BITING FACTS

SIZE: Most fishermen catch them between 0.5 and 1kg but they can grow to 10kg

LOCATION: Southern Qld down to Tasmania and around to WA

HANG-OUTS: Ocean rocks, coastal bays and in the lower reaches of estuaries around rocky reefs and jetties

WHERE TO CAST
Silver trevally, or "blurter", are a schooling species that can travel great distances, but spend a lot of their time around rocky reefs and jetty pylons. Tiny juvenile trevally often shelter in and around the tentacles of large jellyfish, before moving to a variety of shallow water habitats as they grow.

BURLEY
Use plenty of burley. Even plain bread will do the job - although adding some oily fish, cheese and/or mince to the mix will usually work even better. Trevally tend to move about a lot, so burley is essential in bringing them to your bait and keeping them in the area. The key is to put small amounts of burley in the water at regular intervals. Boat anglers often use a purpose-built burley bucket for this job - a perforated metal cylinder fitted to the back of the boat. The burley is put in the cylinder and gradually released though the perforations by wave action and/or the use of a special plunger. 

BAITING UP
My favourite bait would be either fresh peeled prawn, or a mixture of bread, cheese and mince or tinned tuna. pilchard and ghost nippers ("saltwater yabbies") also work. While trevally often feed in big schools, at times they can be quite timid biters and frustrating to catch. It is best to use light tackle and keep sinker size to the bare minimum necessary to reach the fish.

REELING THEM IN
Even though trevally are strong fighters, they don't usually fight dirty. A good trevally will use its broad sides to gain purchase in the water and will often circle down deep for some time before tiring. In many cases the patient angler can land quite large fish on light gear. Silver trevally have soft mouths, so they must be played more gently than most other species to minimise the risk of the hook pulling out.

FISHING OFF JETTIES
When catching trevally from a jetty or the shore, look for the deepest spots available - if you can, check out one of the large public jetties found in various large coastal bays and gulfs around the southern half of Australia. Many jetties, especially private jetties, are too shallow to be much good for trevally fishing during the greater part of the day. If fishing the ocean rocks, look for a decent hole, preferably with lots of white water and in close proximity
to deep water.

LURES
Trevally will also readily take a variety of lures, including traditional metal spoons and the newer soft plastics. Quite often trevally will be feeding beneath schools of surface fish that are attacking small bait fish - it is always worth letting the lure sink deeper on some of your casts, as you never know what might be feeding down deep. Silver trevally are most likely to respond to a reasonably slow erratic lure retrieve. Lures should be on the small side, in keeping with this specie's relatively small mouth.

SPEARFISHING
Because trevally rarely spend much time in any one place, they don't become conditioned to divers as much as other, more territorial, species - meaning they are usually not too hard to approach underwater. Establishing a good burley trail certainly helps with the bigger ones - a tactic that is well worth remembering if you have other species (like snapper and yellowtail kingfish) also in mind.