TREVALLY, GOLD SPOT
The gold spotted trevally, Carangoides fulvoguttatus is a widespread species of large inshore marine fish in the jack family Carangidae. It is a predatory fish, taking fish, cephalopods and crustaceans, and shows diet partitioning with other trevallies in studies conducted in Australian waters. It is generally of minor importance to commercial fisheries throughout its range, but is considered an excellent sportfish by anglers and spearfishermen and a good table fish.
The gold spot trevally is a large fish, growing to at least 1.2 m in length and reaching a recorded maximum weight of 18 kg. The gold spot trevally has a body shape more like the jacks of the genus Caranx, being more elongated and subcylindrical than most of the genus Carangoides. As a juvenile, the fish is more subovate, becoming more elongated with age, with the dorsal profile of the head and nape becoming steeper with age also. The dorsal fin is in two distinct parts, the first consisting of 8 spines while the second is composed of 1 spines and 25 to 30 soft rays, with the anterior lobe of this fin being shorter than the head length. The anal fin has two anteriorly detached spines followed by 1 spine attached to 21 to 26 soft rays and the pelvic fin has 1 spine and 18 to 19 soft rays. The lateral line has a gentle anterior arch which is slightly longer than the straight section of the lateral line, with the intersection below the thirteenth to sixteenth soft ray of the dorsal fin. The curved section contains 80 to 88 scales while the straight section consists of 12 to 17 scales and 26 to 31 scutes. The breast is scaleless until the origin of the pelvic fins and up to the origin of the pectoral fins, although some individuals have a narrow band of scales separating the pectoral fins. In adults, the mouth cleft is directly beneath the eye, with the both jaws containing bands of villiform teeth. There are 22 to 27 gill rakers in total and 24 vertebrae.
The best lures for trevally are those that imitate small fish and which can be worked with high speed retrieves. Thus, with so many lures fitting these criteria, you can target the trevally with almost any luring method that you can devise. You can troll shallow-running and deep-diving minnows along a drop-off, use horizontal or vertical high-speed retrieves with chrome metal lures or vertically jig when the trevally are close to the bottom. Any variation of lead head with a fibrous bucktail or soft plastic tail, or even a rubber skirted bass jig, can be worked fast or slow for trevally, but often faster is better.
For trevors that are working the upper strata, high speed retrieves with any lure will be productive almost 100% of the time. Using surface lures certainly offer the most excitement. Poppers, walkbaits, fizzers – all work well on the surface. You can throw almost anything at a feeding trevally and it will eat it.
Internationally
The gold spotted trevally is broadly distributed in tropical and subtropical waters of the Indo-pacific region. The species ranges from South Africa in the west, north to the Red Sea and India, and is distributed throughout South East Asia and the Indonesian island chain. Its range extends south to northern Australia, north to Taiwan and Japan and as far east as Palau, Tonga and New Caledonia in the Pacific.
The gold spotted trevally predominantly inhabits inshore lagoons and rocky or coral reef systems, although is occasionally found in sea grass meadows, around offshore islands and on deep sand banks to depths of around 100 m. It is intolerant of low salinities and as such does not enter estuaries.
Australia
The gold spotted trevally occurs in tropical marine waters of the Indo-West Pacific. In Australia it is known from south-western Western Australia, around the tropical north of the country and south to southern Queensland.