Kiel tackles one of saltwater’s most challenging fly targets.

I can’t put a number on it, but triggerfish would be right up there on my list of favourite fish to target. It’s where they take you – faraway lands, tropical islands, sandflats, palm trees… and often a crayfish for dinner. The sound of waves lapping beaches and coral shores. The low mutter of your mates telling tall stories of how close they were to landing a titan.

It’s also the behaviour of triggers, tailing in shallow water. Sight-fishing targets, but so easily spooked. Challenging to approach and always in a difficult spot to cast: next to rocky reefs, into the wind, on the wrong side of the tidal movements. Hard to hook, harder fighting and beautiful colours.

Triggerfish types

There are around 40 species of triggerfish found globally, most in tropical and subtropical areas, with the largest abundance in the Indo-Pacific. The most commonly targeted here are:

Yellow-margin triggerfish or peach-faced (Pseudobalistes flavimarginatus).

Beautiful-looking fish with a tan body, yellow, purple and blue stripes, and markings along the fins and tail. A vibrant pink and peach colour over the face and cheeks.

Picasso triggerfish or lagoon triggerfish (Rhinecanthus aculeatus). A stunning triggerfish, it only grows to around 30cm, but makes up for its smaller size with good looks. Bright yellow markings along the sides of its face, with neon blue stripes over its head. Then darker flanks along its body to its tail.

Titan or moustache triggerfish (Balistoides viridescens). Known to be the smartest, trickiest and most spook-prone of the Indo-Pacific triggers; a fish that will definitely let you know if your fly landed 5cm too close. It’s the largest trigger in its class. (Stone triggerfish of the east pacific being larger.) Rightly named the moustache trigger for the dark line across its top lip, followed by pinks, purples and blues. It has yellow cheeks and a pale blue & yellow body, plus bright orange fins and tail. This tail is famous for hanging out of the water as they feed amongst the coral, almost daring you to rush a cast.

Triggerfish physiology

Triggerfish are named due to the first two of their three dorsal fins. The first spine – the longest – can be erected and locked into place by the second (a trigger mechanism). This aids them in hiding from predators in rocky reef and coral holes and caves. Once inside, the fish triggers its first spine, locking them in place. Their tail also has reversed spikes to deter predators biting. (It also deters me from tailing these fish without gloves!)

Another ‘deterring’ part of the triggerfish is its mouth and teeth. They have eight powerful and sharp teeth – four on the upper jaw and four on the lower jaw. Some species have an additional set of six plate-like teeth on the upper jaw. These are made for crushing crustaceans, molluscs… and your finger if it’s put in the wrong spot!

At places like CXI, you’ll find some local guides walking around with a finger missing, rumoured to have been lost during a trigger tussle.

One more interesting fact about the triggerfish, is they swim using waving motions in their dorsal and anal fins. With this waving motion, they can swim forward, backward or even hover in the same place to feed. The way in which they use these fins also makes them very strong fighters once hooked. Pulling like a tractor, trying to take your fly and line back into their rocky trigger dungeon.

I first encountered these fish at CXI in 2017, and quickly developing a love/ hate relationship with them. Triggers can very quickly and easily put you right back in your box where you belong.

Apart from time off during Covid, I’ve returned every year to try and figure out the trigger code. Key word: try.

To target them specifically, they require very accurate casts. Sometimes long, most probably into the wind and a large amount of finesse. Quietly dropping a heavy, wind-resistant fly into shallow water. A stealthy approach when walking, and a heap of luck.

Last year I spent two weeks walking the ancient washed-up coral and sandflats searching for these cheeky buggers. Bonefish, GTs and golden trevally swimming past me as I obliviously tiptoed my way through shin-deep water, hoping not to spook a trigger. I did manage to land around a dozen of them, but I also managed to not land a further three or four dozen. Spooks, wrong fly, bad casts, break-offs in the coral… You name it, it happened.

But most importantly on this trip, I took my time.

Tips and tricks to land a few

Having jumped out of the boat onto the flats, I unclip my fly from the rod, strip out a desired amount of line from my reel, then double-checked knots. Double-check my drag, then double-check my line management – good, no tangles. Okay, let’s slowly walk.

I’d scan my surroundings: how deep the water was, which way the tide was pushing, and where the trigger food might be. No flat in the world is the same, no flat in the world is the same the next day. Things move. Tides change. You’ll need to find the right area on any given flat on any given day. At low tide, the triggers will move off the flats and back into deeper water. On the incoming, they’ll follow the tide onto the flats to feed. Once they’re on the flats feeding, you’ve got a chance.

Remember, triggers feed amongst the coral, rocks and reefs. Look for a mottled bottom, dark markings or bommies.

On the start of an incoming tide, firstly search along the edge of deep to shallow water; on an ebb tide, search the whole flat. The triggers will need to travel to their feeding ground, so walk slowly and quietly so as not to spook the swimming ones. They respond like sheep, but smarter. One will spook and then the whole flat will spook.

