Sunday, August 30, 2009
Hooking fish, avoiding lap dances
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
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Looking to spice up your saltwater fishing?
Try getting a lap dance in a kayak with a fish sometimes called a saltwater piranha.
This particular triggerfish tango was one of those scenes that might not have gotten past the YouTube censors had anyone been around with a video camera.
Which, fortunately, they weren't.
The footage wouldn't have been particularly graphic, but the same couldn't be said for the words coming from the angler as he gyrated to avoid the snapping chompers.
Groundwork for this recent coastal adventure had been laid a day earlier, when I staggered from the Atlantic after a 1-mile triathlon training swim to see a spearfish-armed snorkler gearing up and preparing to plow into the waves.
We were at the base of a pier at an Army Corps of Engineers facility on the coast at Duck, a smallish Outer Banks village where we were renting a cottage for an end-of-summer vacation.
There's no public fishing on the pier and no powerboat pressure because it's miles from the nearest inlet, so it's an ideal spot for spearfishing.
The snorkler was Brett from New Jersey, and he said he was going after triggerfish and spadefish.
"I did real well here last year," he said.
I asked if I could tag along.
We swam about 100 yards out and Brett set his "Diver Down" flag.
Then he fin-kicked over to a piling, dove, and fired.
On the end of his spear was a 2-pound gray triggerfish, a pan-shaped shellfish-muncher that's known as great tablefare.
Shooting the fish was easy, getting it on the stringer was another story.
Because triggerfish have tiny gill openings, the only way to do it is to poke a hole in the fish's lower jaw. Brett did this with his diver's knife as I held the fish.
The I got a good lesson in triggerfish handling when I let my thumb get too close to the fish's mouth.
A triggerfish is equipped with a set of chompers that look like horse teeth -- except they're sharp.
I hoped no sharks would be attracted to the blood slick I was putting out with my hemorrhaging thumb as I helped Brett put three more fish on the stringer in short order.
As I walked the beach back to the house I made plans. I would go to a local dive shop and get a pole spear, a relatively inexpensive slingshot-type fish-hunting weapon that I had used some while snorkeling around Guantanamo Bay during my Navy days.
And I would be back there tomorrow to spear dinner.
But those plans quickly faltered when I realized that the nearest dive shop was about 25 miles south. Plus I didn't really want to invest in a dive flag and the other accessories I'd need to do it right.
On to plan B.
The next morning I rented a sit-on-top kayak and stopped by a bait shop for some shrimp, a good triggerfish bait.
While the family played in waves, I paddled north to the pier with my fishing gear.
Fishing with a hook and line proved more challenging than with a spear.
Triggerfish are notorious bait stealers. Every time I dropped a hunk of shrimp next to a piling I'd get immediate hits.
But hooking up was tough and every missed bite resulted in a clean hook. (I eventually figured out that Berkley Gulp Shrimp worked as well as live shrimp, and was much more durable.)
Eventually I stuck one and the fight was on.
Like similar spadefish and sheepshead, triggerfish can pull like bulls, turning in tight circles and using their flat shape to their advantage.
Finally I swung the 2-pounder into the kayak and the dance was on as the fish flopped around in my lap, its jaws snapping.
Shouldn't I have learned my lesson a day earlier?
Fortunately the teeth found no purchase and eventually I was able to subdue the creature.
After the fish was securely on the stringer I paddled back to the pilings. It didn't take too long for another hookup.
This time when the fish was next to the boat, I swung it in to the far end of the cockpit, far from potentially sensitive areas.
One lap dance was enough for today.
