Giant Trevally

[Seagoon]

When i was up at Hamilton Island, there was a bunch of GTs that hung around the marina on occasions. I was stunned at how big they are in real life. They are just amazingly big. MASSIVE!

Check out this picture:

http://www.hawaiifishingnews.com/images/re...-range/ulua.jpg

The part of the marina they hang out at is this one in the photos:

http://fishraider.com.au/Invision/index.ph...st&p=213865

Thats a Spaniad that one of the guys on the charter caught (me holding it).

From Wikipedia:

"Giant trevally mature at around the ages of 3 or 4 years, they are generally around 60 cm in length. This indicates that the giant trevally is a very fast growing fish.

Large, usually solitary specimens can reach over 90 kg (200 lb) and be around 1.7 m (5½ ft) in length.

It is not known whether there is a ratio or abundance of what gender when it comes to larger more dominant specimens."

Also:

http://www.giant-trevally.com/speciesinfo.php

Has anyone ever caught one of these big fellas? I have read that the big one have ciguratela or whatever it's called...

Edited January 8, 2008 by paint_stripper

[Black CC]

I caught a 70kg GT while bottom fishing 20kms West of the Montebello Islands in Western Australia a few years back. Took me an hour an a half to catch. I have a couple of amazing photos but will need to research how to show them on the site. We weighed it and let it go and I couldn't believe how quickly it swam back down as I needed about 2 hours to recover.

[Seagoon]

Awesome! Gave your shoulders a work out i bet :-) Id love to catch one of those!!!

[fishermangreg]

I haven't caught one but i gaffed one for a fella on bowen jetty. This fish was massive and the poor guy had some sort of a heart attack while playing it!! His wife called me over and asked if i could gaff it while she hung onto the rod and he got his heart pills. Bowen jetty is a good 6-10 feet of the water and pulling this fish up felt like two cement bags(the old 25kg ones)(im in the building industry lol) I got it up onto the jetty and the fish took one big gulp of air and seemed like it died. Didn't move. I felt sorry for it in a majestic kind of way. This fish was 1.3 - 1.4 meters long!! The wife grabbed a knife and started cutting the guts out of it and the hubbie said no time for that, lets get to the hospital!! The wife asked me if i would help lift it into their combi (with its guts still hanging out!!) She couldn't lift her end so my girlfriend struggled with her and the three of us plopped it in thru the side door and off they went.

ps I saw this fella many times after that and EVERY time he hooked a fish (usually big ones) and EVERY time he would have trouble with his heart. But he loved fishing so much he couldn't stop. There's a plaque mounted at the end of the jetty that commemorates his fine catches.

[DaveD]

Those GT's are amazing !!! Getting to that size is almost unbelievable ...till you see pics and stories like that