Ok all, just curious what the fellow jack chasers prefer regarding the tide times, moon phases, run-in/run-out, shallow deep, live, dead.
Or does it depend upon the location that you chase em
I have had recent success on the last 2 hours of the run in just after dark on dead whole mullet about 3” long, below rock bars.
What are your thoughts and techniques?
Cheers, Zedjack33
What area you in Zed??
Jeff
Jeff I'm in Bundy, but I do migrate up and down the coast whenever I get the itch to chase em!
g;day zed,good topic this will be interesting reading when some answers come in ,i will go for em any time mostly night ,live poddy or dead ,mullet strip ,surface lures ect, got eleven last season ,one arvo at dusk on turn of out going nailed a solid 50 cm ,while releasing other rod went off ,another solid 51 cm ,both fish really well condition,was a rainy overcast day and earlier same day at a different location right on midday i pulled a 34 cm from structure under a bridge ,ended up 3 jacks in 1 day ,cheers.
Any advice on how and where to catch them...I have never got one and am keen as mustard!
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.............maybe all are keeping their secrets to themselves?!?!?!?
Last hour either side of low. If you can find a hole with structure around it's almost got to produce the goods in the right area's. Live Whiting as bait.
Cheers Chris
Democracy: Simply a system that allows the 51% to steal from the other 49%.
Hard to use live whiting as a bait...they still have to be 23cm (legal size)...do Jacks take fish that big??
Hey Zed, i mainly fish in Cairns but expect same tips and rules apply in most places. I'm certainly no expert but have been chasing them for about 15 years I'd guess.
On lure... Best success I've found are using 3inch harbodies like Killalure Flatz Ratz, Yozuri crankbaits. Best colours have always been the natural white with black vertical stripes and the gold and black colour, again with the vertical stripes. These lures have a really tight action.
The best tide times are generally mid to late afternoon, last 2 hours of the outgoing. Target snags and deep banks where there is some shade, ideally just small areas of shade. I tend to have more success targeting undercut banks than snags. Generally I'll pick 300 metres of bank and work the whole lot.
Lure speed is really really important, unlike targeting barra etc ... you need to have a steady retrieve speed, no stopping and starting etc. If you stop your lure, the jacks either bail out or scoot right past it. They're a super agreesive ambush predator and often hit your lure on the way back to the snags. So once you've cast your lure let it sit for a second, draw in down to get some depth and then retrieve at a constant speed ... ALL the way to the boat. I dont know how many times I've hooked up 5 feet from the boat.
I've had some success trolling lures as well, but dont have much experience. However from what I've been told, pick a creek that has a low tide height of around 1.0 to 1.5 metres, and troll it on the last 2 hours of the run out, straight up the guts.
I dont do much bait fishing for them but same again, know guys that do. They tend to tie up along a straight bank and drift their baits with the outgoing tide along the bank past the mangroves, with just enough weight to stay near the bottom. They swear by whole pilchards and strips of mullet, for their oil content.
Hope that helps
Cheers
Omulloway
I'd agree with Omulloway's lure choices and add "tilson barra" to his list. Find a nice snaggy area I'm sure Bundy is full of them, I know its got heaps of jacks, and just keep bombarding the same snag over & over, even if their not hungry they will eventually attack out of territoral instinct. Just keep trying until it happens.It took me a year & a half to get my first on lure, cast & retrieve and it was about 50 cm. It was and I think always will be the most rewarding fish I ever caught.
As far as bait ,I once fished with a freind, I was live baiting with 20 cm poddy mullet he was using year old frozen pillies. I wasn't getting touchedhe was getting smashed all the time, so I changed over and cleaned up. I'm not saying old pillies are better than livies, just they can behave very strangely at times.
As far as times, I've fished from 6pm through to 3am, and had a period of an hour where myself & my bro. have caught 12 jacks between 30 & 63 cm, around 11pm and nothing else the rest of the time. This wasn't top or bottom of the tide,about 3/4 on the way up from memory. I think barrometric preasure or at least sudden changers in it is the clue, but i'd love to hear what others think!
The most important thing is time on the water. Its a disease, you'll catch it and no other fish will ever do it for ya!!!
Good luck
Mate dead slab mullet is the best jack bait you can get. I like run out tide in small creeks tight drags and plenty of cover (plus a cold bourbon)
well i dont know if what i have to say is usefull but i caught my first
48cm 1.5kg jack just on sunrise a old stinkin bit of mullet fleshhe didnt really strike and bolt he just sat there and picked at it like a bream.
couldnt belive it had been trying all night with live hering only to get busted off twice on 50lb mono trace things happen like that
"True Blue"
up north (around townsville) i'd have to agree with devocean, slab of fresh mullet about 3-5cm long is by far the most effective bait (i've seen it out-fish live mullet and herring) Fished in very tight to the snags with a strong drag.
Lures, i use larger lures (bomber's) with a long 50lb leader, very strong drag, and once again casting your lure into rock bars or very snaggy area's. Fishing for them with lures, you have to be willing to loose a lure or 2, particularly if you manage to tussle with one of the larger specimens.
Mullet is great bait......but......
Give me a live whiting or biddy any day!.....
Pete
P.S There sre so many good lures for jacks on the market its not funny......
Tilsans,C-lures,Rapala x-raps etc etc....
Poppers are very effective as well and I have had great success on Rapala skitterpops for jacks.
Last edited by Pistol_P; 24-08-2007 at 07:43 PM.
My first real attempt at chasing jacks was last summer, probably did 6-8 trips to a certain creek up the passage. We worked around a high tide being close to a dawn or dusk period. The high tide was more to do with being able to get the canoe in and out of places, i think that any slack tide increases your chances. We were casting 60-100mm hardbodies and prawn shaped plastics using our bass gear with the drags screwed up to about 3kg, this is about the most drag you can really run from a canoe because you just get pulled around so much. We probably ended up with 15-20 jacks using this method ranging from 6cm to 48cm and of course 3 or 4 really big bust offs one of which was a cod around the 60-70cm mark (saw it take the lure) and the others assumed to be better jacks. I'll be starting up my jack fishing probably at the end of september, i think my spot has been given a huge fresh water flush out so it might be prudent to let it settle a bit
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