Silver Trevally, commonly called Skippy in WA are fantastic fighters on light gear, will take a wide variety of soft plastics and, if you wish to keep a few for the table, they taste great. My preferred method of targeting theses little brutes is fishing inshore with plastics.

Skippy love to hang around hard reefy areas and my favourite hunting ground in the Perth metro area is right along the 3 mile reef stretch, with my home ground being out from Hillarys. I like to sound around in anything from 8-20 metres until I find a likely looking lump or patch of reef, and then drop the reef anchor and start berleying like mad.

Berley works! Even a simple mix will improve your results dramatically. A mixture containing chook pellets, Mulie cubes, tuna oil and prawn or crayfish shells seems to work the best for me, although some days just a few pellets are needed to bring a school to the area.

Now, if the fish are really on the chew they will take just about anything, but my favourite plastics to use are the 3-5” jerk-bait styles. Examples of great fish catchers for me include Squidgy Flick Baits, SnapBacks and Berkley Power Minnows. Matching the right size lure to the size of fish being caught is a good practice, and in general I prefer using the larger plastics to entice the bigger fish, and not just Skippy either, as a sizeable by-catch list exists when using plastics. Most commonly Snapper, Sambos, Dhuies, Breaksea cod, and many other reef dwellers.

All you need to do now is pick up your desired rod and reel, thread your plastic onto a jig head and start jigging. On the subject of gear to use, a spinning outfit is preferred in my books for versatility; anything from 4 to 15 pound gear is about right. Obviously it’s going to be more of a challenge on the lighter gear than fishing 15 pound and for this reason I usually fish 8 pound braid on a 7 foot 4-7kg rod with a 2500 or 4000 sized reel. I find this handles Skippy very nicely, and if something bigger jumps on, I can generally coax it from its reefy home.

Jig heads, in my opinion are the best choice for rigging plastics with this style of fishing. Just match up with the size plastic you’re using and depth to be fished and your set. A good idea is to go into your local Got One store and ask the knowledgeable staff to show you some good combinations.

 When the fish are feeding actively you won’t need to work too hard to get results. I like to fish my plastics as close to the bottom as I can, this is where I find I catch bigger Skippy and where I’ll start to pick up more by-catch. A simple lift and drop retrieve is all that is needed on most occasions, but it definitely pays to mix it up also, throwing in some sharp jerks and longer pauses can work wonders.

Winter is a great time of year for big Skippy and there are a lot to be found on all the local reef systems and they, nine times out of ten, are willing to menace a soft plastic. So get out there and jig some up.

It’s great fun!