GT’s at Cosmeledo
Giant Trevally, better known as GT’s or GEETS. It is one of, if not the main and most important target at Cosmeledo. No – it is the main target and the one which gets your heart pounding the most when hooked up.
They are a hoot to catch and Cosmo is know for the abundance of them. However, it isn’t certain. The group that left when we landed didn’t get one all week. The entire group had such sad faces with hunched shoulders getting back on the plane. I always expect to the see the group leaving looking tired because it’s a long, physical week fishing but these guys were just bummed out.
I managed to land six during the week and each was just fantastic. I caught them in knee deep water, in chest deep water, clear and even a little less clear. Most of the time the water was crystal clear as you can see in the pictures below. Our group of 8 caught probably 40-60 of them.
I really missed a chance at a monster one that was running the surf but I didn’t see it in time as I was focused on another fish. It was truly a trophed sized fish that I wasn’t ready for. I hadn’t been looking around enough. I should have seen it from 300 yards away out of the corner of my eye. Big black beast of a fish running along the surf.
The Giant Trevally (Caranx ignoblis) is one of the larger fish in the jack family, Carangidae. It is distributed throughout the tropical watersof the Indo-Pacific region, with a large range from South Africa then west to Hawaii (including Japan) and Australia in the south.
It’s distinguished by a steep head profile, strong tail scutes and muscle features. It is generally silver in color although as they mature many get a darker colouoration (like the beast I missed). It is a strong, muscled fish. You won’t fish any soft parts on it. It is the Apex predator in most of its habitats. It will hunt individually as well as in schools. If your boat mate is onto one, be on the lookout for a second to cast to but be prepared to dance around or have one of you jump out.
It a well recognized gamefish although it is also an important commercial fish for certain areas. The Giant Trevally is, however, known to potentially cause Ciguatera poisoning so I’d advise against eating them. Plus they are a wonderful catch and release fish. I don’t know how you could do otherwise. Let them grow and multiply.
The fish have a wide salinity tolerance so they are found in some upland rivers and lakes in parts of the world (South Africa, Philipines, others) but is the smaller ones who enter these habitats. The larger ones stay deep and come up to patrol their hunting grounds or when they move reef to reef.
Their diet is wide – from crustaceans, cephalopods, molluscs and of course – other fish. It’s predominately other fish. They will even eat smaller birds which don’t get out of the water fast enough (Sooty Terns – see Blue Planet II).
If you are on the boat or wading - looking for triggerfish and have a small crab on your 8 or 9 weight, go ahead and try but it will be hard to hook at GT with a triggerfish fly given the size of the hook. I got lucky on a smaller GT in doing just this but it was only a lucky hard strip set that put the crab in the corner of it’s mouth and I was lucky it didn’t get pulled out on one of the GT’s runs.
Smaller Size Geet but Tremendously fun to catch as the tide was running in – really strong current.
Biggest and prettiest. Look at how clear the water is.
The main rig we used was a 12 weight rod and we threw big flies. The saltwater rod should be paired with a large arbour saltwater reel with a good drag. We loaded it up with 100 lb braid. You need the pairing to pull the fish away from structure or letting it run too deep. You’ll appreciate the extra pull of the big matched pair of rod and reel combo.
The team at Cosmo has set up a great cleaning system for the reels and rods when you come in. We would hang our rods up every night on a rack as you walked into the lodge. They has also built a small trough where you rinsed off the entire set – I wish I had taken a photo of it – it was a cool design. Even though they are “saltwater” set ups, it’s important to really clean them down each night.
You will throw big flies. Tarpon type flies with lots of color. Bring some poppers along as well. Your guide will tell you what to use each day. I was hoping, but never caught one on a popper.
I had the priviledge of catching one with almost all of the guides.
Clear skies, a good fly rod and a GT =’s a PERFECT DAY.
While there are different methods of catching GT’s, I landed all of mine while wading with the exception of one where I cast from the bow of our boat.
I learned something interesting about GT’s in that they often follow or sit right on top of sting rays moving through the water. Like Cobia follow sting rays back in Florida. It’s hard sometimes to see the fish on top of the ray because of the light but you cast to them anyway. It was actually very hard for me to even see the sting rays sometimes because it was hard to distinguish the small patches of reef and a ray. It took awhile. They are aggressive fish and somewhat forgiving. Except for the big ones, you might (Keyword Might), get a second cast if you aren’t right on the fish. Lead the GT by around 3 rod length’s and use a long and fast retrieve. It’s a fast strip and a strong strip set. Do not try and trout set a GT – you’ll lose the fish right away and kick yourself afterwards. Keep the rod tip down when the fish eats and make a strong strip set. Then get ready to fight it.
It is a thrill to catch your first GT. You won’t forget it and you’ll be wanting to do it again. I will always be targeting them if they are in the waters where I am fishing.
When I got back to Florida, I did a bit of research on the fish. I didn’t realize it has an interesting historical and cultural background in Hawaii where it is held in high regard. I pulled this down from Wikipedia as well as from some Hawaiian cultural websites. They call the fish the “ulua” which is likened to a fine man and strong warrior. Historically, the fish was often used in religious ceremonies and they generally treated it as a gamefish, not normal table fare.
If you are in an area where there are GT’s, talk to your guide and let him know you want to hunt them. For me, it was an incredible adrenaline rush and made the 40 hour journey there even more worthwhile.