Jack Chat

[ashh]

last of the run out tide going into dusk, and drift a live floated poddy over shallow rocky structures and hold on.

[tunaticer]

I find as most ppl here are hinting at the bottom half of the tide is the go usually.
The lures I use are 3-4" deep divers in fairly plain colours, creams, light greens and shades of blue but all are tiger striped or vertical barred. Itry for a heavy splashdown as close to cover as possible, a two second wait then crank down to the depth and then wind at walking pace back to the boat. If theres a jack around in a destructive mood he will take it.

Dead low can be very productive esp in landlocked areas where tides drop and leave sand banks everywhere. Every single bit of structure you see no matter how small it is either against the bank or in the middle of a foot of water in the middle of a creek can, and often holds a jack. I like wading the creeks like this esp the top narrow sections that just go from hole to dry to hole again for miles. Huge numbers of fish can be found this way if you work it right.

Top of the tide generally finds every jack and most other fish amongst the mangroves or behind them on the floodplains. These floodplains are bloody awesome to fish. They require a fair amount of skill in stalking fish and some very alert senses as they spook easily even at 50m away. Ive caught a lot of jacks, trevally, barra and salmon on the floodplains wading around in a foot or two of water. The bang and crash type of presentation here does not work. Fizzers poppers and stick baits tend to work better here. Since getting into soft plastics i think larger jerkbaits and shads might be the shot here too with wiggle discs and unweighted.

Bring on the hot days again.

Jack.

[zedjack33]

Guy's there are some great tips etc that have been posted. The most obvious one that I have been doing wrong (maybe) is I fish rock bars at the last of the high (2 hours)

Maybe I should be trying the low a bit more!

Hope to have a post or two in the reports section soonish.

Keep the comment s coming

What part of the moon phase etc works best for you guy's????

Cheers Zedjack33

[Didley]

I don't know of any rules, u can catch jacks on any tide, I once believed low tide was the go but now don't think that is necessarily so. Baits, different baits, different days . One thing i do know is something turns them on and off, if anybody has any ideas on that, i'd love to hear them! Moon, barometric preasure, temperature, I don't know.

[Tropicaltrout]

Well my two bobs worth I fish with live poddy's in the arvo or in the early morn, If you find a good looking spot hit it hard with lures and bait there will be one in there, I was lucky I saw the jack before I casted then ever since i pull heaps out of the same hole, there always there just keep puttin the bait or lure in the same spot they hate be harassedand the only reaction is a bent rod.

TT

[Richard]

Hmmm... all this talk of using whiting for bait. Don't you mean skinny nosed mullet ??

Afterall, a whiting would have to be 23cm to use it as bait remember



Also another interesting point with lure selection was a preference for lures with vertical stripes. I wonder if the vertical stripes has anything to do with them making it look like a juvenile mangrove jack. Maybe inducing teritorial hits on younger fish ?



Richard

[loophole]

Hmmm... all this talk of using whiting for bait. Don't you mean skinny nosed mullet ??

Afterall, a whiting would have to be 23cm to use it as bait remember



Also another interesting point with lure selection was a preference for lures with vertical stripes. I wonder if the vertical stripes has anything to do with them making it look like a juvenile mangrove jack. Maybe inducing teritorial hits on younger fish ?



Richard

Richard
you wouldnt be suggesting that people try fishing with live juvenile mangrove jacks?

[tuppence]

marked on my calendar 23/08/07 floating pillys in about 8 ft water incoming tide townsville area insulator creek 5.30 to 7pm the most jacks and grunter ever caught did not look at any other bait hit the water bang! the missus could not belive we actually caught a fish.

[Richard]

Baby jacks are so cute, I could never use them for bait. Maybe train one up to swim a hook out for you. They go really well in a fish tank although there's not much else you can put in with them (sooties and spangled perch go alright).

Last lot of jacks we caught was actually in a fresh water section of a river and most of them came around dusk and into the first hour or so of night. Also worked the half hour or so before light in the morning until about a couple of hours after where it started to get a bit bright on the water.

All on SP's


Richard

[Lovey80]

Hmmm... all this talk of using whiting for bait. Don't you mean skinny nosed mullet ??

Afterall, a whiting would have to be 23cm to use it as bait remember



Also another interesting point with lure selection was a preference for lures with vertical stripes. I wonder if the vertical stripes has anything to do with them making it look like a juvenile mangrove jack. Maybe inducing teritorial hits on younger fish ?



Richard

Well no actually Richard.

Mate just find a place that holds Winter Whiting, when you find them you usually get a heap. They're nearly always smaller than a sand/summer whiting, actually 23cm is a very good one from my experience. No size or Bag limmit.

Cheers Chris

[hooknose]

If fishing in a creek the last hour of the run out and first 1.5 hours of the run in is usually the go. If hitting rock walls or structure out the front dsont find that tide or time matters that much. Gagged or live mullet or dead herring definately the go!!!

[Creek Vermin]

Around low tide has always been a fave of mine but have also had big sessions on the last of the in. I've found when the tides are running hard during the mid sections it slows down a bit. (depending on the area) Time of day doesnt seem to matter too much. Most of mine come during the middle of the day. It just means putting in a bit more effort and fishing deep during the daytime where they are hanging. 4 inch flick baits and prawnstar juniors are my fave but they all seem to produce better when retrieved slowly but aggresively. Around the moons as the flood starts early arv is good but the last 3 hours of the dropping tide is also worth a go. As long as a beer isnt too far away your gonna have a good time trying. Cheers. Keith

[zedjack33]

Thanks for the input guys.... I am heading out this Fri and then a 2 nighter up the coast.....I'll put some of this into action...

Cheers all

[kingkev]

Great info here,

I am going up to Innisfail (Flying fish point) for 3 days on Thurday and will have at least 1 full day on the Johnstone. Hoping to extract some jacks and with a midday low tide I should be able to find a fishy spot before then to hit hard. I will probably fish with mullet or herring strips as well as a few livies. Will post pics and report if my plan comes together. I am hoping that Jacks are around this time of the year in NQLD

cheers

[Barraboy7]

Hi
I have caught a swag of Jacks over the years when living in Townsville, mostly on live mullet say around the 100mm size. Bloke who taught me to, just cast them with a running sinker to the snags. I did that for a while but you get snagged a lot and you lose your bait etc. So I varied the approach and increased my catch greatly by placing a float on the line to set the depth of the livie, usually about a meter down still with a sinker above the hook. This allowed me to be anchored uptide from the snags and just let the float drift down to the snag and then hold right in front where I wanted it. Great fishing as the float would be gone in a flash and we were on. One morning on a run out tide my son and I caught 7 big jacks between 45 and 55cm like that on one small stretch of snaggy bank, with a 5lb grunter tossed in as well. I would definitely use a float if fishing snags with live bait!
I have also caught them on lures and agree with others that the size range of 100mm seems to work best. But hey these fish are real guts, they rarely nibble, they hit first and talk later, real thugs which greatly assists hookups, getting them in can be more of a challenge.
I think if you can get where they are, most general approachs re tides, moon etc will work. I didnt fish them on big runs as waters dirty, more catfish etc. I have caught them run in and run out, middle of the day as well as late afternoon and of course they really go at night as well on live bait.
Have fun and hope this helps, as these fish taste great!!
barraboy