ISLAND TREVALLY (Carangoides orthogrammus)
Island trevally is a part of jack family and is distributed in tropical waters of Indo-Pacific. It can reach 26 inches (68cm) and can weight up to 13 lb (6 kg). Shape is similar then bigger cousin yellow spotted trevally, although island trevally are smaller and have pale body with yellow spots and gray stripes. They are foraging for food in reefs and sandy flats. Quite often they can be found in small schools. There main diet is crustaceans , fish and mollusks from reef and sandy substrate, making them exciting specie to target on the reef and sandy flats of Maldives.
Island trevally flies:
Islans trevally are predominantly foraging for shrimp, fish and mollusc on reef, rocks and sandy flats. Most often we use fly patterns that imitate other fish species like baby mullet, wrasse, small bonefish and shrimp and mollusc imitations. When they are foregoing near reef they can also take crustaceans and squid patterns. When fishing on sandy bottom we use flies that have hook pointing upwards, avoiding snagging the bottom.
Equipment:
For island travelly fly rod would be 7 to 8wt, with floating line followed by 9 to 12ft leader ending with 10 or 12lb tippet. In Maldives there is less fishing pressure for island travelly, so most of the time we can get away with 20lb leader.