White trevally
Fish · Last reviewed 2026-08-25
The Atlantic half of a trevally that was one species until recently — and one of two Pseudocaranx that most field guides still print as one.
Safety: injury while handling fish — minor injury.
Catching White trevally
Everything here on fishing for it. Each entry opens the page behind it.
- Ground
*Pseudocaranx dentex* is a carangid of warm-temperate rock and reef, recorded by FishBase from 10 to 238 m and usually between 10 and 25 m, reaching 122 cm, 18.1 kg and forty-nine years. Forty-nine years is the fact worth pausing on: this is a slow, long-lived fish that looks like a fast one, and FishBase rates its resilience LOW.
Its distribution is the reason it is here. FishBase names the Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Ascension and St Helena explicitly, alongside the western Atlantic and a broad Indo-Pacific range — and a Madeiran creel survey records it at 0.79% of the archipelago's estimated recreational shore catch.
THE NAME IS A TRAP AND IT IS WORTH SPELLING OUT. *Pseudocaranx georgianus*, the Australasian silver trevally, was treated as the same species for a long time and was separated on Australasian material; `white trevally` and `silver trevally` are both still used loosely for both fish. The one in a Madeiran harbour is *dentex*. The one in a New Zealand harbour is *georgianus*. A source that says only `trevally` and names no ocean has not told you which.
For an angler it fishes as a mid-water carangid: it shoals over reef edges and clean ground beside rock, takes small metal, jigs, strips of fish and prawn, and fights considerably harder than its depth of body suggests. It is good to eat and commercially valued across its range, which combined with forty-nine years of longevity is the whole of why its resilience is rated low.
How it is caught
Identification
No photograph of White trevally 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
- Pseudocaranx dentex
- Family
- Carangidae
- Water
- Saltwater, Brackish
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Regions
- Western Europe, Mediterranean, North America, Central & South America, Indo-Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, East & Southern Africa
- A compressed, silvery carangid with a distinct yellow lateral stripe in life that fades quickly after death.
- A small dark blotch on the upper edge of the gill cover.
- Scutes along the rear of the lateral line, as in all the jacks, but finer than in the horse mackerel.
- A blunter, more rounded snout than the amberjacks it shares ground with.
- Separating it from Pseudocaranx georgianus is a matter of ocean rather than of appearance — the two were one species until recently and were split on Australasian material.
- FishBase records a maximum of 122 cm and 18.1 kg; Macaronesian shore fish are a fraction of that.
Size
- Typical
- 25–45 cm
- Large
- 60 cm and over
Exceptional: FishBase records a maximum of 122 cm and 18.1 kg
Lifecycle and reproduction
Reef-associated from 10 to 238 m and usually 10 to 25 m, in marine and brackish water across the warm-temperate Atlantic and Indo-Pacific. FishBase records a maximum age of forty-nine years and rates resilience LOW — an unusually long-lived fish for one that behaves like a fast shoaling species.
A broadcast spawner over reef and open ground. FishBase does not carry a detailed account for the Atlantic population, and given that the species boundary with P. georgianus moved recently, published reproductive work needs checking for which fish it was done on.
Feeding and senses
Takes small fish, crustaceans and worms over and beside reef, working in shoals in mid-water and dropping to pick over clean ground. It comes to small metal, jigs and strips of fish readily.
Daylight sight-feeding in mid-water, shoaling and mobile — it is found by finding the shoal rather than by working a mark.
Through the year
Present year-round across the Atlantic islands, moving shallower and closer inshore in warmer months and dropping to the deeper end of its band as temperatures fall. Because it shoals and ranges, its availability at any one wall is a question of where the shoal is on the day rather than of the month, which is a different kind of seasonality from a fish that holds to a mark.
Distribution
Western Atlantic: North Carolina, USA and Bermuda to southern Brazil. Eastern Atlantic: Mediterranean, Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Ascension and St. Helena Island. Indo-Pacific: South Africa, Japan, Hawaii , Australia, Lord Howe and Norfolk islands, New Zealand. Reported from New Caledonia
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
A shoaling mid-water target from Macaronesian harbour walls and rock, taken on small metal, jigs and fish strip, and recorded at 0.79% of the estimated recreational shore catch of the Madeira archipelago. It is valued on the table across its range, and its forty-nine-year maximum age is a better argument for restraint than any bag limit currently placed on it.
Handling and returning
No spines or teeth that threaten a hand beyond the ordinary carangid finlets and gill covers. It is a strong fish that thrashes when lifted, so support the body rather than swinging it, and return it head-first if it is going back.
Safety
Injury while handling fish — Minor injury
The scutes along the rear lateral line are hard and keeled, and a hand run backwards along a thrashing fish is grazed by them.
What reduces it: Hold the fish from the head end and support its weight rather than gripping the tail wrist of a fish that is still fighting.
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 Pseudocaranx dentex.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature (Conservation authority)Relied on for: The Least Concern assessment for Pseudocaranx dentex, assessed 10 May 2013.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Importance of recreational shore angling in the archipelago of Madeira (northeast Atlantic) — Scientia Marina (CSIC), vol. 84 no. 4, 2020 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: That this species is recorded in the recreational shore-angling catch of the Madeira archipelago, at 0.79% of the estimated total by the study's own catch-composition table.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- 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.
Silver trevally
Pseudocaranx dentex and Pseudocaranx georgianus were treated as one species until georgianus was separated on Australasian material, and `white trevally` and `silver trevally` are both applied loosely to each. They are not reliably separated by appearance. They ARE separated by ocean: the Atlantic-island fish — Azores, Madeira, the Canaries, named by FishBase — is dentex; the Australian and New Zealand fish is georgianus.
- 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.
Spinning
Taken on small metal, jigs and strips of fish worked in mid-water over reef edges and clean ground. It is a shoaling fish, so the method follows the shoal; practitioner accounts across its range agree it fights well beyond what its body depth 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 in marine and brackish water from 10 to 238 m and usually 10 to 25 m, with the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands named explicitly in its eastern Atlantic distribution.
- 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 Pseudocaranx dentex.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.