The Infuriating Joy of Christmas Island's Triggerfish

Don’t get me wrong, I love all the fish that swim in the turquoise waters around Christmas Island Outfitters. They each present their own set of challenges that make them incredibly exciting to pursue with a fly rod. That being said, if I could only chase triggerfish while on the island, that wouldn’t bother me one bit.

Triggers are one of the most maddening fish that I have chased with a fly rod to date. The overwhelming majority of the time, nothing ever seems to go my way. Perfect cast, follow, eat but miss, follow some more, eat and miss again, follow and then spooked! Then another one pops up, eats the fly and dives straight into its hole and snaps the leader. It’s a never-ending cycle of despair, but the possibility of landing one of these critters makes it all worth it.

The day started off like any other day on the island, wake up, drink some coffee, and think about how many Triggers won’t eat your fly that day. For the morning session, I was rolling solo with Tetawa, a dude whose eyes might be better than an Osprey. “Bonefish coming, 150 feet,” is a common phrase that I heard throughout the day. It’s great that he can see it that far away, but once the 0 drops off that number I’m really in the game!

The goal for today was simple, chase Triggerfish until the tides don’t allow it or we lose all our flies to their chompers. First flat of the day, feet hit the water and right off the bat Tetawa sees a triggerfish tail way in the distance. He ultimately decides it’s too far to immediately make a play for without potentially spooking other fish in the area. We make a mental bookmark of where the fish is hanging out and head the other direction to start working our way around the pancake flat.

As holds true every time, Tetawa’s instinct to not chase this fish immediately was right on. After pushing just 30 yards or so, we spot the ever so daunting yellow tail of a Triggerfish waving like a flag in the air. This was the perfect scenario, the fish was about 60 feet out, nose down in the sand feeding without a care in the world. I start my cast, knowing I should lay the fly past him a few feet and still lead him a few feet. Turns out I didn’t listen to myself, and the fly plops straight on the fish’s head. He was out of there before the fly even hit the sand. Typical.

The next fish we run across, the plan goes out just like we drew it up. A cast right on the money, just ahead of the fish. I make a long, sloowwww strip to get the fly in front of the fish, and watch him dart right over to investigate. He follows, I feel the tension of an eat, he’s not there, I feel it again, he’s not there. Finally, solid tension and I strip set, the fish swims the other way and I succeeded in landing a nice piece of coral. Let me tell you, coral is a very convincing fish.

We keep on keepin on, and the same pattern holds true. Lots of eats, no fish. Infuriating! A few great casts, even more bad ones. Good thing Tetawa is a fun dude to hang out with, because I wasn’t doing anything very entertaining to keep him busy!

Finally, after the walk of despair we end up where we originally saw that first Trigger. Lo and behold, he’s still hanging out right where we saw him in the first place. Again, a perfect scenario, nose in the sand, feeding from right to left on the edge of the shallow flat. I lay out my cast, we see the fish immediately charge the fly, and the line comes tight for real this time. The fish rips off the flat, and I see Tetawa race over to the edge, yelling for me to run down the edge to pull him away from the hole he is clearly trying to find. In a situation like this I take direction well, and start running away from Tetawa as he frantically searches the edge for the hole. He finds it just before the fish does, sending the fish on another run off the edge into the deep. Now, in a situation like this, it’s almost more stressful wondering if the fish is going to break off, who knows how many holes or how much coral is down where the fish is hanging out. After an absurdly stressful fight, the fish starts to give in and moves back onto the flat, it was a monster by Triggerfish standards. I like to describe it as “garbage can lid” sized. Tetawa makes his way over, lunges into the water and grabs the fish’s tail. The celebration yells made each missed fish of the morning worth it.

I pop my phone out for a picture or two and snag the most epic celebration picture of Tetawa holding up this fish. This turned out to be my favorite image from the whole trip. I took a couple myself, and then we watched this fish cruise off back into the deep. Day made, anything else on top of this was just a bonus at this point!

We continued down the flat, casting at a Bonefish or two, but no more Triggers were wanting to show themselves. We didn’t mind; we were both still just on a high from the fish that we had just tangled with.

I find myself constantly reliving that fish in my head, what an epic moment. Throughout the course of the week to follow, I had plenty more chances at these elusive fish, but my luck had run out. Lots of follows, lots of eats, but no more fish to hand. Moral of the story, go chase Triggerfish! After a day of fishing for them, you’ll absolutely question yourself, but you may come away with a heck of a memory. I can’t wait for next time!