I wasn't sure if I would be chasing jacks or macs this weekend but with the bay not really firing with macs I decided to stay local and try for jacks with all the great catches happening. I haven't been out in the Pine since xmas so I was keen to see how it looks and also to really target jacks for the first time this summer.
I went out yesterday early on my own since a mate bailed and was able to get enough mullet and herring for the session. About 10 minutes in my first hook up and it was a jack, no a freight train taking everything I had and more. I only had a 25lb leader which didn't stand a chance... bitten off after a short fight. This happened 5 more time in 2 hours so I called it quits, licked my wounds and limped home by 9am.
Late this arvo I took a friend out who had been waiting to hear that the jacks are on. Again collected enough livies and hit the same spot in the south pine but this time we were armed with 50lb leader material.
It didn't take long for the first bite and my mate was on. This thing took off, harder and faster than any jack he had tangled with. After 2 runs, it bit through the 50 like it was cotton. You could hear his cries of despair from deepwater bend I reckon. I started to have that sinking feeling that 50lb wasn't enough.
Next I was on. Same deal, it took off for open water, then zagged back. I got him close to the boat and could see the leader when it lunged again, pop... gone. ^%$*!!!!!! We just sat there shaking our heads asking each other what else could have we done?
A few minutes later my mates rod starts twitching so he picks it up and feels a weight. Not a jack he says and whatever it is,is only little. Up comes a 55cm flattie. Oh, a flattie we both say... in the esky it goes. Now ordinarily we'd be high fiving each other and marvelling at such a wonderful catch with the right amount of man love but today we were focased on one prize.
Re bait and out goes another herring. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, mate's on again. This fight was longer and tougher but he took his time keeping it away from the snags, motor leg and anchor rope. He calls it bigger that the last one and almost to the boat, about 1 metre under water, he backs off the drag in case it dashes off. It does dash off and again ..... ^%#&!!!!!!!! x 10!!!! WTF!!!!??? Do we need 100lb here? Now these fish are no where near snags.... these are cleans bite offs. This was starting to get frustrating.
While he is rerigging, off goes my mullet. Here we go again I think, how long is this going to last? The usual runs, but not as far... he turns towards the boat so I wind faster and before I know he's in the net. Deepwater bend definitely heard our cheers. FINALLY, what we came for was in the boat! It was a baby compared to what had come before it but all in the world was right again and we felt like we knew what we were doing (kinda).
Things stated to slow down but my mate had 1 more fish to boat before we left. It wasn't a jack but it was a nice cod to give him a feed.
So after 48 hours of jacking the Pine the final score was Jacks - 9, us - 1. I reckon there are few jacks swimming around with nice mouth bling .
Cheers,
Rob
The one that didn't think it was a bad idea to get into the net
The final body count
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Originally Posted by mangrovejacks
