Topwater Caranx Ignobilis: Giant Trevally (GT) > Tackle & Techniques
The Beast
Duncan O'Connell:
Hi Gary
Like Brandon and others have said, you can find big GT's turning up anywhere within their range. My observations are that big GTs appear more prevalent in deep water, at the extreme ends of their distribution and in places where recruitment is minimal.
As an examples for deep water, you can use place such as New Cal or the outer edge of the Ribbons to illustrate. The deeper waters probably have easier access to larger prey which would be needed to sustain the big fish. It also thins out the numbers of smaller schooling fish which are racing around in the shallows chasing smaller prey, making it easier for the angler to target them specifically.
As far as their distribution goes, spots like Tokara or Southeast QLD seem to produce a high proportion of large fish. Not neccesarily big numbers of fish (in fact more the opposite!) but the average size is pretty good. A 149cm GT was caught down the Tweed recently and another at 139cm was popped off Moreton Island a few weeks ago. The Japanese obviously have a long history of targetting big fish in their local waters, but if the same kind of fishing pressure were applied to SE QLD, I think a lot more big fish would be encountered (not that I would wish for that kind of fishing pressure).
The main theory on this is that the larger fish can cope with the changes in water temperatures better than the smaller fish can so they survive in these areas year round. It may also have to do with lower water temperatures affecting spawning recruitment in these areas.
Some of the more isolated atolls in the Pacific have amazing GTs living on them - as examples off the GBR think of Marion Reef, Ken Reef, Diamond Islets. Not many fish but big ones. This is most likely due to their isolated nature and lack of habitat for juvenile recuitment. The larval fish that settle there are much reduced in number, but they can live a long time with little competition for resources.
An interesting counterpoint is Christmas Island (Kiribati). While it is very isolated, there is a massive shallow lagoon that acts like a GT factory. This means there are stacks of small and medium sized GTs around. The big fish are there but they have to compete with smaller faster fish for your lures. If you ask the guides to take you to a big GT spot, they will move away from the shallows, out to 30-60m of water and tell you to fish big bloopers in order to call the fish up. On a giant scale the Great Barrier Reef acts in the same way as a massive GT production line.
Changing the subject slightly, there are implications for conservation in this: places with lots of small and medium GT's with fewer large fish = healthy robust populations, while places with fewer larger fish = more fragile populations.
All up Gary I reckon you have just about as much chance at catching a giant in your backyard in the Tweed as just about anywhere in the world, it just takes plenty of persistance hanging out for that one big fish!
Cheers
Duncan
Andre van Wyk:
--- Quote from: Brandon Khoo on April 03, 2012, 09:46:34 AM --- The other issue for anglers such as us is that a really big fish probably needs a popper to appear right in front of it for it to snaffle it. The effort required to chase such a small target has to be balanced off against the meal. A big fish is probably eating large reefies such as a 5kg red bass instead of fusiliers.
--- End quote ---
This is a great point Brandon... The guys who slide livebaits off the beaches on our north coast and the Mozambique coastline regularly us 3 Spot Pompano and even smaller Travelly such as Brassies or Greenspots up to 5 kilos as live bait.... the most soughyt after bait of course being a big Bonefish in the 4 to 5 kilo range.... these baits regularly get engulfed by GT's in the 25 kilo range, right up to the 50 kilo plus models.... so when one looks at even the biggest stickbaits, like Crusty's Sidewinder, compared with a 5 kilo Bonefish, its still pretty tiny....
Gary Prerost:
Duncan that was a great reply.It would seem certainly in our part of the hemisphere that the further south we go in some species range the bigger they are .As you say perhaps fewer in number but bigger in size. I have seen some very large fish in schools in the river here during summer.I witnessed some pro netters haul a catch of trevally I never dreamt would live in the system up to 15kg.
But as you say if we keep casting the big fish will eventually show thanks to all who replied some top replys
Brandon Khoo:
Hey Andre, what you write below about using a live bonefish would be sacrilege to many!! ;D
--- Quote from: Andre van Wyk on April 04, 2012, 07:40:57 PM ---
--- Quote from: Brandon Khoo on April 03, 2012, 09:46:34 AM --- The other issue for anglers such as us is that a really big fish probably needs a popper to appear right in front of it for it to snaffle it. The effort required to chase such a small target has to be balanced off against the meal. A big fish is probably eating large reefies such as a 5kg red bass instead of fusiliers.
--- End quote ---
This is a great point Brandon... The guys who slide livebaits off the beaches on our north coast and the Mozambique coastline regularly us 3 Spot Pompano and even smaller Travelly such as Brassies or Greenspots up to 5 kilos as live bait.... the most soughyt after bait of course being a big Bonefish in the 4 to 5 kilo range.... these baits regularly get engulfed by GT's in the 25 kilo range, right up to the 50 kilo plus models.... so when one looks at even the biggest stickbaits, like Crusty's Sidewinder, compared with a 5 kilo Bonefish, its still pretty tiny....
--- End quote ---
Sachin Chaudhry:
I find that 2 to 3 days before the full moon and especially at the crack of dawn the biggest boys come out to play. Very aggressive and in a different size of big.
Current is important but big fish get big by eating lots which is why I feel the shore side of reef passages tend to deliver so many big fish in my experience. The currents wash the bait out and the GTs have an easy time of picking them out.
However irrespective of the location I feel the moon phase is key.
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