Topwater Caranx Ignobilis: Giant Trevally (GT) > Reports & Expeditions

Black GTs are like London Buses...

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Trevor Skinner:
....you wait for ages for one and two turn up at the same time.

After a succession of bright silver fish at last a couple of big black mamas (down Luke)




Regards,


Trev

Nathan Tsao:
its kind of strange to me that i notice a bunch of guys here on the forum say that the black GTs are hard to come by. It must have a lot to do with location, because i think that 75% or more of the GT's that i see here in Kona are the blacker ones.

I wonder why it is that they are more rare in other parts of the world???

Nice Fish Trevor!!!

Trevor Skinner:
Nathan,

I wish they were easier to put alongside the boat! That last fish gave me some real hurry up.

I've asked this question of a few very, very experienced GT fisherman and there seems to be as many answers. What I have noticed is some fish seem naturally black even when chasing the lure while others seem to darken up after hook up and capture. Both these fish were mottled and darkened up considerably after capture.

I've seen both black and silver fish in both Musandam and Halaniyat. The darker fish seem less common but don't have any real numbers.

Regards,



Trevor   

Mark Harris:
I have seen three theories on this:

1. The VERY dark ones are breeding males. This makes sense in areas where you do not see many and also where those you do catch seem very pumped up and aggressive.

2. Pigmentation from specific diet. This makes sense in areas like Hawaii and parts of the South Pacific where black GTs seems to be the norm rather than the exception.

3. Colour change during hunting (as with some scombrids like sailfish, wahoo etc.). I am not at all convinced about that for GTs.

Andy Rowe:
Some more input;

Mark, agreed with your point 1, black ones go harder, testosterone is probably a key ingredient to increased aggression and strength at least in the areas around Indonesia from my experience. The darker fish are not as common in the Indonesian fishery and I note the black ones generally fight 5-10kg above their weight.

point 2, that is interesting, also consider camouflage, the dark basaltic rocks of hawaii and Eaio appear to produce a disproportionate number of dark fish, perhaps the darker coloration here is a result of natural selection where darker fish are more successful in ambush situations. Or it may be a case where the fish can readily change colour to match the back drop. Interesting to note also are localised dark spots in lighter coloured fish, this appears to be related to areas  where the lure has rubbed on the fishes face.

It's an interesting point and I think there may be several reasons for dark fish but I'd presume the case of the inordinately strong + black fish to be males.

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