The triggerfish of Alphonse are well educated. That said, they are still abundant enough to fish for all day long. I had a feeling the realistic profile of the 3d crabs would work well for triggerfish, but I was shocked at how well. I’d started fishing with flexos and the usual patterns, but would get the textbook “look and spook”.  The response to the 3d crabs was something Ive never really experienced with triggers. They wouldn’t inspect, they would just charge and eat. Sometimes on the drop. This did mean a completely new approach to my hook set, and Id almost need to pause for a second to allow the fish to eat. A normal trigger set happens as the fish is trying to pin the fly down, generally resulting in a clean lip hook set. With these flies, you would generally be trying to find purchase in the little boulder field mid mouth, and setting to soon or hard would generally mean the fly would pull out, with the hook finding nowhere to grab.

It took me a while to figure out what was happening here, on one particular day I had this happen 7 times in a row until eventually I told myself to no longer try catch one, but rather get close enough to see whats happening. Sure enough, I watched as fish ate the fly entirely, and then I pulled and watched it come out the mouth, usually with a bent hook point (which id experienced countless times with no rocks or coral in sight). I changed strategy after this to delay on the set and wait for the fish to turn before putting pressure. Almost like live baiting. It worked.