Striped trumpeter
Fish · Last reviewed 2026-08-25
A boldly striped southern reef fish reaching 25 kilos and forty-three years — Tasmania's most prized table fish, and a species that grows far too slowly to be fished casually.
Safety: fish welfare — can cause injury needing treatment.
Catching Striped trumpeter
Everything here on fishing for it. Each entry opens the page behind it.
- Ground
The striped trumpeter is a handsome fish and an object lesson. It is long-bodied and silvery with three or four bold dark stripes running the length of the flank, it reaches 120 cm and 25 kg on the FishBase record — and it reaches an age of forty-three years.
That number should stop an angler in their tracks. A fish that lives more than four decades matures late, replaces itself slowly and concentrates on particular pieces of reef, and Tasmania's fishery for it has been managed with increasing care for exactly that reason. FishBase gives it low resilience. It is also, by common agreement on those coasts, among the best eating fish in the southern ocean, which is the pressure that meets the biology.
It lives reef-associated from 5 to 400 m across the temperate Southern Hemisphere — Tristan da Cunha and Gough Island in the Atlantic; the Walter Shoals, St Paul and Amsterdam Islands and from Western Australia across South Australia to southern New South Wales and Tasmania in the Indian Ocean; New Zealand from the Bay of Plenty east to the Chathams in the Pacific. Juveniles are pelagic and are found far from the reef the adults hold to.
The fishery is a boat fishery on ledgered baits and jigs over deep reef, though smaller fish come shallower and are taken from rock in places. As with everything on that ground the practical constraint is barotrauma: fish from the deeper part of the range do not go back.
How it is caught
Identification
No photograph of Striped trumpeter has passed identity review yet, so none is shown. FishingHQ publishes a species photograph only once somebody has confirmed the animal in it against the species record’s own diagnostic features.
- Scientific name
- Latris lineata
- Family
- Latridae
- Water
- Saltwater
- Conservation status
- Not assessed
- Regions
- Australia, New Zealand, East & Southern Africa, Indo-Pacific
- Three or four bold dark horizontal stripes running the length of a silvery, elongate body. Unmistakable where it occurs.
- A moderately pointed head with a small mouth for the size of the fish, and a deeply forked tail.
- Large: FishBase records a maximum of 120 cm and 25 kg, and an age of 43 years.
- Juveniles are pelagic and quite differently marked from the reef-holding adults, which is why small fish turn up a long way from adult ground.
- A latrid, and so related to the tarakihi rather than to any of the striped fish it resembles at a glance.
Size
- Typical
- 2–6 kg (4.4–13 lb)
- Large
- 8–15 kg (18–33 lb)
Exceptional: FishBase records a maximum of 120 cm, 25 kg and an age of 43 years
Lifecycle and reproduction
Reef-associated over a depth range of 5 to 400 m across the temperate Southern Hemisphere. FishBase records a maximum age of 43 years and gives it LOW resilience. Juveniles are pelagic and adults hold to particular reef, which means the fishable population is both findable and slow to replace.
Not detailed on the FishBase record beyond the age data, and the age data is the point. A fish that lives more than forty years matures late relative to a short-lived one, and the fish an angler is most pleased to catch are decades old. That is the whole argument for the care Tasmania's fishery takes over it.
Feeding and senses
Takes crustaceans, small fish and benthic invertebrates over and around reef. The mouth is small for the size of the fish, so it feeds by picking rather than engulfing, and the baits and hooks that catch it are smaller than its weight would suggest.
Bottom and structure-oriented feeding by sight and scent over reef, in water where light falls away with depth. It is wary on heavily fished ground, which is one of the few practical consequences of its long life that shows up within a single session.
Through the year
Present on the same reef year-round rather than running seasonally, with depth and weather governing access rather than the calendar. Smaller fish are found shallower and are the ones occasionally taken from rock.
Distribution
Southern Hemisphere: Atlantic Ocean (from Tristan da Cunha and Gough I.); Indian Ocean (Walter Shoals and Saint Paul's I. and Amsterdam Is., Western Australia, across South Australia to southern New South Wales and Tasmania; Pacific Ocean (New Zealand, Bay of Plenty, east to the Chatham Is)
This is a biological range — where the species occurs, not a prediction that you will catch one. To browse the fishing geography FishingHQ holds, start at fishing places.
Why anglers care
Among the most prized table fish of Tasmania and southern Australia and a significant New Zealand deep-reef target, taken on ledgered baits and jigs over reef from a boat, with smaller fish occasionally caught from rock. Its significance to an angler is inseparable from its biology: a forty-three-year maximum age on a fish this desirable is why the fishery is managed the way it is, and why a bag limit on it is not bureaucratic.
Handling and returning
Stiff spines and a heavy body, and — for fish from the deeper part of the range — barotrauma that makes release ineffective. Support a large fish horizontally, unhook with pliers, and plan what is being kept before fishing deep water rather than deciding at the rail.
Safety
Fish welfare — Can cause injury needing treatment
Fish taken from the deeper part of the range come up with expanded swim bladders and do not descend when returned. Given a maximum age of forty-three years, a returned fish that dies is a far larger loss to the local population than the same event would be for a short-lived species.
What reduces it: Fish the shallower part of the range where release is intended, use a descending device where one is available, and otherwise decide the bag in advance and stop rather than continuing to catch and return.
Where to go next
Similar and related fish
Where it lives
More fish
Not related to this page — just the rest of the section. There is little else joined to this subject yet, and a short page should still lead somewhere.
Sources and evidence
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Family, maximum size, depth range, environment, distribution and the IUCN assessment for Latris lineata. FishBase records no IUCN assessment for this species.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- FAO Species Identification Guides for Fishery Purposes and the FAO Species Catalogues — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Identification, distribution, habitat and fishery description from the FAO species identification guides for fishery purposes.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: The widely restated practitioner account of how this species is fished — tackle, method and the ground it is taken over.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Why the 3 connections on this page are here, and the sources
Similar and related fish
Backed by research — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Tarakihi
Nemadactylus macropterus carries one black band across the nape and reaches 70 cm, 2.9 kg and 50 years; Latris lineata carries three or four bold stripes running the length of the body and reaches 120 cm, 25 kg and 43 years. Both are slow-growing latrids on the same southern reef.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: The morphology, size, depth range and distribution that separate these two species from one another.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How it is caught
What experienced anglers do — 1 connection
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
Ledgering
Taken on ledgered baits over reef from a boat across southern Australia and New Zealand, with smaller fish occasionally from rock. The mouth is small for the size of the fish, so the terminal tackle is lighter than the weight suggests.
- FAO Species Identification Guides for Fishery Purposes and the FAO Species Catalogues — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Identification, distribution, habitat and fishery description from the FAO species identification guides for fishery purposes.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: The widely restated practitioner account of how this species is fished.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Where it lives
Backed by research — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Inshore ground
Recorded as reef-associated over a depth range of 5 to 400 m across the temperate southern hemisphere, with pelagic juveniles and reef-holding adults.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Environment, depth range, habitat association and distribution for Latris lineata.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.