51 cm jack on the light stuff

[hornet 1]

I spent Saturday morning with the missus and the kids for a day on the water to earn some brownie points and an excuse for me to prefish for next weekend’s summer series. For the majority of the morning I really struggled to put fish in the well and found myself scratching my head as to what they wanted as I could see a tonne of good fish that would not eat any of my presentations. The missus was up me and asking me what going on and why can’t you catch em and I really didn’t have an answer for that. As the morning progressed I finally put a bag together which wouldn’t have gone anywhere near 2 kilos but one enjoyed by all with both my 3 and 10 year olds both scoring fish on lures with dads help.

After fish and chips and a break for the kids at paradise point we headed to another location to finish the day in which was a better choice with the mild northerly that was now blowing. The same lure choice that produced most of the fish during the morning session was again the standout scoring some solid bream and the fish of the day in the form of a 51cm jack which yet again I landed on bream gear. Not my infamous 2lb stuff but this time 10 lb castaway p.e and 4lb sunline f.c rock leader with my favourite hard body lure the jackal chubby fished off a Loomis 842-2. Not long before I hooked this fish another solid jack took one of these lures home for his trophy room. And yes if you would like to catch him he was put back on the same pontoon harassing the abundant bait schools that where present.

An ordinary morning was quickly turned around into a pleasing one with the later session producing some better quality fish on the falling tide, proving to me yet again that having fun watching the kids enjoying themselves out on the boat enjoying what I love doing is priceless.


Mick Horn
3121

[Sneazer]

nice read! great fish.

[Tinn]

nice report. Top quality jack you got there. Jacks love to run hard

[geoff72]

top jack mate,cant wait till my young fella is old enough to come fishing with me. have you got a pic of the lure that did the damage?

[kingtin]

Nice read mate, and I recognise that location...........I'll try and get your lure back for you ;D

kev

[ffejsmada]

Nice fish Mick,
Whats the reason behind using a leader that's under half your main line breaking strain?

Shyness of fish, or as you're fishing pontoons, no underwater structure maybe?

You didn't use any leader at Noosa last week when you got the Jack yet you were fishing a rocky area.:o

As Pauline Hansen used to say, "Please Explain". Care to tell us your reasoning? ;D

Jeff.

[Mattg68]

very nice jack there Mick, I also would like to hear your reasoning behind the lighter leader with heavy main. I'm not dissen your choice but would be good for the knowledge bank. do you get better 'action' with your lure this way?

Matt

[gone]

Awesome jack mate he would have been a solid fight on the light gear. I bet ur heart was in ur mouth.

[gregdeeth]

nice jack mick, good fun landing a jack on breambo gear.

[richieboy]

Nice Jack Mick. Qulity pic of the business end too champ. ;)

The only reason I can think of on the leader is purely for finnesse fishing. Light leader to work the lure better as well as not discouraging a shy breambo. Presentation is the key. The 10lb should be enough to handle the bigger brutes. Possibly not a heap of major bottom structure and as long as he's quick, he'll turn em into open water before things get too tricky. Fishing pontoons mainly??

Cheers,

Richie

[Murph77]

Solid, solid jack mate, nice work. Love the business end photo. Good read too

[Paddyinoz2006]

very solid jack. I also landed a large jack on that rock fluro leader. I recon it is a lot stronger than people think. ties a beautifull knot and makes really good presentation. My leader was 8lb and 6lb braid. and caught similar jack.

Well done mate and looking forward to other reports. well done on release also.

[yellahunter]

great jack Mick,

have you got any tips for me as ive just started chasing jacks on placcies,

any help on the actions etc to use and particular placcies as well.

cheers mate,

Ben

[Chalkandcheese]

Nice jack mate, good to hear it was released. cheers

[bobby26]

Great jack mate looking forward 2 getting another red demon my self .

[hornet 1]

To those interested abut my line choice and why, the main line is a new product from sunline which is sunline cast away pe and in the ten pound form is ultra thin and extremely tuff. This is the lightest size and it goes up to 80lb. It can be cast a country mile and is supersensitive, feeling the slightest bumps .Its not affected by wind and current as much which gives you better contact between the lure and rod. As the day was a little windy and the bite was tuff this was the perfect choice. As for my leader choice 4lb is almost always my choice when bream luring as it produces a lot more fish for me. As I was targeting bream on this day this was my reasoning for this. If I was to specifically target my Gold Coast jacks I would keep the same mainline but beef up my leader to 10 to12lb.

When fishing my plastics for bream or jacks on lightly wieghted plastics the most important thing is to slow down your presentations just slowly letting it sink keeping a good watch on your line to detect bites and while fishing deep small hops right off he bottom letting the fish pick it up .

The little chubby has caught me a tonne of jacks this season but also has hurt the hip pocket as I have a lost a fair few. Here is a pic of the shallow and deep version with the top one doing the damage on this fish. I hoped this has answered your questions
Mick Horn
3157

[ffejsmada]

Thanks for the comprehensive reply Mick, there's some great tips in there!

Cheers.

P.s I presume you were after bream at Noosa when you landed your Jack?

[yellahunter]

hey Mick,

Thanks for the tips hopefully i will nail a redfish soon