NOT A TRIGGER

NOT A TRIGGER

M I C K E Y F I N N T A K E S U S O N H I S A R D U O S J O U R N E Y T O D I A L I N G I N T O O N E O F T H E MOST ENIGMATIC FLATS FISH WE TARGET, THE TRIGGERFISH.

Words & photos by Mickey “Finn” Shanahan

Hooks snapped clean in half, shredded leaders and snapped fly lines; these are just a few of the delights of chasing Triggerfish. It can be a struggle targeting these fish but after finding them, watching them and eventually catching them, you’ll come to appreciate Triggers as one of the foremost targets on the flats.

I’ve spent two trips chasing these ‘Pixar Character Fish’, but I’ve become beyond mildly obsessed with them. Triggers are enigmatic, they not only fall into that rare class of fish that have an awesome reputation as a species, but every individual Trigger seems to have its own character as well, making them doubly challenging and addictive. My first experience with Triggers was a fantastic introduction and also set me up for another challenge. My most recent trip was an awesome opportunity not only for myself, but to share the experience of understanding these fish with a great group of fly fisherman. We learnt a lot of lessons together and in the end we had plenty of success following a hunting pattern that worked well. It was fantastic helping a few excellent anglers achieve their goals on this last trip and as a bonus I got to fulfill my objectives as well. One of the best things about Triggerfish is that they are a wonderful ‘infinity fish’, once you think you have them figured out, they turn around and challenge you again. Firstly though, what’s a Trigger and where do you find them?

My Trigger experiences so far have been on Christmas Island (Kiritimati, CXI) where there are four main species of Triggers to

target: Peach-Face, Yellow-Margin, Picasso and Moustache (Titan). The Peach-Face and Yellow-Margin species are probably the ones you’ll encounter most often. They look strikingly similar, the main difference being that one is slightly darker than the other. As far as I could tell these two species will feed in about the same way and live in the same areas, smaller ones in ‘Trigger-holes’ on the flat and the bigger ones off the edge of the flat in deeper coral. The Picasso species is the coolest looking of the whole family! Named because of their deep understanding and appreciation of Cubist art; they are also super aggressive and if they grew to more than about a shaka-length, the biggest I’ve seen, they’d be almost unstoppable. The Moustache (Titan if you’re from the Northern Hemisphere) are the big daddy brawlers of the coral reef and flats. You can see their tails waving about a kilometre and half away when a big one is really feeding. These are the main species of Triggerfish on CXI, however there are others distributed all through the tropics. One thing that all Triggers have in common though is that they’re basically dickheads; but like your best friend that can be a bit of a dick sometimes, you still love them anyway.

When I was introduced to Triggerfish, I stupidly thought they were nothing but a pumped-up leather-jacket, a rather plain and lame distant cousin in the Trigger family that I chased as a kid; but then again, I made a lot of assumptions on that trip. Firstly I thought I would simply spend my whole time on CXI chasing Bonefish and hoping for GT. I saw Triggers as a very secondary species. I also figured, as they were easy to see, that they’d be easy to catch. It took about two days for my plans to get completely turned around. Bonefish are fantastic, but once you get your eye in on them, especially smaller ones, they can become a little repetitive for guys like me (overly active weirdos). The GT’s roaming the island are definitely a viable target and we had some awesome shots and captures. However, Geets are best fished around very specific tide changes, so in between these tide changes while looking for greater catch variety, Triggers are the natural fallback. On the third day of my first trip I saw Josh “Hutcho” Hutchinson (the largest species of fly-fisherman in the southern hemisphere) cast to a trigger, watched it follow the fly for 15 feet, tail on the fly repeatedly, not eat it, go back to guarding it’s hole and then do the whole thing again.

The second time it hooked up at Josh’s rod tip, I put down my #7WT and chased these fish almost exclusively for the rest of our trip. I worked hard and landed a handful but got busted off by a couple of big Peaches and one monster Moustache. I left wanting more; luckily, I knew I’d have the chance next year.

