Inshore · 60 ft · beaches, bays, inlets and rips

Tripletail

Lobotes surinamensis. Prime water reaches Tampa in Gulf of Mexico right now (86°F at the surface). Fish it 7–49 ft down — that is where 83–79°F water sits off Cape Hatteras.

Tripletail identification illustration
LaneInshore · 10 fa (60 ft)
Depth it holds7–49 ft
Prime water73–86°F (workable 73–90°F)
Holds in the column7–49 ft down below the surface, over 7–49 ft of water
Judged onsurface temperature (NASA MUR satellite)
Structurerequires floats near any floating object - buoys, crab trap floats, weed

The water column off Cape Hatteras

0 ft30 ft60 ft43 ft of workable water7–49 ft · 83–79°F

The strip is the water itself, coloured by temperature from the surface down to the 60 ft surveyed bottom at that spot — one band per RTOFS model level. The outlined stretch is where Tripletail's temperature band (73–90°F) and the depth it holds actually overlap. That thickness is the number that matters: it is how much water you can work, not just whether the spot is warm enough somewhere. One model cycle, not a weekly archive — this holds still while the surface map scrubs.

How it's fished

Sight-cast live shrimp to fish laid up under floats and markers.

Region by region — right now

RegionSeasonPrime waterTempFish it atMonths
Gulf of Mexico in season reaches Tampa 86°F —
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
Southeast Atlantic in season reaches Cape Hatteras 83°F 7–49 ft
J
F
M
A
M
J
"Fish it at" is where this species' temperature band and its holding depth overlap in the water column, from the RTOFS profile (13 levels, 0–300 m) — the depth to actually put a bait, not just the place. "Prime water" is the furthest sampled station on the 10-fathom lane whose surface temperature sits inside this species' band. It is water, not a sighting report.
Charted grounds on the 10-fathom lane
Frying Pan Shoals
The Point — Cape Hatteras