queensland Brissy River Jack

[Ovington]

A quick prework session this morning was planned to target some Jews and Threadies around the mouth. Unfortunately a couple hours of casting plastics and threadybusters showed no action so I mixed it up.

There is a few rock walls that I always drive past imagining jacks and have mentioned it to a few people but it's always at the end of the day and not ideal time wise. I bit the bullet today and tied on a 70mm pointer and cast along the wall. It wasn't long before I came up tight on a nice little tailor to break the donut.

A bit of surface commotion erupted up ahead which resulted in a trevally which I gracefully released boatside before taking a photo. The following cast resulted in my First Jack out of the brisbane river at a respectable 40cm.

I was home with boat washed and returned to its resting place before 10am.

Overall not a bad morning and some solid motive to chase jacks again in the river. If only we could fish the jetty pylons!

[The Mad Hughesy]

I dare say you've joined a small group of folk who have caught a jack form the Bris river. top stuff mate

[Damien2Rad]

Definitely not the first brissie river jack I've heard of, but they're far from a regular catch.... at least that people are willing to talk about ahah.

Well done man! I'm Jealous.

[Ovington]

Yeah I have heard of a fair few just happy to save the donut with an unexpected capture, especially with the sun well up and on a lure.

Cheers fellas

[samsteele115]

Awesome session in the end... Nice work

[Glenn S]

That's awesome mate, its pretty rare that you hear of a jack being caught in the brissy. Congrats.

 

Cheers, Glenn.

[Old Scaley]

Yet to get a jack out of the Brissie river. Nice work, especially considering the conditions and the dropping water temp.  Is that a surface lure?

[Angus]

@helibase will love this as he is on 3 now (from the Brisbane river) as solid bream bycatch... I have seen 2 other solid fish caught by AFO members from the past and a random facebook photo of one from Norman Park reach. Got to be so many more than people think. SO much structure. SO much bait. What really is missing? With species like jew, threadfin, grunter bream etc caught all the time there is 0 reasons there are not 1000's of them in there. I would go so far to say there are but not that many are cruising the rock walls with a 70mm diver casting at rock walls. Well done!

Maybe a few sessions casting the many many walls in the river is on the cards @Ovington

 

Angus

 

[Ovington]

For sure @Angus. I will have another flick later in the week to see if I can score any others along some of those walls. I think people may just over look it as i have been for the last few outings.

[kmcrosby78]

Congrats mate, that's one beautiful jack!!

[John]

cracker fish well done!

[K-Lub]

awesome catch agree with gus gota be plenty just no one really targeting them in the brissie , or talking about it anyway

[Jimmyjack]

Nice catch for sure. It's funny how you'll get jack in some creeks and not in others. In all my years of fishing the Mary, I've caught a total of just three jacks. In one afternoon. Off the same snag. Try to figure that out. You'd expect there to be millions given the conditions but I've not found that, although bargy and these fellas would no doubt be better equipped than I am to say there aren't many jacks in the Mary. However, I have caught many at Turkey, on Fraser, In the Burrum, Round Hill, in the Maroochy, the Baffle.. just not so much in the Mary.

[Ovington]

Yeah loved the colour on this one, nice dark rusty colour with striking stripes. 

I tend to hear that jimmyjack, definitely strange although the majority of my jacks have been caught in different waterways. Just goes to show they are likely still in there just maybe less abundant or more fussy. 

Thanks everyone

[timtam_]

@Ovington Of the few jacks i have caught, they've been in different waterways and I can only assume they're in every waterway. Why wouldn't they be?
Can I ask what style retrieve? Slow/fast/really fast/twitchy?

Tim

[Ovington]

1 hour ago, timtam_ said:

@Ovington Of the few jacks i have caught, they've been in different waterways and I can only assume they're in every waterway. Why wouldn't they be?
Can I ask what style retrieve? Slow/fast/really fast/twitchy?

Tim

Yeah thats it mate as long as its deep enough and theres food and structure nothing stops them from being there. 

Most of the larger jacks I have caught have been a fairly fast crank to get it to depth. Odd twitching normally but most of my fish get hooked after the first few cranks

[Damien2Rad]

2 hours ago, timtam_ said:

@Ovington Of the few jacks i have caught, they've been in different waterways and I can only assume they're in every waterway. Why wouldn't they be?
Can I ask what style retrieve? Slow/fast/really fast/twitchy?

Tim

Interesting question, which was in some way answered by an awesome article by Bill Bowtell some years back. It has to do with the topography of the land, above and below water and also the presence of offshore reefs where large jacks go.

They'd be in every river and creek for sure, but the article does in some way look into why some systems have more prominent distribution of certain fish.

I don't think I'll be able to find the article, however if I can, I might see if I can get it stickied.

 

 

[Jimmyjack]

If you look at the Mary, it should have heaps, as there are jacks all through the sandy strait. Reefs are close by and there's enough variation to mean that surely there'd be more jacks around. Just don't seem to catch them. Maybe the structure around River Heads means they're less likely to make it up river? 

[ausangler]

solid Jack mate I can't wait to get my first, when I can make it back to gods country .......

[helibase]

Nice catch @Ovington 

@Angus 

[Angus]

3 hours ago, helibase said:

Nice catch @Ovington 

@Angus 

I reckon another city reach session 60mm lures only

[tiotony]

When I visit Brisbane I always hit up around the Yeronga reach for bream (because its not far to travel). Noticed lots of very jack/ cod looking mangrove snags at the mouth of little inlets that you could really hit in a boat, but never heard of anyone trying it. Possibly an overlooked honeyhole?