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Jack Fishing Tips Please


Beejay

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Never caught a mangrove jack yet, but I must say, im starting to get excited reading a few of these awesome reports.

I always pictured mangrove jacks to be like bream size max 40 cm, I never knew they were such monsters capable of spooling 20lb line with 40 lb leaders.

I went down to Norman Park last night Brisbane river hoping to get some livies and catch my first Jack.

Would like to know what are the best rigs for catching jacks with live bait in the creeks and estuaries and where im supposed to be fishing for them as far as structure goes.

Also would like to know what lures are the best to use for jacks as well. I dont use braided line, I have all my reels (6) loaded with 14lb - 20 lb mono filament.

Any information would be welcome....Cheers Beejay

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I've only ever caught one, and it was a by-catch of shark fishing so my info may not be all that helpful :laugh:

All i remember is that i had 50pd line, 80pd trace and bait was half a pilly on ganged hooks. Tide was running out and it was about half way down and was caught adjacent to a rock wall, which is about the only reason why I landed a jack. Even on that gear it pulled like a mofo on roids, and from memory went over 50cm. Also, that was in the Logan river past carbrook, so in hindsight I should've bought a lotto ticket that night too :laugh:

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I prefer mullet for jacks and a hook tied to the end of your line.

Hook goes through the nose of the mullet and cast it up against the rock bar or rock wall. Anywhere will do at the moment. Canals like Pelican Waters or Coomera River. Still yet to get a jack on a lure, but everyone else I fish with gets them, ranging from plastics to big blades or small bream hardbodied minnow lures.

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I've got Jacks in Tingalpa, Logan, Broadbeach and Jimboomba.

I've got them on yabbies, chicken fillet and squid.

How do you catch Mangrove Jack?

You go fishing somehwere.

There are NO RULES.....but you break them at your peril B)

Some people will tell you that some bait, this bait, my bait.....works well, but honestly it's not really about Mangrove Jcak....it's ALL about getting out there and FISHING.

Mangrove Jack ONLY ever appear for me when I go fishing, but of course not EVERY time.

IMO they seem to favour me when IT SUITS them :laugh: :laugh:

Go Luck

JUDGE

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Early morning around prolific bait holding and structured areas are my tips for lures. Never got one on bait. My mate missed a suspect nice jack on a live biddy tonight and I landed a nice 53cm Tarpon on one as well. It is all about putting in time. I would not try the Brisbane River for my first jack though, they are uncommon.. seem to prefer cleaner waters.

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Judge wrote:

I've got Jacks in Tingalpa, Logan, Broadbeach and Jimboomba.

I've got them on yabbies, chicken fillet and squid.

How do you catch Mangrove Jack?

You go fishing somehwere.

There are NO RULES.....but you break them at your peril B)

Some people will tell you that some bait, this bait, my bait.....works well, but honestly it's not really about Mangrove Jcak....it's ALL about getting out there and FISHING.

Mangrove Jack ONLY ever appear for me when I go fishing, but of course not EVERY time.

IMO they seem to favour me when IT SUITS them :laugh: :laugh:

Go Luck

JUDGE

Jimboomba? :huh:

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If you can find a nice rock wall or canal opening use the live bait rig Tomca suggested, you can also add a stinger hook at the tail.

For lures I have caught 90% of my jacks on Gold Bombers, a better Jack lure you will never buy (my opinion only). The only promblem with them is the price, so when you get smashed it is hard on your wallet. I find that a short 20cm wire trace helps save a lot of lures. Mono trace just doesn't cut it with these fish.

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u get jacks around good structure like fallen trees and rock walls or rock bars , live fish or fresh strip bait like mullet or pike for bait and use a good trace like 60lb fluro carbon. no sinker on the turn of the tide or as light as u can go , i prefer the first of the incoming tide and pick a quiet place (no boat traffic). a nice hot day like when the northerlies r blowing and after dark or very early in the morning , screw the drag up tighter than u fish normally and try to turn them before they get back to the structure. if u give tingalpa ck a try for them beejay (being close for u) go upstream of the road bridge to where the rock bar is or further upstream where the creek narrows and the trees lean over the creek look for any structure up there

mark

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how heavy you go will depend where you're fishing for them too, this summer was my first season chasing jacks, got 2 avg sizers out of a handful of trips and could only seem to connect with lighter gear, runnin 15lb braid/15 or 20lb leader, 1/12th and lighter jighead and small bream size plastics.

tried crankbaits, surface lures, bigger plastics and pretty much every lure in the box on heavier gear and couldnt tempt, quite possibly something to do with the jacks in the area i fish for them.

one thing about them is the harder you push them the harder they pull, ive been bricked many times by being too enthusiastic with the drag whereas the ones i landed i took it easy and steered them away from structure instead of trying to yank them out.

havent chased on bait or livies yet but unweighted/very lightly weighted against the rocks would be my suggestion

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mono filament line is more suited to fishing for these brutes as its the structure they live around will bust up braid in quick time

Beejay wrote:

Never caught a mangrove jack yet, but I must say, im starting to get excited reading a few of these awesome reports.

