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Cracker Jacks

By Warren (Wazza) Smith

As the boat slid off the plane and we slowly idled the last twenty metres towards the chosen snag, all on board stood up with rod and reel in hand, eyes eagerly scanning the fallen tree for the prime spot in which to cast their chosen lures. With a click of the release button and a flick of the wrist, the lures sailed through the air and landed amongst the timber. As the lures began the twitchy retrieve, the water around them suddenly turned the colour red. JACKS! Three rods bent, reel drags losing line in short bursts and lots of 'I'm on, I'm on' calls coming from all on board. The start of a Jack Attack.

Again and again the lures were savagely attacked, with some making it back to their snaggy home to knit the line around as many pieces of dead timber as they thought necessary to relieve the unlucky angler of his prized lure, while others were grudgingly brought along side for a quick release. After an intense ten minutes the jig was up and it was time to move on to the next likely spot and hopefully repeat the above scenario all over again. It normally doesn't take too long to find the next willing mob of jacks and it's on again.

This scenario is played out many times during the year while guiding at Melville Island and this area definitely has more mangrove jacks than anywhere else I have fished. I will now attempt to explain the where, when and how's of the area I fish and hopefully get like-minded fisho's into some of the great fishing that mangrove jack offer.

TIDES

It's very important to be chasing jacks on the right part of the tide. The last three hours of the outgoing tide and the first hour of the incoming tide are the very best and this should be your main thing to look at when putting together a trip after mangrove jack. You will catch them at other times but this four hour period is the peak time because the water has dropped out of the mangroves and all the bait that has been hiding out amongst the mangrove roots while the tide was high, must leave with the falling tide or risk becoming stranded.

The snags have become partly exposed and the fish and bait will congregate around these. It doesn't matter if this occurs early morning, midday or late arvo, this is when jacks feed (as do most other estuary fish). So check the tide book and make sure you get to fish this phase of the tide.

WHERE TO LOOK

Snags, rock bars, drains and reef edges all produce jacks but the very best places are trees that have fallen into the water and are laying on their side, with some part of the tree exposed at low tide and some part still under the water. Find a snag like this that holds jacks and chances are jacks will call this home until something changes (normally the tree breaks down and no longer affords enough cover to make the fish feel comfortable and they move on until they find another suitable residence).

Stands of trees that have slid into the water and stayed upright are also good producers of fish and normally have deeper water around them, requiring a different approach, using a deep running lure or a soft plastic to get down amongst them. Rock bars are another good place to target jacks and if you can find one that runs from the exposed bank out into a couple of metres of water, this will definitely be worth a thorough going over.

Drains will produce jacks, although not as productive as the above spots you sometimes get into them while fishing for barra. Reef edges, rocky points and offshore reefs do produce jacks but can be very fickle in the area I fish and hence don't receive too much attention when we're out chasing jacks.

LURES

When Jacks are in a 'full-on smash anything that hits the water mode' they will attack almost any lure that hits the water, from tiny little lures only 3cm long all the way up to 16cm size lures meant for fish with much bigger mouths.

Hard body lures ranging in sizes between 7cm to 11cm are the ones I normally go for and a mixture of shallow runners and deep divers that run at depths of 1m up to the 4m mark are the ones I mostly carry in the tackle box. Bagley Rumble B lures run around the 3m mark and work well, as do the Bagley Minnow B when fishing shallower water. Jacks also respond well to surface lures (fizzers, poppers and 'walk the dog style' lures) and the Bagley Rattlin' Finger Mullet are as good a surface lure as you will find.

My favourite and most productive way to tempt jacks though is to fish with soft plastics. Once again there is an enormous range available to us anglers and I reckon I have tried only a small amount that is out there, however the ones that normally get tied on are the ZMan 3" MinnowZ. These things are dynamite. Super tough, great swimming action and they appeal to mangrove jack more than any other style of lure that I've seen thrown at them.

Rigged on a jig head with something like a 3/0 hook and 1/4oz of weight, this will allow you to fish shallow or deep and if you rig weedless you can get right amongst the heavy stuff (just hang on and be prepared to lose a few battles fishing this way). Also when fishing plastics the single hooks are much kinder to the fish than trebles when releasing them.

TACKLE

Baitcaster reels loaded with 30lb braid and matched up with a rod around the 6' length, rated at 6kg, is the normal outfit used when fishing the tropics and it will handle the casting and fighting of most species encountered. This outfit may be a little heavy for the average size jack you meet but you never really know what's going to grab your lure when you rock up to a snag and the chances of a big barra or a 40cm+ jack smashing your lure are very real. You don't want to be under gunned when that happens.

When I go fishing for jacks these days I love using a light spin rod that is around 6' 3" long and rated 3 - 5kg, matched up with a 2000 size spin reel and loaded with 10lb braid. This works a treat. Rigged with a plastic on a 1/4oz jig head it's a pleasure to cast with and has more than enough grunt for the average size jack we encounter up here in the northern tropics.

The other bit of advice that that I can pass on is not to fish the same snag / spot every day as mangrove jack don't respond well to a lot of pressure and will totally ignore you and all your best attempts at capturing them if you hammer them too much. I try to stay away from spots I've fished for at least a week and longer is better.

I hope this little bit of info helps others that love chasing jacks and inspires other to get out and have a go at these great sport fish. They are absolute crackers!

Warren (Wazza) Smith

Gear List

Bagley Rumble B 09
Bagley Rumble B 11
Bagley Rattlin Finger Mullet 09
Bagley Rattlin Finger Mullet 11
ZMan 3" MinnowZ
TT Lures HeadlockZ HD Jighead
TT Lures SnakelockZ Jighead (Weedless)
TT Lures ChinlockZ Jighead (Weedless)
TT Lures ChinlockZ SWS Jighead (Weedless)