The Atlantic tripletail is an odd-looking fish with odd habits, the kind of creature that invites a joke or two. But the people behind the Tripletail Classic fly fishing tournament take it seriously, and for good reason. For seven years, the Baldwin County event has turned a fun day on the water into a steady source of scientific data and research funding for one of the Gulf’s least understood sport fish. Every fish caught during the tournament is tagged and released, and the event donates all of its proceeds to tripletail research.
Organizers Lance Slater and Sam Glass shared the story of the tournament in Spanish Fort in June 2026, describing an event that blends conservation, citizen science and a growing local fly fishing community.
Born at a Fly-Tying Night in Fairhope
Lance Slater grew up in Baldwin County, left for school and work, and came back after nearly a decade away. An avid fly angler, he wanted to plug into the local fly fishing community. Years ago, he went to a fly-tying night at The Church Mouse in Fairhope and hit it off with a couple there, Noble and Danielle Davidson.
Over a few flies and a few beers, the group decided they wanted to do something to help conserve or protect part of Mobile Bay. Their idea was a fishing tournament that would promote the sport of fly fishing and the conservation of local waters. Before the night was over, they had settled on the species: tripletail.
They had several reasons for the choice. Atlantic tripletail are fun and accessible on a fly rod. The founders knew the fish was growing in popularity as a sport fish. And they knew that very little research existed on the species. The result was the Tripletail Classic, a single-species, tag-and-release, fly-fishing-only tournament designed to promote and support tripletail research.
A Partnership With the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory
As the founders developed the idea, they discovered that the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, operated a Cooperative Sport Fish Tag and Release Program. The laboratory is run by the University of Southern Mississippi and has been a center of marine science on the northern Gulf Coast for decades.
The program gives recreational anglers a tagging kit that includes data cards with matching tags, a tag applicator and instructions. It works like this:
- An angler who catches a target species records a small amount of information on a data card.
- The angler tags the fish and releases it.
- If the fish is caught again, the second angler calls the phone number printed on the tag and reports where it was caught, along with a few other data points.
The program fit the tournament’s mission perfectly, so the organizers built it into the format. Every fish caught during the Tripletail Classic is tagged using kits supplied by the laboratory. Over seven years, the tournament team has worked closely with the lab, providing both tags and research funding. On average, the tournament tags about 30 tripletail, and it donates 100 percent of its proceeds to tripletail research.
Cooperative tagging programs like this one are a proven way to multiply what scientists can learn. Research vessels and staff are expensive, but recreational anglers are on the water every day. When anglers tag fish and others report recaptures, researchers can piece together information on growth, movement and survival that would be difficult to gather any other way.
Meet the Tripletail, a Master of Disguise
The tripletail gets its name from its dorsal and anal fins, which resemble its tail fin and sit far back on the body, giving the fish the appearance of having three tails. Around Mobile Bay, many anglers know it simply as “blackfish.” The species is found in most tropical and subtropical seas around the world. Tripletail are solitary and feed on minnows, shrimp and small crabs.
Their feeding strategy is what makes them so unusual. Tripletail float near the surface, often turned nearly on their sides, next to some kind of floating structure such as crab trap buoys, channel markers or drifting debris. They can change color to blend in with their surroundings and simply wait for prey to come close before ambushing it. To an untrained eye, a tripletail lying beside a buoy can look like a dead leaf or a piece of trash.
That behavior is exactly what makes them such a good target for fly anglers. Sight fishing for tripletail means scanning buoys and markers, spotting a fish and then presenting a fly accurately without spooking it. Once hooked, tripletail are known for putting up a strong fight, and they are also prized as table fare.
A “Data Poor” Species With Big Questions
Tripletail are pelagic, meaning they live in open offshore waters, and semi-migratory, meaning they move into bays, sounds and estuaries to feed or spawn. Scientists still understand little about those movement patterns, and they are the focus of much of the current research. Researchers consider the tripletail a “data poor” species, one with more questions than answers.
The tournament’s tags have already turned up some striking results. Sam Glass said two fish tagged during the tournament in the Mississippi Sound were later caught and reported far away: one in Texas and the other in the Florida Keys. At the other extreme, Slater said a friend had a tripletail stay near his wharf for an entire year. That kind of variation is precisely why more data is needed.
The stakes are real. The founders noticed early on that fishing pressure on tripletail was increasing, a trend that has continued. Scientists need to understand how many fish migrate into local waters and how often, so they can judge whether the population is being strained. With that information, they can recommend bag and size limits to help keep the species healthy. Alabama and neighboring states already regulate tripletail harvest, and anglers should check with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Marine Resources Division for current size and bag limits before keeping a fish.
A Growing Network of Researchers
As pressure on the fish has grown, so has the push for data. Since the tournament began, its founders have watched more universities and organizations take up tripletail research. Perhaps more important, those groups have started sharing data and collaborating on projects that cross state lines, such as studies of tripletail migrations.
One example came in January 2026, when the University of South Alabama announced it had received funding for tripletail and cobia research spanning all five Gulf states through the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission. The commission, created by an interstate compact in 1949, brings together Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas to coordinate management of shared marine fisheries, which makes it a natural vehicle for studying a fish that clearly does not respect state boundaries.
Trash Pickup, Awards and a Public Banquet
Promoting fly fishing in the region is another big part of the tournament’s purpose. The Tripletail Classic wraps up with an awards banquet that is open to the public and features many fly fishing vendors and tournament sponsors. Several local conservation organizations also attend to share the work they are doing.
Participating teams compete for a range of awards, including:
- First fish caught
- Smallest fish
- Largest fish
- Overall points winner
- Most trash collected during the tournament
That last award reflects the event’s conservation focus. In the most recent tournament at the time of the June 2026 interview, participants together pulled 55 pounds of trash out of local waters.
Fly Fishing for Everyone
Asked how they feel about the recent influx of newcomers to fly fishing, Slater and Glass were enthusiastic. They noted that the culture of the sport has shifted away from an exclusive, high-end image and toward everyday anglers who want to try something new. “I’m okay with people doing things the hard way,” Slater said.
Both men have personal connections to the sport. Glass talked about his first job in a fly shop in Virginia and the sense of discovery fly fishing has given him. Slater talked about how fly fishing helped him cope with loss.
Fly fishing works differently from conventional fishing. In traditional casting, the weight of the lure pulls the line off the reel. In fly fishing, the weighted line itself carries a nearly weightless fly, and it is the flex of the rod, known as its action, that propels the line. Where and how much a rod bends determines that action. Done well, a fly cast is a graceful thing to watch. Done poorly, it is humbling. Anyone who takes up the sport seriously accepts that success will not come easily.
Conservation, the organizers suggest, calls for the same attitude. Progress is hard-won, and no single tournament can reverse the pressures facing Gulf fisheries. But by combining a love of the sport with real support for science, the Tripletail Classic and its network of partners are showing how anglers can help protect the waters they love. For those interested in taking part, the best way to learn about upcoming tournament dates, the public banquet or volunteering is to follow the Tripletail Classic’s own announcements and local fly fishing clubs and shops around Mobile Bay.