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Hitting the Jackpot
By Ryan Dixon
As a young angler I constantly found myself dreaming. Dreaming of going on fishing adventures, dreaming of catching fish so big they can't fit in my landing net and dreaming of finding a school of mangrove jack in my local creek in Brisbane that no-one else knew about. Fast forward to 2019 and with many years of lure fishing behind me, a young boys dream became a reality. I stumbled onto what can only be described as a Jackpot, a school of mangrove jack in my local creek that I had previously only dreamt about finding.
Mangrove jack fishing for me is something that has taken up a lot of my time, working out where and when to catch them. I've caught my fair share over the years, but around Brisbane, if you catch one every few trips you're doing pretty well. Earlier this year I was sitting at home looking through some old photos when I stumbled upon a photo of a couple of jacks that I had caught on the same day the year before. I don't normally keep note of when I catch fish as I am happy to just go fishing when I have the time. Luckily for me my iPhone clearly showed the date being the same just a year earlier. This was all I needed to hook the boat up and go pick up my good mate Jesse to see if we could repeat the previous year's catch.
When we launched the boat I headed to a stretch of the river that has one snag that I know of in a deep hole. It's one of those spots that I always thought there has to be jacks in at certain times but I had never caught one off it. I positioned the boat so that I could make a cast and retrieve my lure past the snag in a way that I could roll it along the snag for its maximum length. I picked up my brand new Okuma Cerros 7' med/heavy rod and Epixor XT 50 reel, made a cast and christened it in a way that I could only dream of. As my ZMan SwimmerZ touched down on the bottom I started retrieving the lure and an angry jack nearly ripped my new combo out of my hands! After a short fight on locked drag, a 55cm jack was in the boat. After a couple of photos and multiple high fives we returned to the snag for our second cast.
The second cast lasted all of three seconds. The lure hit the water and on the drop my locked drag was getting stripped like no-ones business. This time there were no high fives as the jack clearly won that battle. What transpired over the next couple of hours is something I'll never forget. The snag was fully loaded with God knows how many jacks and we had a session that I am sure will never happen again in our local. We hooked upwards of ten jacks, but the sheer size and power of these fish were no match for our 30lb leader on the barnacle encrusted snag. We definitely lost more fish than we landed but we were more than happy with the five fish we boated, with the average size being around the 50cm mark.
A few days later I was lucky enough to get an early knock off from work and I made my way back to see if the jacks were still there. I remember thinking, surely they can't still be there as I drove to the ramp. My mind was at ease after I made my first cast and the rod buckled over. This time it felt different. There was no explosive strike, but instead a heavy weight with slow strong runs. After a longer battle a big estuary cod came to the surface. Wrong colour, wrong fish. Has this big bugger kicked all the jacks off the snag? My suspicions were thrown out the window after a couple more casts, when the first jack hit the deck. The next couple of hours produced another session similar to last one. Five jacks, with a few bust offs and a big cod.
Three sessions later and the same snag is still producing big jacks, with cod thrown into the mix. I've since upgraded my leader size to 50lb, which has not lost as many fish, but on the other hand has not seen as many bites. The lures that I have been using are ZMan 4" SwimmerZ, rigged on a 1/2oz 4/0 TT Lures HeadlockZ HD jighead, scented with Mullet Pro-Cure Super Gel scent, ZMan 3.5" EZ ShrimpZ rigged on a 1/4 3/0 HeadlockZ jighead with Shrimp Pro-Cure added and ZMan 2.75" Finesse FrogZ rigged on 1/2oz 3/0 HeadlockZ jighead fished down deep. The Bagley Deep Diving Shad 07 hard body has been a good change up when the jacks go quiet on the plastics and it has no trouble getting down to the required depth for the snag that I've been fishing.
The standout rod that I have been using is the Okuma Cerros CER-S-701H. It's a 7' 5-12kg spinning rod that has plenty of stopping power down low. Matched on this rod I have an Okuma Epixor XT 50 spinning reel, spooled with 30 pound braid. Baitcast wise I use an Okuma Cerros CER-C-661MH, a 4-6kg 6'6" rod and I have it matched with an Okuma Cerros baitcast reel. The baitcast combo gives me the option of jamming my thumb on the spool when a big jack is stripping drag and I need more stopping power. These two combos are by no means expensive and are priced well below the performance they have been giving me.
With only a month or so before the water temperature starts to cool down, I'm hoping I find the time to keep the ball rolling before they move on and I have my fingers crossed I can find such a spot again one day. Here's to hoping I can hit the Jackpot again in the years to come.
Gear List
Okuma Cerros Spinning Rods
Okuma Epixor XT Spinning Reels
TT Lures HeadlockZ HD jigheads
ZMan 4" SwimmerZ
ZMan 3.5" EZ ShrimpZ
ZMan 2.75" Finesse FrogZ
Bagley Deep Diving Shad 07