Trout inhabit the shallow reef systems surrounding Wilderness Island all year round. They will readily take any lure or bait.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Perciformes
Family: Serranidae
Genus: Plectropomus
Species: P. Leopardus

The Coral trout is found in the waters around American Samoa, Australia, Brunei, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Fiji, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Micronesia, New Caledonia, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Its natural habitat includes open seas and coral reefs.

Coral trout hunt in two different ways: by ambush and by prowling. They use the ambush method to hunt fish that live among the coral on the reef bottom. The trout will hide and remain very still and alert, ready to attack passing prey. The prowling method is used to hunt schooling fish higher up in the water. Here, the trout will move (prowl) slowly towards the prey and attack at great speed.