Well yesterday I made a last minute decision to head up to Point Samson to chase some barra and jacks. I messaged Brad to see if he wanted to come up and as usual it didn't take much convincing. I drove round and picked him up then we were off.

When we arrived we noticed that the cyclone had made a real mess of the water where we usually catch bait and go for a barra fish. We had a crack but mullet didn't seem to be around so Brad suggested another spot where we could have a crack getting some bait.

When we got there it looked good and it didn't take long before we had quite a few small mullet so we persisted in some deeper water and got a few stionkers too. I caught a massive tiger prawn which we put in the bucket for bait and we also got a few smaller whiting which would be perfect for the jacks.

Since our barra spot was blown out we decided to head straight down to the jack spot which is quite a bit more protected. There was quite a few people there but the tide was still really high so it didn't really bother us too much. We waited patiently and by the time the tide was close to where we wanted it we had the place to ourselves.

We persisted for a while with lures with a couple of small hits on shallow diving minnows, Brad had a nice hookup on his Halco Skin deep which looked very jacky but he dropped it, bad luck mate.

Then I suggested we get the baits out. It started off a little quiet with not much action until all of a sudden Brad was on. It munched the bait in typical Mangrove Jack ferocity then peeled line down river before Brad regained control and started to gain some line. It looked like he had it in the bag just as it snapped him off on some mangrove encrusted rocks nearby. We didn't get a visual but it fought like a solid jack that would have gone 48+ and a new PB for brad.

It was a bit of time between strikes but soon enough I had an awesome hit that sped off down the creek. I was fairly confident with the 30lb braid and 80lb leader but you just never know when it might get you on an oyster rock. I got him close to the rocks and leadered him in. I saw that he was big and I was hoping he would be a new PB, either way he would have been the biggest for the season.

We measured him on the brag mat and he went around 50cm which equals my PB and is my biggest so far for the season.





After that it went a little quiet until the turn of the tide when Brad hooked onto something decent. "Not a jack" he said, after playing it for a little while. The tell tale head shakes gave it away as it got closer and Brad saw it's tail. Soon after it bit him off.

Brad re rigged and then I hooked something monstrous. Definately too big and heavy for a jack but too fast and powerful for any shark I've caught. If I had to take a guess I would possibly say a big bluebone, uncommon but wouldn't be the first time.

The fish just about stripped all the 30lb braid from my Stradic 4000 until I turned his head and re gained control. I started to gain quite a bit of line and I thought it was in the bag just as he went on a second blinding run this time in a different direction and towards some nasty snags. My 80lb leader cut like hot butter, there was no chance.

Meanwhile Brad is getting frustrated with the amount of snags he's getting and continues to re rig. I re rigged after my bust off and cast out a nice mullet. I got a tap tap similar to that of a smaller jack and then my line went tight. A little bit of line peeled of but then he came in quite easy. It was an unusual fight at the start and I didn't call it for a jack until right at the end when he went on a blinding run towards nasty rocks. Then I saw the scarlet flanks glistening in the torch light and my suspicions were confirmed. Another horse jack.

This one measured about 50cm again and was another stoinker.


On my next cast I landed a smaller jack of around 35cm and then Brad followed soon after with another one around the same size.


Brads MJ

We got a few strikes after this but missed hookups due to using big baits. On our last mullet we cut him up into smaller chunks and it was on my last bit of bait that I hooked up to something solid. A nice fight followed from a fish that was surely another jack this time a bit smaller at around 45-46cm.


My third stoinker for the night

All in all a fantastic night. My best session on Jacks so far this season and 3 over 45 inc two 50cm jacks is something I'll remember for a while. Thanks for coming Brad next time I hope you beat your PB.