Popular perception is that mangrove jack are caught close to structure and snaring them often involves close quarters battle that often ends in tears. Bob Jeynes regularly fishes one of the coasts most popular tourist locations and has discovered that night sessions provide very different options when it comes to chasing mangrove jacks. If light line, open water jacks sound enticing, then read on…
Accidental Lessons
I manage the Davos Compleat Angler tackle store in Noosa and have spent a life time harassing the local mangrove jack population. Much of my fishing time occurs after the shop closes which has me on the water many evenings and nights. A few years ago, I stumbled across something new and exciting. We were travelling down the Noosa River and decided to take a shortcut across a shallow sand bank at high tide and you guessed it: we ran aground. I copped the grief and jokes from the boys as one would imagine. After all the laughter had stopped, I lifted the outboard up and proceeded to drift over the top of a very large sand bank. As we drifted along in about 0.5 m of water we could hear the ever-abundant resident Noosa population of bigeye trevally starting to feed on top of the sand bank. We slowly slid the anchor over the side of the tinny and what happened next changed our beliefs of mangrove jack fishing forever. The only tackle we had on board was extremely light bream gear that we had taken to have some fun with the local flathead population. All of our first casts were instant hookups. This was great fun, 1 to 3 kg trevally in shallow water and a very fast out-going tide. We were under-gunned with these light set ups but the fishing was ferocious and some of these trevally put up a 2 to 5 minute battle. Then we landed a very impressive 50 cm jack. Our first impression was that this fish must have been lost but then we boated another 50 cm jack and 10 trevally later we managed another 40 cm jack. At the completion of the session and with a sense of disbelief we realised we had caught and released five jacks.
The nearest snag was over 150 m away and we were fishing a spot that you would pump yabbies and fish for whiting during the day. This fishing had several of us very excited and we returned the next night to repeat the performance. This time we were armed with 4 to 7 kg outfits; we couldn’t fool anything outside of the trevally! The bream gear was pulled into action again and lo and behold, we had more of those spectacular red fish in the net to smile about. Surely, light line couldn’t make such a difference in this scenario, could it? Two years of testing the theory suggests that light gear fished over those sand banks at night can make all the difference. Those first few trips opened our eyes to catching mangrove jack in shallow open water on light line forever. I really like targeting mangrove jack with live baits, flesh baits and lures on heavy tackle in and around structure but when the tides and weather are right we drop everything to get them on the light gear. We now catch more jacks on light line away from structure at night than we do with any other method.
Seasons
Rain run-off into the river system and the seasons determines where we choose to target night time jacks. In the event that our local rivers receive plenty of rain, the complexion of the fishing changes dramatically. Lots of freshwater running through the rivers makes it tough to predict where to best find local fish. September is the best time to start targeting jacks in the upper reaches of a system. Areas of inflows, shallow lakes, sand banks and the like will start to warm faster than anywhere else. These places are key spots to start finding bait supply and other predators. The jack fishing is slower in the lower reaches of the river at this time but gets better through summer and is often exceptionally good in March, April and early May: this is when the big jacks are congregating before heading out to the local reefs.
Night Noise
The fishing patterns that emerge after dark suggest that the hungry jacks will leave the structure at night to feed in the open with the likes of trevally, tailor and tarpon. The best way to find them is to locate the concentrations of bait and the predators won’t be far behind. During the day, anglers are able to look for prime night time locations. Jacks are continually changing the areas that they choose to hunt so alot of time is spent finding where the bait and trevally are most concentrated in a river. Having found this scenario, focus most of your efforts in the nearby vicinity. Such a location may produce jacks for several weeks before they start to move elsewhere. Popular spots include shallow sand banks in the middle or on the edge of the river and at the entrance to lakes. Shallows that drop into deeper waters and are exposed to some form of current are great places to find fish. These places become concentration points for bait as the tide begins to recede. At night, your ears become one of the best tools for finding the fish. The sounds of predators getting stuck into bait stacked near to the surface will highlight where you need to focus your efforts. My experience suggests that wherever you find night time trevally and tailor surface action, the jacks are invariably sitting beneath.
Peak Times
The first three hours of the run-out tide at night often produces the best results. My experience suggests that the jacks leave local structure on the last of the run-in tide after dark and wait for the bait to fall from of the shallows on the run-out;the last three hours of the run-out tide coincide with the fish falling back to their home structures. A change in weather is often the key to achieving a good catch of jacks. The anglers I fish with get very excited if we look at the weather map and see a period of hot north-easterly to north-westerly winds leading into a strong south-easterly change. The jack usually turn on the action the night before the south east change arrives as if they know that they need to get a feed before the temperature cools. If this coincides with the tides where we want to fish then it’s definitely game-on!
The Cultiva Savoy Shad 80 mm sinking hardbody is highly effective on night time jacks.
