Saturday about 23 miles S of PP ran across a log holding lots of Triple tail & Dolphin, we got our share of them.
It was also holding lots of small fish 4-6" long. Shaped like an AJ with a distinct stripe running through the eye. My crew thought they were juvenile amber jack but they were much darker than an AJ. More of a dark brown almost black color. I've seen them before on grass and other flotsam.
Most likely a banded rudderfish because if you see floatsom out there, banded rudderfish WILL be on it. They only have stripes when they are young. When they are older then look just like a small AJ with a stripe through the eye.
We caught some baby almacos off a log a few weeks ago along with some large hard tails near the Elbow. We had circled back because I was positive I saw 3 triple tail on the log as well. The log was also holding some mahi.
I'm 100% certain on the baby almaco identification and it sounds like you may have run across something similar. Dark in color, large stripe from the eye, and our fish had a very pronounced, "almaco" dorsal fin.
I didn't get a good look at it, but we released another baby almaco this past week fishing for bait on another boat on one of the western Louisiana rigs. I only saw them from the stern and in the water, but I assumed that's what they were in the water. I didn't see the one we landed.
Think I found the same log, its was about 2O miles out and we loaded the boat with chickens and caught 6 18"- 22" triple tail, we almost hit the log. Last Sat.
Did it have baracles growing on it and about 20' long? I thought they were baby ajs also.
Most debris will have almacos on them . Banded rudder fish at that size will still have the vertical bars and certainly will not be dark in overall color