Running annual hosted trips lets you build on experience and improve results; this was the case with my most recent trip to CXI. I was the host for six excellent anglers and all-around great guys. We got a chance to work together to come to a better understanding of these particular Triggerfish. Even though I thought this trip would kick off like Return of the Jedi, in reality it started off more like The Empire Strikes Back. It was a tough beat out of the gate on the Triggers. Although for the first couple of days our group was getting their Bonefish fix addressed, I always had my Trigger rod in hand just in case. In the first two days when we were primarily targeting Bones I spooked way too many Triggers and busted off two excellent big Peaches. I was essentially having a total shocker, putting more and more pressure on myself and not doing well at all. However, when a few of the other anglers in the group decided to switch over to Triggers our

prospects quickly changed. I went into guide mode for these fish and immediately slowed down. Showing the other guys these fish and how to catch them was the key to taking a step back and actually listening to my own advice instead of stomping off after the next Trigger after spooking the last one. After that it was like the moment Luke switches off his targeting computer and goes with The Force, I had ‘Hutcho’ like Obi Wan doing a voiceover, ‘wait for it to tail Mick… reach out with your feelings’. With me relaying the voices in my head to our group, we set off across the lagoon with new hope and our success rate went through the roof.

First things first, there is a trick with Triggers (this is technically not a pun, alliteration is fine). Initially, you want to slow down, then slow down some more, then halve that speed. When it comes to Triggers if your stalking, positioning, casting or retrieving, you cannot move to slowly. Next, just watch them for a while. In general, Trigs are a big beautiful fish and not very hard to spot in the right conditions. When you do see a tail, a fish or a fishy shape, spend your time watching it. Triggers are not going anywhere in a massive hurry.

Watch the punk and see if it’s tailing, if it is tailing, you’ve got a feeding fish and a good shot at it. Triggers will generally feed up current, shifting position occasionally but usually coming back to an area that they either want to feed in, or that’s near their bolt-hole. Working together on our last trip Josh and I developed a bit of a game plan for the buggers, which isn’t anything that radical or new but good to keep in mind to calm yourself down when chasing that big tailing Moustache that you can clearly see 30 feet away. The boys on the last trip nicknamed it “Mickey Finn’s Trigger school” and they all graduated with advanced degrees. Each day on the flats once the tide was right, I’d take one of the guys out and purely focus on landing a Trigger. We’d move slowly, find a fish and then go through ‘the routine.’ Firstly, we’d watch the fish, Triggers will tail in a few different ways but basically if it’s head was down then it was cleared as a casting target. Then we’d pick the direction of the tidal curret, next we’d take our time to get into a position that would present a fly up-current of the fish, wait for it to tail again and present the fly right on the edge of the ‘spook zone.’

This zone would change magically for every fish but basically if it was deeper water and the fish was feeding really hard, we would cast close to the fish. If it was shallow water or not much current, we’d move the fly heaps further away. Then, let the fly sink, give it a moment, then wake it up with one short, sharp strip, then wait. If the fish played ball and the cast was good usually it would react to the fly, come over, and in the best case, just maul the fly. More often than not though this system would lead to a long drawn out retrieve, attempting to convince the fish to eat. One key to this retrieve was to slow the motion down. Most Triggers eat on a dead stop, not a moving fly, so stripping purely acts as a way to keep contact with the fly. The strike is often dictated by the fish’s attitude rather than feeling the distinct ‘pluck’ of a take. Triggers can notoriously destroy a fly without you ever feeling a thing, so along with line contact,

watching the fish closely is a must. Chances are if a fish tails so hard on your fly it falls over itself, it has it somewhere in its bone crushing jaws. We’d sort of ‘test-strip-strike’ six inches of line if we thought they had the fly and if there was weight, we’d follow through with the full arm length strip-set and hopefully hook up, if not we’d stop on that 6inch tester and let the fish come to the fly again, and again, and again, and again...

