Catching jacks
Submitted by WODF on Sat, 2009-11-07 18:42
Having returned home, this Summer I plan on doing quite a few trips to our local creek system chasing the mangrove jack, seeing if I can suss a few things out. Not having caught a jack in my life I was after a few basic tips to get me started - do you prefer trolling, casting, live-baiting and at what stages of the tide etc... lure lengths, retrieve, colour etc... just anything. Also, not being able to use a cast net around the creeks in the North-West, how would you go about collecting live bait like mullet etc... or what would be the best bait?
Cheers!
Damo
Daisy
Posts: 789
Date Joined: 24/01/08
Damo, no reason why you
Damo, no reason why you can't use a castnet in the Northwest creek systems for collecting Baitfish (Note: not prawns) as long as you're licensed cobba, 3-4 inch mullet thrown hard up against snags, rockbars etc are the go and they all fire at different times depending on location, depth etc, remember skinny water doesn'y worry these guys so as soon as there's a foot or so of water arouind a likely looking area it's worth a go. If you're keen on using lures any minnow up to 100mm with pink or red on them is the go such Manns stretch 10 Scarlett O'hara or Killalure Flats Rats in red, generally cast as close to snags as you dare with a very slow twitchy retrieve keeping it in the strike zone as long as possible, trolling is an option either hard up against side snags or over submerged ones.
Good luck, Daisy
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WODF
Posts: 553
Date Joined: 16/10/08
Recreational Net Fishing Guide re: Carnarvon
http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/docs/pub/NetFishing/NettingRules2010.pdf p. 24
It appears no recreational netting of any kind within 400m of the mouth of the creeks I plan to fish. So... I wish I lived in the Pilbara!
Thanks Daisy. Great info!
PilbaraBrad
Posts: 3628
Date Joined: 16/05/07
agree with daisy if not
agree with daisy
if not allowed to use a net, strip baits unweighted thrown in hard against the structure and i mean hard, jacks will often be hard to entice out. Another lure i like for the shallow rock bars is the scorpion skin deeps in either the fire fin or the bleeding mullet colours.
Good luck!
Simon C
Posts: 801
Date Joined: 01/05/07
Dead easy Damo
Mate - just buy a prawnstar junior in honey colour, rig it on 40lb leader, throw it in snag, twitch and hold on. Not sure where you are but I am happy to volunteer a creek session for a demo. YOu supply the boat, I will get myself there and bring gear and beer. BEst session in August(cold Water) was over 40 jack in exmouth. We had them that fired up that we were catching them on trembler under the boat. FIsh the top of a run in tide and cast deep, then look for aggregation points in the last half of a mid size runout, once you find them keep casting until they stop biting. We release nearly all of ours so that they are still there - my favourite fish.
WODF
Posts: 553
Date Joined: 16/10/08
Thanks all.
Will stock up on a few of the lures mentioned. Appreciate the advice.
Brucesta
Posts: 1721
Date Joined: 29/05/09
mate a bit of mulie on a
mate a bit of mulie on a good 40lb trace hard against the rocks/mangroves gets them every time, no luck with them on lures but and fresh bait will do and get them out of the snags quick or bye bye Mr Jack
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