad blue bar across caudal peduncle, and blue sub-marginal bands in median fins