Night Tactics
Targeting jacks after dark requires a good degree of stealth. Do not shine lights on the water and try to be very quiet in everything you do. These fish are extremely timid and any sign that appears abnormal will see fish sneaking away to safer grounds. To complement the stealth approach, we have found through experience that finesse fishing is the best way to hook multiple fish in any session. Light spin outfits, light leaders and the right lure and retrieve are essential.
Accepted aggressive techniques such as jerkbaiting and surface popping will tempt the odd fish, but will often shut the action down relatively quickly. This statement is likely to cause debate with some anglers, but my experience with these techniques at night is that they shut down the jacks and other fish most of the time: especially when using poppers. You have to remember these fish are out of their comfort zone even in shallow open water at night. The aggressive lure retrieves produce but tend to alert predators that something is out of place and pushes them out of casting range in short time.
The proven approach to catching good numbers of night jacks is to ambush them from a quietly anchored boat. An electric motor is rarely used when fishing as we have found that mangrove jack quickly vacate the open water and head back to structure if you drive over them. A good plan involves anchoringyour boat on top of the sand bank and up-current of the area you know to be holding bait and predators. I often find the boat is positioned within casting range of a current line.
Hunting jacks are most likely sitting adjacent to feeding tailor and trevally while waiting for a stray or wounded baitfish to cruise by and make for a very easy meal. To take advantage of these fish you must make your lure look precisely like the stray or wounded baitfish. It is most likely that such a piece of food will be rolling or slowly swimming close to bottom on its way to deeper water. For this reason, light lines and a very subtle presentation with hard or soft lures will tempt fish. Regardless of the lure you choose, cast as far as possible out from both sides of the boat; the current will gradually move the lure so that it ends up directly behind the boat. The fine diameter lines ensure that there isn’t excessive drag on your line. Having cast a lure, let it sink to bottom and then very slowly and continuously retrieve it so that it slowly walks the bottom. This retrieve is known as the ‘slow roll’ and will look the part of a baitfish cruising along the bottom. Ensure that you cover all areas of the flats and drop-off margins and in particular, wherever there are sounds of baitfish being eaten. Sometimes you can just cast out across the current and dead stick the lure (don’t move it) and let the current sweep it out to the back of the boat. Dead sticking seems to work best with a bit of current. It is important to understand that sometimes large fish will bump or tap at a lure. It is crucial to avoid striking at these bumps. Rather, let a fish investigate the lure and properly mouth it. The rod will notify you when it is time to strike: the rod will load with weight when a fish has properly taken a lure.
A selection of the author’s favourite open water jack lures.
Dark Lure Choice
Night time jacks can be caught on a variety of hard and soft lures. It is most important to try and mimic the size of the local bait and choose a lure option that sinks and can be worked subtly in local conditions.
My soft plastics are mostly rigged on 1/8 to 1/6 oz jigheads with a hook size of 1H up to 3/0H. The custom rigged Gladiator Prawn is my favourite when it comes to fishing plastics for these fish. Many other prawn patterns will catch fish, but the custom-rigged Gladiator Prawn seems to top them on many occasions. Just about everything that swims will eat this plastic morsel. I fish with a 1/8 oz 1H jighead with a stinger set up in the back of the prawn. We place this in the Gladiator Prawn because fish tend to bite at the prawn timidly before trying to scoff it down. Other popular plastics include the Izumi Gastronomic Bait Shad Tail and the plastic that every fisherman should have a packet of is the 80 or 100 mm Squidgie Wriggler in blood worm.
Sinking hardbody lures are a must as you need to get down to bottom quickly. The weight of the lures I fish range from 7.5 through to 15 grams. But be careful: 1 to 3 kg line snaps very easily when trying to throw long distance casts. My favourite sinking hardbody is the ever productive 80 mm 10 g Slim Jim. When these are cast out you drop the rod tip as soon as the lure hits the water, giving the lure slack line to sink. They will flutter horizontally to the bottom, don’t let them sink with a tight line or they will drop like a stone. Slack line is the key. Once on the bottom a continuous slow roll should be used. You can also try occasional lifting of the lure towards surface before pausing to let it flutter downstream in the current.
Other favourite lures that live in my tackle box are the Atomic Hardz Minnow 55 mm (7.5 g), Cultiva Savoy Shad 80 mm sinking (15 g) and the River 2 Sea Flexi Babe Soft Vibe 35 mm (7.5 g).
Night Wrap
At the end of the day the best bit of information I can give you is to try and prevent practicing the same type and style of fishing day-in and day-out. Fish change their habits and so too should the angler. The most important thing I have learnt is that you can always have a crack at new things and there is always so much to learn. Hopefully this article will give you a couple of ideas that you can use in your local river systems, whether it be targeting the mighty mangrove jacks or other varieties of fish. Just remember, spots that you may have overlooked of a day may be exceptionally good under the cover of darkness.