The perfect example of how varied Triggers can be in their reactions came about when I was going through the program with Tim. By this point in the trip he’d already gotten a couple of Triggers but was keen to get a few more and maybe upsize. In one afternoon, he hooked six with me at his shoulder and landed the last two, both really nice Moustaches with one of them as his personal best. One Peach-face ganster that destroyed us really stood out from the rest. It was the third fish he hooked for that afternoon, the other two had a hook fall out and broke us on the reef respectively. This Peach we saw a mile away. It was tailing in shallow water over broken coral about 50 feet from the flat’s drop off. It was easily the hungriest and one of the biggest Triggers we’d seen all day. We moved into position between the drop off and the fish and got ready to cast. The first few casts were completely ignored. The fish either didn’t see them or just seemed so engrossed in what it was tailing on that it didn’t care. Tim cast closer and closer, nearly landing the last cast on the fishes head, which generally results in a spooked Trigger. However apparently that was all this fish needed, it immediately came to the fly and inhaled the crab. Tim ‘test struck’ and came up with no weight, so he proceeded to tease the fish which would occasionally lose interest and would need to be woken up with another short strip. This fish started about 50 feet away from us and ended up at our rod tip! We had to sneak backwards, duck into a crouch and almost crawl until we were basically going off the edge of the flat. Then to our surprise the Trigger gave up! It cruised back to its spot and started feeding again.

So, we went through the whole process, THREE MORE TIMES! It was like Tim had this Trigger on a leash and it would do everything but eat. On the fifth presentation/ follow cycle we were about to give up (as we really were falling off the flat in chest deep water at this point) when the fish just snapped! It was like it finally reached a breaking point and proceeded to whack Tim’s fly multiple times - we were so close we could see its jaw working. To Tim’s credit he stuck the hook like boss. The fish then tried to run off the reef, found us in the way and headed back onto the flat at a rapid rate of knots. We circumnavigated it, cut it off before it reached the opposite drop off and had it turned on the flat in clear country. By this point we were getting ready to leader it and then the hook fell out… not broken, just slightly blunted, we’d probably been hooked between a tooth and a hard place and got unlucky. In a lot of ways though we were actually very lucky. Just to get the eat after playing a cat and mouse game with a fish like that was awesome and a big part of the Trigger addiction; everything has to go right and you have to be just a little lucky.

At this point I have to mention something serious, fighting a fish usually comes into an article as an add-on, a little fact box filled with quotes such as “it pulled like a horse.” If you try to put a big Trigger in a little box he will beat his way out of it and destroy everything you hold dear in the process. Give these fish no quarter. If you want to catch a big Trigger (or even a medium or small one to be honest) you need to be able to deal with a big Trigger. A Trigger fight can be a shock to the system, this is especially true after fighting Bonefish which is so often the case in CXI. Firstly, like your cast, have a plan. Where will she go? How will you stop her? Is your gear up to scratch? Dave was woken up to just how hard a fish can pull when he hooked his first Trigger, a good sized ‘Stash.’ This fish didn’t muck around, it just ate. The first cast was spot on and everything went well. I’d been walking Dave through what to do even before

