We went out at Rutaki Passage on the southern edge of Rarotonga. The passage is one of three that drains the lagoon on the southern edge of the island. Though it is called a passage, underwater it is more akin to a canyon. It has steep walls and drops a good 20-metres or so. For spear fishing it is a great spot as the fish tend to congregate along the walls. And because the passage opens to the ocean, larger fish often cruise into the passage looking for some fishy snacks.

One of those larger fish just happened to turn up while we were out there – a beautiful Giant Trevally or GT, as they are commonly known. Having spoken to people that dive at the mouth of the passage, this guy is a bit of a regular in the passage. Either way, it was really amazing to turn around and suddenly be faced with this monster fish. This GT is about 5-feet long.

At first I was really excited to see the GT and to have the chance to take some photos. About 5-minutes into the encounter though, the GT swam right up to me, clearly checking me out. It was at about this time, I realised that this was actually a really big fish. For a brief moment I even asked myself “do GT’s bite humans?”.

A Giant Trevally (Caranx ignoblis), Cook Islands. © www.thomaspickard.com

The GT turned up as Bobo had speared a number of fish and they were on a rope, attached to a plastic bottle. This keeps the fish fresh and allows Bobo to keep hunting. Needless to say, the GT was after a free lunch. So much so, that not long after he first turned up, we ended up swimming back to shore and the GT followed us all the way into the shallows, eventually attacking the dead fish Bobo had on his rope. The only casualty was a dead Black Snapper, which had its tail bitten clean off.

In terms of photography, these two photos were taken with a wide angle lens and neither image was cropped. That right there should give you an indication of how close the GT was to me. In the photo below, I could easily reach out and touch the big guy as he followed Bobo and his dead fish back to shore.

A Giant Trevally or GT (Caranx ignoblis), Cook Islands. © www.thomaspickard.com

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