Local Fish
About Sport Fish you will find in our sunny tropical paradise


Giant Trevally
Caranx Ignobilis a.k.a. Mamung, among-among.

Also locally known as the Mamung, the Giant Trevally is a real slugger. Weight for weight, it is probably the hardest fighting fish in our waters! Many of my lures for trolling have been lost to this "slugger"!

They will take the lure/bait and head off, unstoppable! They often swim around the island or reef to cut the line! If the water is deep, the giant trevally will head down to the nearest reef to try to cut off the line. It is essential to bring the angling skills in play to turn the head of this powerful fish!

Strong as a bull
If the giant trevally is taken on bait off the bottom, it will head straight off to the seabed horizon, probably to look for the nearest rocky out crop or coral head! I have seen a giant trevally actually take off 200 meters of 10kg line, emptying the spool! It took a whole squid bait off the bottom, 40 metres deep. Fortunately it got tired at the point when the spool was totally empty, as it had stopped running and the line was gradually recovered.

If the line is still intact after the first run, the fish does not come in a docile manner, but the rod will be bouncing hard from the head shakes and dogged body twisting of the trevally! This strong head shaking and twisting are often the cause of the getaway of the giant trevally.

Lure buster and tackle tester
The leverage it can exert on the hooks is strong enough to open the gape of the hooks, making the hooks lose their grip and holding power. Many times the lure has come back alone with most of the hooks levered open. Therefore when giant trevally are sought after, ensure the lures used have had their hooks upgraded, but even then there is no guarantee that they still won't be opened up!

It never gives up. Run after run is what you get! The angler can be assured that tackle and angling techniques will be tested to the limit! Smooth drags and good knots will show their mettle in times like this. The angler will often wonder if the knots have been tied properly, and wish the line was from a fresh spool during the heat of the battle!

Although its teeth aren't as sharp as those of the spanish mackerel or the barracuda, given time even thick mono will be cut through. Wire leaders are recommended. In these warm waters, wire should be used all the time, as most large tropical fish are armed with teeth that will cut through mono, like a hot knife through butter!

Preferred diet
Favourite baits are live bait, strips of fish or whole squid! The giant trevally will take the normal saltwater trolling lures, but make sure these lures can take the damage the giant trevally readily dishes out! The small giant trevallys can often be found in schools and trolling the same spot can often produce hook up after hook up.

This fish has claimed many of my favourite lures. If the giant trevally stays hooked up, it just powers away, taking the line of the spool effortlessly to cut it off at the nearest sharp reef. The lures it seems to like are those with strong vibrating action and deep diving, though I have taken them on bibless lures that have a tight action and run just below the surface.

Trevally are found around structure, like rocky out crops and coral reefs, in deep or shallow waters. They have been caught up to 40 kgs, but typical weights are 5kgs to 15kgs. The smaller trevally are often found schooling and multiple hook ups are quite common when a shoal of trevally is found. It is quite usual under these circumstances to keep hooking up and landing trevally at the same spot during trolling for up to an hour till the school of trevally moves off.

Although giant trevally occasionally are hooked up on bait and live bait, most of the time the catches are from trolling lures. This is probably because the giant trevally like to hang around the structure and trolling done properly will bring the lures close to and cover more structural areas than static fishing.

There are other smaller species in the trevally family (ie diamond trevally, golden trevally... and more!) found in these waters. They are often caught on fresh bait like fish strips or squid. Like their larger cousin they to give a good account of themselves!