Salty Saturday - JP Samuelson vs Triggerfish

Here are a few shots of a nice Yellow margin Triggerfish from Qamea, East of Taveuni, in the Northern Devision of Fiji's most eastern group of islands.

Sight-fished this particular one off a small piece of coral sitting on a sand flat, a fly line length away from the edge of the drop-off where the water was only as deep as the fish is long. It was pretty surreal as I was down to my last crab pattern at that stage and I have yet to actually land one. This was a super exciting and visual capture, with the fish being a rod length away and me actually having to cast out ahead of it, to avoid spooking him.

A TOOTHY CRITTER

I made a perfect presentation, and let the fly settle. The fish casually finned towards the fly turned on its head and ate it. It was so good, I set the hook and it made a long hard dash for the edge of the reef. A quick tussle of back and forth zig zagging ensued across the sand and I was ready to tail it. Once I got it in my hands, I was elated with joy and pure satisfaction. What a feeling of triumph and another tick of the species bucket list.

I've only had a few other chances at presenting the fly at them over sand without too much structure near by. Some of these eats were pretty big fish and I was unable to stop them before they reefed me.

Note to self - stock up on crab flies. Check out the range of crab flies from the Manic Fly Collection