45cm and 42cm jack on GC

[john_steward]

due to the hot sleepless nights last week, decided to hit a couple of early morning jack trolls in my mates boat. we left on the pre-dawn mission armed with a 6kg wilson live fibre, a 6500 abu and a black and gold manns 10+.
on the first morning after a couple of eventless trolls my mate nick called snag so i slowed it down, then all of sudden our snagfish started fighting back. after a few tense moments a healthy 45cm jack came aboard for some glamour shots. it wasnt long before he was back to terrorise he surroundings. it wasnt long before a cool southly started to blow so we called it a day.
2 mornings later we decided to hit the same spot not long into the troll the motor was cut and a nice 42cm jack came aboard and bit nick on the foot a couple of shots later back he went.
after a few more eventless trolls and the sun rising we trolled a bridge pile on for something to do and my mate simon landed a nice barracuda, with feet held high we quickly got rid of him.

45cm i call this pose 'red steel'

[john_steward]

42cm foot snapper

[Franco]

Ahhhh ...... I love em!! My backyard pets!!
Nice to hear these fish were released mate. I hope others follow your example.

For those out there that are unaware, jacks ARE in fact our backyard pets. Recently some guys in the sunshine coast have been tagging / releasing heaps of jacks, but the release has been in a remote location / different system to where they were caught. They have since caught the SAME fish again in the original spot where the fish was caught the first time!!!

The fish they (and we) are catching are most probably resident fish that find their home again, (?? for breeding purposes??) and so I would encourage everyone to think twice before keeping any fish. As I have said before, these days I'm even questioning my previous ethic of keeping the first jack for the season.

Anyway they're cute n cuddly ....... why, as you mentioned this one gave you a Love Bite!!!

[flickflack]

Franco

Yeah mate they recon they caught a jack and released it 6km downstream after tagging . The same fish was then recaught in the same snag two weeks later. How amazing is that.!! The fish had travelled back up river 6 km to its 'home'. Just shows how pressure can hurt them.

[Frank_Oostenbroek]

Hi Guys,

Fantastic Fish.

I haven't been for a while but this weekend looks like a great weekend to stay inshore.

Do the Jacks still bite on lures in the dark

FrankOO

[cuzzamundi]

lmao john! what a legend - still having a go on deck! they never ever say die those legendary fish. and well done for letting em go! champion effort mate.

franco,

well said mate. they are our pets and should be released - theyre just too good sport to catch just once! here's to hoping!

frankoo,

yeah they do strike lures in the dark mate.

cheers,

cuzza

[Franco]

Frank; Mate all you have to do is checkout our recent reports / posts and look at the darkness in the photo's to answer your question buddy. Those big mean eyes are there for a good reason .... to hunt at night!!

Hope you got an understanding Missus!!

Good luck mate.

[lukesnapper]

cheers 4 that information franco, in that case i no were there is a few decent jacks! one i lost at the boat last week and about 8 bust offs last night all in the same spot.
uve just doubled my fishing hours in that spot mate hopefully ill have a report real soon!

good work on your jacks jhon, 2 in one sesh! awesome mate

[1337]

Nice jacks mate ....

To put the fact straight fella's; jacks generally do not breed in our estuary systems. They breed offshore. I have read DPI reports where sadly at their legal size of 35cm, jacks are not even sexually mature and hence unable to breed. Kinda of makes you wonder why such a poor legal limit is set in the first place aye... I am not in anyway trying to not advocate the catch and release of these wonderful fish but thought some might like to know.

I personally think there should be a ban put on taking jacks from any reef system to ensure that stocks remain healthy. Or either a one fish per person limit bag size. There are plenty of other great reef species to take and protecting the mangrove jack may see their numbers increase. Just my opinion.

Regards
CT

[seajayman]

Good onya mate leet...I'm in complete agreement with you... We really need to become smarter about our impact upon the environment just simply because there are so many of 'us' out there and this has tremendous effects upon every different eco system and animal...I'm certainly not a tree hugging hippee but I just believe it is our responsibility to look after these things for future generations...

For example with the humble mangrove jack...yes they migrate to reef areas when they reach sexual maturity and live there to spawn and repopulate the species, So why can't we (as 1337 states) "...there should be a ban put on taking jacks from any reef system to ensure that stocks remain healthy. Or either a one fish per person limit bag size. There are plenty of other great reef species to take and protecting the mangrove jack may see their numbers increase." Doesn't this make sense?

I am not advocating C & R by any means, but just that the powers to be become more astute and accurate with their management of our beautiful envionrment.

Awesome Fish as well mate good onya!!

[Toppy]

Nice fish John, Glad to see others releasing there fish, its a shame some of these clowns writing in the mags dont take a leaf from you're book.
Good on ya!
cheers
Toppy

[MarshMan]

Nice Jacks John!

I have caught Jacks on sp's but have never really tried trolling. Do you have to have an electric motor when trolling at night? And if not, how far should the lure be behind the engine noise??

Your help would be appreciated as it seems that trolling has definately been producing results in recent posts.

Thanks MarshMan.

[gogecko]

MM, theres been a few discussions on trolling for jacks lately. Just use the search feature, and search on 'trolling' and/or "jacks'.

Many jacks are caught without electric motors. So they tell me...

[Franco]

At night Flickflack and I are trolling about a casts length behind the boat, using the outboard. And I have a 90 Etec! If they're out and hungry they'll eat!! However I fish busy waterways and maybe they are used to the boat traffic.

Every location may be different.

[Murph77]

nice jacks mate