Trevally Fishing Perth: Catching Skippy in WA

The fish we call “skippy” in WA is the silver trevally, also sold as skipjack trevally — Pseudocaranx georgianus. It’s a deep, silver fish with a yellowish lateral stripe, a small dark spot on the gill cover, and a forked tail built for short, hard runs. Most metro fish run 400–800g; a good one is over 1kg, and they top out around 3kg.

It is not the same animal as the giant trevally (Caranx ignobilis), the tropical bruiser that reaches 50kg-plus in WA’s north and is a dedicated heavy-tackle sportfish. The two share a family and a name and almost nothing else — you won’t catch a GT off a Swan River jetty. If the northern giant is what you’re after, that’s a different trip; see the giant trevally species guide. Everything below is skippy.

Skippy love structure: jetty pylons, rock walls, groynes, harbour moles and the deeper holes of the Swan estuary. Anywhere there’s current pushing past hard structure and a bit of berley to hold them, a school turns up.

They bite year-round, but the run tightens up in the cooler months — roughly May through September — when fish school hard around inshore reef and structure. Summer still produces, especially early and late. On any tide, the hour either side of the change is the window.

For silver/skipjack trevally the minimum size is 250mm and the individual daily bag limit is 8, counting toward the statewide nearshore/estuarine finfish total of 16 fish per person per day. Those numbers share the nearshore/estuarine mixed bag with tailor and King George whiting, so a mixed feed adds up faster than you’d think — herring and yellowfin whiting sit in a separate “all other species” category. The skippy size and bag limits sit on the species page with the rest of the detail, and the giant trevally limits are a different set again if you’re fishing up north. Rules get reviewed — always confirm the current limits on the DPIRD recreational fishing rules page before you keep a fish.

Keep it light — that’s the whole point.

• Rod and reel: a 6–7ft rod rated 2–4kg with a 2500 reel. Step down to genuinely light line for more bites — 3–6lb is the sweet spot, and skippy get line-shy in clear water.
• Float rig: a small running float to a size 4–6 long-shank hook, drifted past the pylons with the current, is the classic skippy bait rig.
• Paternoster: a light two-dropper with a small ball sinker works the bottom near the pylons when fish sit deep.
• Bait: whitebait, mulie (pilchard) strips, prawn pieces and squid — small and fresh beats big and stale.
• Lures: small metal slices (10–20g), micro jigs and 2–3 inch soft plastics on a light jighead. Cast tight to structure with a slow twitch; skippy often hit on the drop.
• Berley: the real secret. A steady trickle of pollard or mashed mulie draws the school in and holds it under your float. No berley, half the fish.

Fish the tide change — the hour either side is when the current shifts and the school switches on. Early morning and late afternoon beat the middle of the day. Clean water with a bit of current movement is what you want; dead-still, dirty water switches them off. Check tide, wind and the solunar bite window for your spot on BiteCompass and time your session around the change.