Once you’re in what you think is the right spot, move very slowly along the mottled bottom, polaroiding for bright colours, pinks and oranges. These colours will stand out on the white sands and darker bottoms. Feeding triggers will move slowly, so don’t accidentally mistake one for a small coral bommie. The easiest way to spot a feeding trigger is by its tail. Tailing triggerfish famously stick their tail right out of the water while they feed face down; almost like they are waving to you, calling you closer. Teasing.

You can spot this brightly-coloured tail from a mile away. But don’t rush to the one you can see miles away – you may spook the five you haven’t seen yet. Oh, and please don’t cast at the travelling triggers. They aren’t feeding, won’t eat, and they hate you. (Well, I think they hate me at least.)

You’ll definitely see triggers chasing each other, swimming in circles, dancing. Don’t cast to them either. These fish also hate you, and if you cast at them, they will tear across the flat, spooking the tailing trigger you saw miles away.

If you are slowly tracking a swimming or travelling trigger, wait until it stops, tilts its head towards the bottom and starts feeding. Only then are you nearly ready for a shot.

Look at which way the tide is flowing over the flat, right to left, or whatever it may be? Are you at a comfortable casting distance? Is the wind off your preferred shoulder? If not, take your time to move around into a better position. This is crucial, the difference between an eat or a spook. I’d rather not have a cast at these fish than make the wrong cast.

So, let’s say that once in the prime position, luck is on your side. You’ve not spooked the trigger with the sound of old coral being crushed underfoot. The fish is still head down/ tail up. Make sure you’ve kept your line management under control: your stripped off floating fly-line is untangled and laying nicely on the water’s surface to your left.

Drop your fly in the water, checking you have the right sink rate, so you know how long it will take for your fly to flutter to the bottom – all the while remembering it’s now travelling right to left with the tide.

Only now can you pray to whatever triggerfish gods are out there, and make your cast – of course eliminating unnecessary false casts which may be spotted by your target. Cast with a wider loop or Belgian cast to aid in the natural fall of your fly rather than a dump.

Now with pure skill or pure tin-arsery, you’ve managed to land the fly and it’s slowly falling down towards the feeding teeth of the trigger. Move your fly with a medium slow draw to imitate a swimming shrimp or fleeing crab.

The trigger starts tracking your fly… another slow draw. You feel a tick on your line as it’s tried to eat but didn’t hook up, taking three legs off your crab pattern. Another slow draw and another two ticks down the line. No hook-up and more legs missing.

Another slow draw. The trigger is facing you and only four metres from your rod tip. You crouch lower in the water, trying to become your own rocky bommie. Slow draw again, and it comes up solid, as if you’ve hooked the bottom for a second. Pull tight, strip-strike strongly. Either you’re setting the hook hard into that rock, or into the trigger’s hard mouth. It’s the latter, and game on.

Somehow, you’ve not trout struck, and the trigger is taking off across the flat like some sort of turbo-charged John Deere tractor. Rod tip up, keeping your line above any reef, reel screaming, and the fight is on.

Unfortunately for us flyfishers, that’s best-case scenario, and trust me, there are countless others.

Line tangling around your rod butt, knots failing, the fish heading back into that dungeon… don’t put your hand in there!

It’s the struggle and the pain that I love about trigger fish. Torment and torture, but that one triggerfish to hand is worth every second.

FLYSTREAM FACTS – Trigger gear and flies

Rod, reel and line

When targeting triggerfish, I’d opt for a 10 weight rod with a reel to match. A saltwater sealed drag reel, with 300 to 500 metres of 30 to 50 pound gel spun backing or equivalent, machined-on. Use a double bimini twist or similar for joining the backing to your floating tropical fly-line. (This can be done at your local fly shop.) To quote Philip Weigall, ‘No-one has ever said, “Geez, I wish I had less backing!”

Leader

At the other end, add a tapered fluorocarbon leader of 20 pounds, with 20 pound tippet tied on. Have some 16 pound tippet with you just in case, but it scares me just writing that!

A fluorocarbon leader and tippet are more abrasion resistant than mono. This is a must against the rocky coral bottom triggers live and feed amongst. Joining the fly to tippet, I always use a loop knot – choose one you’re comfortable tying quickly that’s also strong. You may need to change flies in a hurry, depending on what the triggers are feeding on and at what depth.

All the effort into rigging and knots behind the scenes will save time on the flats. Be prepared when targeting these hard fighting tropical fish.

Flies

This will change depending on where you’re fishing, and it’s best to research before heading off.

Mostly, you’ll need shrimp and crab flies tied on strong, good quality hooks, in various weights.

In particular, have some Gav’s Crab in tan, Flexo Crabs in olive and tan, and Spawning Shrimp in tan and white.