Description

Giant Trevally (called “Ulua” in Hawaiian; “GT” in Australia) has been an obsession of mine since childhood. Growing up in Hawaii, they were the best game fish close to shore. They are the largest member of the Jack family and are the kings of the reefs where they live. You see them on bumper stickers a lot for whatever reason. However, despite several close encounters, I was ultimately unable to get one until I was 34 years old.

Giant Trevally lives on tropical reefs throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans. They are pure muscle and a very, very tough opponent, even with heavy tackle. They usually come out of the reef, grab your lure and then reload and pin you to the rocks.

I had a trip to the Republic of the Marshall Islands where all the giant trevallies I hooked broke me on the rocks. I was only using 50lb braided line and that wasn’t enough to land a single one, even the ones I could see were only in the 10lb range. I never underestimated them after that and I don’t fish for them with a braid under 100lbs.

Giant trevally exceed 200 pounds, but it’s nearly impossible to catch fish that size on sport fishing tackle because there’s almost no way to keep them off the reef. The hook will bend, the line or rod will break, or something will give way to a fish that size. Anything over 100 pounds is a true trophy.

Approach

If you are fishing them with poppers or stickbaits, you need a very robust conventional or spinning setup capable of making long casts with these heavy lures. I wouldn’t go with under 100lb braided line and 200lb monofilament leader (poppers) or 100lb fluorocarbon leader (stickbaits). The only real one I would fish with is a Daiwa Saltiga. I would pair it with a high-end rod from Japan made specifically for this type of fishing, such as a Smith Komodo Dragon (poppers) or a Carpenter Coral Viper (stickbaits).

If you are bait fishing from shore, as is common in Hawaii, most people use a conventional reel with a long rod to cast past the rocks. You need a reel that can hold a large amount of line since you can’t chase the fish. I personally have not caught any this way.

Whatever gear you use, make sure everything is in top condition. If there is any weakness in anything (hooks, split rings, lures, line, knots, rods, etc), you better not even hook them both in the first place because the fight will be over immediately. Owner’s Hyperwire Split Rings are a good choice when you need to wear a split ring.

Techniques

Giant Trevally eat baits easily, but are much, much more fun to catch on topwater lures.

lures

Giant Trevally loves large poppers like those made by Heru, Halco, and many other manufacturers. You throw them as far as you can and then retrieve them with long strokes of the rod so the poppers kick up a lot of water. You need to vary your recovery speed to find out what they like. The hit is usually dramatic, as they launch out of the water in a shower of spray that tries to annihilate your popper. As with all surface lure fishing, you should wait until you feel weight on the end of the line before setting the hook, as fish often miss the lure on the first try.

Giant Trevally also loves stickbaits like the ones Heru and Orion make. You can use aboveground or underground stickbaits; my preference is underground. With underground stickbaits you can’t see the hit coming, so all of a sudden you just feel a violent yank as the fish tries to pull your arm out of its socket. When fishing over a reef, you have to be careful that your expensive stickbait doesn’t sink into the rocks.

No matter how you fish them, make sure you get a solid hook. They often grab the lures in their mouths and hold them so tightly that the hooks don’t penetrate and then they just spit out the lure. Set the hook hard several times. To increase your chances, replace all treble hooks with heavy single hooks. They almost always grab the head of the lure first. You can get away with a single hook suspended from the head, although I like to add a hook to the rear to catch other species that might bite.

baits

I never bait them, but I know that in Hawaii octopuses and eels are popular baits to use from the shore.

where to get the big ones

The Great Barrier Reef and New Caledonia have some big ones that can be caught with poppers and stickbaits. Indonesia has good GT fishing, as does Fiji and many of the remote Pacific atolls. I have also heard of some good GT fishing in Oman of all places.