I always pictured mangrove jacks to be like bream size max 40 cm, I never knew they were such monsters capable of spooling 20lb line with 40 lb leaders.

I went down to Norman Park last night Brisbane river hoping to get some livies and catch my first Jack.

Would like to know what are the best rigs for catching jacks with live bait in the creeks and estuaries and where im supposed to be fishing for them as far as structure goes.

Also would like to know what lures are the best to use for jacks as well. I dont use braided line, I have all my reels (6) loaded with 14lb - 20 lb mono filament.

Any information would be welcome....Cheers Beejay

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Beejay wrote:

Thanks for all the ideas and info guys, I will copy and paste it all and print it out for future reference, this forum is really a great place for info....Hopefully I will be putting up a photo of my first 70cm jack in no time at all....regards Beejay

70cm is 99.9% impossible for estuary fish. Jaks migrate offshore around 60cm and 60 is cream of the crop for inshore fishing.

Good luck on the trip.

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i soley use lures for jacks x rap slashbaits,predatek spoonbills,jonseys lures(custom made for only $10),halco roosters and prawnstars these usually get me a jack or two .... i head out on the run out tide late afternoon and fish till late flicking around jetties, pontoons,rock walls,rock walls and bridges baitcasters are my prefurred rod and reel as i can pull these mike tysons from the structure 30lb braid with no more than 40lb leader drag screwed tight... by letting these fish run its a 50 50 chance draging these fish out u have a better chance of netting your prize..i find most of my fish in the nerang river its a great fishery and its rewarding when i pull a beast from under a rich buggers jetty at sovreign island... the reason i fish the run out tide is i belive they hunt the dirty water to ambush their prey

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I'm keen to get my first Jack. I think I've found some likely territory up Ningi Creek that I want to investigate again this weekend so all this info is helpful.

One question though - do you get a second go at the same Jack. That is: if you've been bricked by a monster, will it hang around for you to get another cast at it or do they spook easily?

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Kreel: Generally no in our experience. Though for different reasons that what you'd expect. Usually the way a Jack gets off is that it busts you off or straightens the treble, so you're gonna have to stuff around for a bit re-rigging so you sort of miss the opportunity for another shot. However, if you get a hit and it misses it, then yep, they'll hit it again the next cast.

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they are pretty spooky, ive sat and watched 3-4 good size jacks swimming around a pontoon one night just seeing what they were doing, moment i made any noise they'd dart behind the pilons and have a little cry, then 5mins later gather the courage to start pacing back and forth again along the pontoon till i make more noise etc. the other fish around the pontoon didnt give a stuff about me (till i caught a tailor that splashed around shutting the whole place down)

ive never had another hit at a jetty/whatever ive been bricked at until 15-20mins afterwards and that could always be another fish

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  • 10 years later...
On 24/02/2010 at 4:33 PM, roger said:

Beejay wrote:

 

70cm is 99.9% impossible for estuary fish. Jaks migrate offshore around 60cm and 60 is cream of the crop for inshore fishing.

 

Good luck on the trip.

I must be the luckiest bloke around then because I've landed at least a dozen jacks in the estuary over the past 5 years all hitting 60cm to my current pb 65cm..from Jacobs well to Pimpama river and Coomera to paradise point

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9 hours ago, Matt88 said:

I must be the luckiest bloke around then because I've landed at least a dozen jacks in the estuary over the past 5 years all hitting 60cm to my current pb 65cm..from Jacobs well to Pimpama river and Coomera to paradise point

G'day Matt88

Welcome to the forum! Those are some awesome catches! Any piccies for us to see?

Cheers Hamish

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Don't know if it would work down south but certainly works up here (well before they closed nearly all the wharves to fishing anyway).

50lb braid/ 80lb leader, very lively live bait e.g: 10-15cm mullet lip hooked or big prawn hooked through the last joint of the tail, on a long (1-2m) leader.

Use the tide to drift the livey right underneath wharves - this is why the heavy gear is needed, because you basically need to hit them hard and fight them out from under the wharf. Maybe could go a bit lighter down there because your not including having to manage big barra and fingermark.

The key is to be way inside the structure with a very actively swimming live bait - used to be my most productive form of landbased fishing before the wharves lockout - see all my posts from several years back. 

Surely there'd be some big jacks under the wharves down there.

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