we hooked this fish, when we did though he automatically kept his rod high and let it run, like you would a Bone. A few friendly encouragements later (more like screaming “give it to him Dave!”), and after the fish had cleared way too much line, Dave got it back under control with low butt-bending power strokes on the road. You want to throw a Trigger off balance, don’t let it go where it wants, you dictate the terms. Throw the first punch and everyone after that, never let it make a move first. Tuck the butt of your rod into your gut and bend it till something gives. Dave took this to heart and threw the fish off balance, unfortunately it came back at us so fast Dave couldn’t keep enough tension on the line. As soon as it gained slack it bolted for a Trigger hole. These ‘Trigger holes’ are pits on the flats, usually with a big piece of coral covering the top of the entrance. It takes a lot of luck and some gutsy work to get a Trigger out of their hole. But Dave kept pressure on the fish, and I got to work. Note: DO NOT PUT YOUR HAND DOWN A TRIGGER HOLE. At least if you value your fingers, grasp the leader and do your best to throw different pressure angles on the fish, then pull as hard as you can. Luckily this fish came out, Dave turned it a few more times and we landed it. His first and best for this trip! It was pretty awesome. You basically want to fight these fish so hard that the guides are worried for your rod. A #8WT or #9WT is ideal, you can get them on a #7WT but to be honest you want the pulling power in the butt that comes from a heavier rod. Tie on a 10-12ft leader of 25lb fluorocarbon and you’re in the game. These are one of the few fish I don’t end up running lighter and lighter leaders for the more I chase them, in fact I tend to go heavier in most cases.

When you do start to catch a few Triggers try to keep it rolling. Once you start having success you start to develop the kind of sixth sense you need to be consistent with these fish. You begin to know by observing how the fish is moving or acting what you should do. The

best time to get a Trigger is right after landing your last one. Usually if there’s one feeding there will be more on that same tide. Don’t give up when you inevitably get busted off and spook a ton of fish, they will try to destroy your soul, but the rewards of perseverance outweigh the constant losses. A perfect example of this was Steve’s first Trigger. After a few days and lots of spooked fish, Steve was reaching breaking point, I could see it in his eyes, they we’re desperate, and I was worried... We had plenty of shots to start our arvo together and for one reason or another they just didn’t come off. It was much more akin to copping a terrible string of cards in a hi-stakes blackjack game then fishing, it was cruel luck. But like a gambler who’d lost everything and was just about to give up, Steve found a $20 note on the floor and bet on Peach. We saw a really perfect specimen feeding away happily in the middle of the flat and Steve put his Flexo (that he’d tied excellently) about two metres up current, this fish ran over to the fly and we both thought instant hook up, but instead it played the game. It followed right in untill his leader was well through the guides, hearts in our throats, about to smoke it, then it shuddered, looked like it spooked and took off… Steve’s resilience was legendary, instead of giving up he tracked that fish (which really did look spooked) led it with a short roll cast, and it MONSTERED the fly. It was one of the coolest eats I’d seen. I also wouldn’t recommend kissing a Trigger fish but Steve in this case could do anything he wanted to. He put in the time, effort and risked a mild mental breakdown, which made it so much more special.

Just a quick word on flies. As far as pattern, colour, or type goes don’t worry that much. Weight is much more important. It’s best to have some reliable Trigger patterns - Itchy’s, various shrimps and crabs, especially Flexo’s - in a variety of sizes and weights. Importantly on weight, have plenty that are lighter, one set of medium brass eyes are the best all-rounder (for CXI) but have some even lighter and some heavier. There’s

always plenty of chat before a trip on hooks for Triggers. Triggers will bite through pretty much anything, including any hook on the market. You don’t need to be obsessed about having something tied on a ‘Trigger hook’ a good old SL12s is fine (and the best hook for flexo’s) and the heavier hooks are great too. You’re kidding yourself if you think that having a heavier hook will save your fly though. As far as I’m concerned any fish is worth a fly, and you should tie, buy or steal twice as many Trigger flies as Bonefish flies for any mixed species trip. Triggers just destroy things, there’s no way around it. One final note on flies, get Flexo’s, just do it, they’re like Trigger crack.

We had an all-time trip on the Triggers and really ended up coming away feeling that we all achieved goals. We landed 15 for the group, and I got very lucky with both a big Peach and monster Moustache. Hopefully this helps Trigger something inside you, to start sorting out your Trigger-nometry equation, also I hope I haven’t Triggered any bad memories for anybody and if you want to put in an application for Mickey Finn’s Trigger school, Aussie Fly-Fisher is currently taking applications for our 2020 hosted trip, so why not pull the Trigger?