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

Most big GT on some spots and not in others, WHY ?

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Sacco Gerard:
Thanks for your answers   :D
I do believe that the wealth of the food that is found south of Oman is an explanation for the presence of large fish.
I only went at Ash Shuwaymiyah only once in 2011, so I do not have much experience of the spot but I'm still surprised not to have seen a small Gt from 10 to 15k. when I was fishing near of HALLANIYAT ISLANDS
When we  fish with lures fast handling as sliders, Orion flapper and Big nose for example, in principle small GT are faster to tackle this kind of lures, I checked around many spots,  in Oman it was not the case during my trip, it is still surprising

Nick Bowles:
This is a good question and something that we have discussed for many years around many a fire. There are a lot of theories but what I believe is that most of the big fish that we see in Oman and Yemen are pelagic. After being lucky enough to fish a lot of GT places like Maldives, Seychelles, Mozambique, Tanzania, Tokara, Musandam, Hallaniyat and Socotra you can definitely see a lot of differences in the fish in the various areas and also at various times of the year. What I think happens is most of the smaller GTs start off in nursery areas like Maldives, Seychelles, Lakshadweep Islands where there are shallow atolls and quite areas for the GTs to grow and to stay away from predators and also where there is easy prey for them to feed on but most of what they feed on are smaller prey and not in big numbers. When they start getting towards a decent size they start to migrate into deeper water joining up into larger shoals and start to swim on currents and deeper water in search of bigger and more food hence heading for areas with an abundance of food. The smaller fish will not survive to well so the GTs have to get to a certain size on average ie 25kgs or something in this range.

The shoals then travel to areas to feed and spawn like Oman for turtle hatching, Southern Oman/Socotra spawning etc. I have seen over 1200 GT netted in a day in Oman when the turtles are hatching and watched the local fisherman weigh the fish for over an hour and there was not one GT under 30kgs, there is no way these fish are local as most of the year there are no GTs in this area, they have come to the area for a specific reason and the lack of small fish must only mean that they are growing up somewhere else. Then when we have fished Seychelles and Maldives we have caught a lot of GTs with very few over 25kg mark. All the fish are smaller and not as aggressive. So conclusion is if the smaller fish are in the Atolls/shallow reef areas and the bigger fish are in the deeper waters leading onto islands like Socotra, Hallaniyat, Tokara etc then they have to come there from somewhere and not resident. They may be resident for a while but not permanent. If there are not to many small fish must mean they are growing up somewhere else.

I think the theory is that you will find a lot of big GTs in areas that has very deep water around islands like Hallaniyat, Socotra, New Caledonia, Tokara, Komodo, Hawaii. Then you will generally find smaller GTs in areas with atolls and shallow water like Maldives, Seychelles, some areas of the Coral sea, etc. The big GTs have to eat a lot to keep them going and to chase a mullet around the flats is not going to do much and they need big shoals of baitfish, squid, turtles etc and then they also want to breed and find a place with a lot of other big mature breeding fish and hence the spawning in places like Hallaniyat and Tokara which you can hit right and catch a lot of big fish in a small area.

This all said I have caught GTs off the shore in Oman around the 2kg mark and we have caught 40kg+ GTs in Maldives, so there is definately some cross over and the theory is not perfect but I think in general it could be a possibility. But with anything this is my theory and every day we work on new ideas and theories to try and better understand our chosen species to target. Hallaniyat and Socotra are definately an anomally and something that is very special and something I hope we can all enjoy for a long time to come!

Cheers,
Nick

Ed Nicholas:
Excellent to see a variety of thoughts and input. I meant no disrespect at all to New Cal and all the other established /proven monster GT locations but was simply saying S.Oman is right up there and a very unique place to fish  ;)

Mark Harris:
Some really, really smart stuff in this thread and how good is it to have anglers really thinking about the fish and not just about catching them, and the the tackle that should be used? Tremendous.

Nick, a really smart line of thinking there if I may so.  Both casual observations, and hopefully more and more results from tagging, can only help us all understand more about this magnificent fish.

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