Although our little corner of NSW has been fortunate to avoid infection to date (fingers crossed that we continue to be lucky) Covid has meant that those members who intended to travel and fish in Queensland and the NT have had to alter their plans. Nonetheless our “Know your Fish” article deals with a fish that is eagerly pursued by “swoffers” in our warmer waters.

In my earlier fishing years I relied on 1972 Edition of Grant’s Guide to fishes and knew this thug of the ocean as Turrum. Fortunately, the larger 1993 edition cleared up the differences between the Great (now the Bigeye) Trevally, the Turrum and introduced the Giant Trevally that is the subject of this month’s column.

I have never caught one of these fish on fly but have had quite a few on the end of light game fishing gear and found the larger ones almost unstoppable. Seeing several Giant Trevally shouldering each other aside whilst pursuing a popper is heart stopping and they literally monster a lure like no other fish. Anyone tackling Turrum or GTs with fly tackle deserves respect.

If anyone feels that describing the GT as a thug is being unfair I suggest that they google up Bird v Fish blue planet 2 on their computer, perhaps one of our fly tyers may even be in-spired to design a fly that would “match the hatch”. We are fortunate to have two reports of Last month’s outing. An explanation for this fortunate occurrence is supplied after the reports.

On an entirely different subject, some articles reprinted in the newsletter may seem to have an American slant. This is because American fly fishing sites and their contributors are far more prolific than their Australian counterparts. After all, fly fishing principles should basically be the same anywhere in the world.

That being said we are still after your feedback as to whether these over-seas article are useful or interesting. We need your feedback or comments, positive or otherwise, and we will publish them. If preferred as in blog style you can use a Pseudonym (preferably an amusing one).

Iain

View/Download August 2021 edition