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Twitchin' Trevs
Matt Stott
Trevally are a cool fish; they look good, smash lures and pull hard. We're lucky enough to have reasonable populations of trevally that inhabit the mouths of many of our local rivers. Trevally, of one form or another, are available around Australia though and no matter where you find them, or what type of tevally, they can't resist a twitched plastic. Downsize your gear and plastics for smaller trevally or upsize for the big fish or you'll soon find yourself smoked!
We work the mouths of the rivers and creeks using the sounder, locate the fish and then motor back up and drift over the shows on the sounder. Then it's just a matter of getting that plastic to the bottom and twitching and jigging it erratically to the surface.
We commonly encounter trevally in the 55- 70cm range so we fish 7' 10-20lb spin rods and 3000 size reels loaded with 15lb braid and 20-40lb leader. Quality rods allow you to go lighter and have a bit of fun, while still being able to put the hurt on the fish when you need to keep it from finding structure.
The standout lure is definitely the ZMan 5" StreakZ and our preferred colours are Bubble Gum or Pearl. The StreakZ has a pin tail which allows it to sink quickly and when twitched, even the smallest amount, the pin tail dances seductively. Retrieve it quicker and with a few twitches of the rod tip and it has an erratic darting action that predatory species find irresistible.
Depending on the depth and current we rig the StreakZ on TT Lures HeadlockZ HD jighead in 3/8, 1/2 or 3/4oz with a 5/0 or 6/0 hook. There is often quite a bit of current and water movement around the river mouths, so we tend to target the slack tide around low. Remember the key though is to locate the fish on the sounder and then work the area in which they are holding.
On our first trip we fished light line and 20lb leader, which saw us smoked as some solid fish rubbed us off on structure. We suspected there were some kingies among the fish we were seeing on the sounder. By stepping up our gear a bit we have managed to land a few different species including solid trevally and mulloway. Although as light as possible is always a good way to fish, go a little heavier and you land the bigger fish you are seeing on the sounder and those that smoke you... you might be surprised what lives in your local river.
Twitchin' trevs will also see you hooked up to a range of other species and on a recent trip, right on sunrise, we had a double hook up on jewfish, or mulloway as they are also known.
Fishing the 5" StreakZ and it was Troy who hooked up first to a decent fish. Halfway through the fight I threw a cast out in the middle of nowhere and it was crunched on the drop.
As Troy's fish started to slow and then surfaced alongside the boat we were stoked to see an 80cm jewie (mulloway). At one point during the fight I had to lock up on my fish to keep it away from structure and it was high fives all round when an 84cm jewie was lifted into the boat. Our session of twitchin trevally soon became one of jigging jewies, but who's complaining!
Tie on a 5" StreakZ, switch on your sounder and spend some time working your local river mouth... you never know what might scoff your plastic on the drop or smash it on the twitch!