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Bite Compass
Reef / Inshore

Giant Trevally

Caranx ignobilis

The GT — apex inshore predator of the tropical reef, and the headline target for popper and stickbait anglers from Ningaloo through the Pilbara and Kimberley. Hunts in shallow reef country, smashing surface lures with the kind of violence that breaks rods. Most are released.

Size
Up to 60kg+, commonly 8–25kg
Peak season
Year-round (Gascoyne/North Coast)
Minimum size (WA)
No minimum size
Bag limit (WA)
3 (no separate species cap — the shared large pelagic bag)

Overview

Giant trevally are the fish that built the modern stickbait scene in WA. They patrol shallow tropical reef country — Tantabiddi, Lighthouse Bay, the Muirons, the Mackerels, the Pilbara islands, the Kimberley archipelagos — and hunt baitfish across the bommies in water sometimes shallow enough to see their backs out. The strike on a popper is among the most violent in fishing. They fight dirty, run for coral, and test every component of the gear. The vast majority of WA-caught GTs are tagged and released; eating quality is poor in big fish and ciguatera is a real risk.

Identification

Also known as GT, geet, lowly trevally

A slab-sided silver-grey trevally with a steep blunt forehead, a high-set eye and heavy scutes armouring the tail wrist; big males go almost charcoal-black. The reliable check is the breast, which on a GT is scaleless apart from a small patch of scales just in front of the pelvic fins. Bluefin trevally are smaller-headed with electric blue fins and blue-black flecks. Golden trevally are yellow with rubbery, toothless lips. Brassy and bigeye trevally are more streamlined with a large eye and a dark spot on the gill cover. Everyone shortens the name to GT, or geet.

How to Catch

Best Baits

Live mullet, live tuna, large fresh fillets — though GT fishing is overwhelmingly a lure pursuit

Lures

Halco Roosta 195 poppers, Shimano Orca stickbaits, Hammerhead and Carpenter sinking stickbaits, large surface walkers in 150–200g

Rigs

Heavy spin gear — 80lb braid minimum, 130lb fluorocarbon leader, single inline assist hook or a strong inline treble. Solid rings and split rings rated to 200lb+. Crush the rod butt against the gimbal — you'll need every bit of leverage.

Technique

Cast poppers across shallow reef and work them with hard bloops and pauses; cast stickbaits parallel to the reef edge with a sweeping rod-tip retrieve. Watch for boils, surface chases, or birds working baitfish. When a GT commits, set hard and keep the rod low to turn the fish away from coral. The first ten seconds decide the fight. Land-based at Tantabiddi or Steep Point, lock the drag and don't give an inch.

Best Time

Year-round in tropical WA; cooler months (April–October) offer better weather and clearer water at Ningaloo. Tide changes push bait onto the reef and fire the GTs up; anglers rate the start of the run-in. Early morning and last light are best, and they will feed after dark.

Size & Growth

A realistic Ningaloo popper fish is 8–20 kg. A 25–30 kg GT is the fish of a trip, and the genuine giants past 40 kg are rare, usually old, and almost always released. Sixty kilos and beyond is the headline figure. They are long-lived, and the biggest fish are old animals that take many years to replace — which is the real argument for release, over and above the fact that they are poor eating. Small GTs of 3–6 kg are common on the flats and give a very good account of themselves on lighter gear.

Diet & Habitat

An apex inshore predator that eats whatever it can corner — reef fish, mullet, squid, crabs, and on occasion small turtles and seabirds taken off the surface. GTs patrol shallow reef flats, bommies, lagoon passes, channel edges and harbour walls in 1–30 m, often in water shallow enough to see their backs. Tropical WA only: Ningaloo north through the Pilbara and the Kimberley archipelagos, with stragglers as far south as Shark Bay and nothing to speak of around Perth. Tantabiddi, Lighthouse Bay, the Muirons, the Mackerel Islands and the Pilbara island groups are the recognised ground.

WA Size & Bag Limits

Minimum size No minimum size
Bag limit 3 (no separate species cap — the shared large pelagic bag)
Counts toward Counts within the statewide large pelagic finfish mixed daily bag of 3, shared with mackerel, wahoo, tuna, cobia and barracuda.

No minimum size. Bag limit: counts within the statewide large pelagic finfish mixed daily bag of 3 (shared with mackerel, wahoo, tuna, cobia and barracuda). Most anglers practise catch and release.

Last checked . Limits change — confirm with DPIRD before you fish.

Eating Quality

Poor — coarse, dry flesh in big fish, and a notable ciguatera risk in GTs taken off tropical reefs, which is the more important half of that sentence. Most WA anglers release everything they catch and there is no good reason not to. If you do keep one, take a small fish, bleed it, ice it, skin the fillets and trim the dark bloodline out entirely; it is then fair enough crumbed or diced into a curry, and no better than that. Do not freeze it. The smaller trevally species — golden and bluefin — eat far better if a trevally feed is what you are after. Handle releases in the water, support the body horizontally, and never hang a big GT vertically by the jaw.

Where to Catch Giant Trevally

Broome (Town Beach / Gantheaume Point / Roebuck Bay) Bundegi (Boat Ramp / Beach / Bundegi Reef) Cape Keraudren (Pardoo) Cleaverville (Cleaverville Creek / Cleaverville Beach) Coral Bay (South Ningaloo) Dampier (Hampton Harbour / Dampier Archipelago) Dampier Peninsula (One Arm Point / Cape Leveque / Middle Lagoon) Derby (Derby Jetty / King Sound) Dirk Hartog Island (Wirruwana — Outer Shark Bay) Eighty Mile Beach Exmouth (North Ningaloo / North West Cape) Gnaraloo Bay / Station Honeymoon Bay (Kalumburu / McGowan Island / Napier Broome Bay) Karratha (Nickol Bay / Hearson's Cove) Kununurra / Lake Argyle / Ord River Lighthouse Bay (Vlamingh Head Lighthouse / Surfers Beach / Limestone Platforms) Mackerel Islands (Thevenard Island / Direction Island) Montebello Islands (Conservation Park / Marine Park) Onslow (Town Beach / Beadon Creek / Mackerel Islands) Point Samson (Honeymoon Cove / Public Wharf / Cossack) Port Hedland (Spoilbank Marina / Cooke Point / tidal creeks) Quobba (Quobba Station / Blowholes / Camp Rock) Steep Point (Edel Land — Mainland's Westernmost Point) Tantabiddi (Boat Ramp / Lagoon Gap / Outer Reef Drop-off) Useless Loop / Tamala (Outer Shark Bay) Willie Creek (creek mouth / front flats) Wyndham / Cambridge Gulf (Five Rivers) Yardie Creek (Cape Range NP / Southern Ningaloo)

Guides Featuring Giant Trevally

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