Mangrove Jack.....or tiddler..

[ActiveAngler]

Lol...ill read tht a little later Dids..see what interesting facts they have..

[FishHunter]

Hmmm. Up the river near the weir my 1st Jack was 38cm and the 2nd an hour later from the same rock was 54cm both on a Squidgie shad. I will have to ask around my fishing buddies and see what they have caught.

[Didley]

Lol...ill read tht a little later Dids..see what interesting facts they have..

I know I'm on my own here, but, I'm big believer in science Chewy, ask a fisherman and you get an entertaining story, but if you want facts go the science route. Around the camp fire ask a fisherman every time.

[Pete62]

Thought provoking, maybe they are reverse Nomads, they get old and move south.

I have got nuthing on this but to say that from seeing reports on here and elsewhere it does seem the quality is better the further south(to an extent) but the quantity is worse.
I only target jacks on livebait in the estuaries to date but intend to work the rockwalls and fingers in and around the harbour this year as there are some real monsters feeding around there at night.Does anyone remember the ET episode filmed with the now departed Dave Ervine?

There was a fish in the paper last week, no length but weight was 4.8kg angler claims it was one of 8 caught for the day.

Another point to ponders is, divers see jacks on the reef, big ones, around here all the time but anglers very rarely catch them.
Are these fish in the mood for love not tucker when they are in the open ocean but still spend the larger proportion of their time in the estuaries??
Are they perpetually mobile as apposed to estuary then reef?

Good thread Chew.

Pete

[ActiveAngler]

Not that i dont believe in science Dids..But iv had some dealing with that mob during the initial harvesting for brood stock for Barra at Burrum...I made the mistake of trying to tell them the spawning aggregation,in this river at least, begins wayyyyyy before the closed season starts,hence the closed season should start earlier,and imho open earlier. id be interested to read what month the majority of jacks spawn,weather its like barra and flathead or they are a stand alone fish.

[Didley]

I think you'll find in that DPI thing or maybe I read it somewhere else, once a MJ leaves the estuary it never returns.
There is nothing more interesting or important in the wide world of science than the life and times of the MJ, why hasn't some boffin penned a layman's pocket book about it????????? "MangroveJack 4 dumbies"

[ActiveAngler]

Pete..in my experience the big jacks definately school up to spawn, id have to check my old diarys, but had 20 or 30 big jacks behind the boat one morning,but couldnt get them to bite. Eventually got one around 7kg, on a light bait rod,but come dark,they came to the surface to eat live hussar put out for Cobes..This becames a favoured method of getting them, no sinker, big live bait. I know pretty close to the mark when they school up here,but where they go is anyones guess..We need a tracker put on one..

[Didley]

or they are a stand alone fish.

See Chewy, that's exactly what I'm saying, your a fisherman. Jacks can't stand alone they don't have legs.

[Creek Vermin]

Def plenty of big fish over 50cm from 1770 south chewy, especially around the bundy area. I've never really put in a lot of effort further north than that though. I've been fishing the same waters for a fair few years now and the difference between seasons has been pretty cool. Certain lures often work better each season and the size of the fish has varied a lot. One year I caught a stack of small fish under 40cm and the next season was the best I've seen for size. I'm sure all of these small fish couldn't have grown 10-15cm in a year, so who knows. This ones shapin up well....

[pinkey]

I have caught my only 2 legal jacks 40, and 45cm in skinny canals at the Gold Coast on surface lures. Shallow water, early morning and around rocks. They may be "tiddlers" but I was still pretty stoked. I wonder if 55+ models would lurk the same waters or prefer deeper country and more pronounced snags rather than just shallowish rockwalls.

Another interesting fact is that all the Brisbane River Jacks I have seen proof of have been big, bar one 44cm model. They are so rare, but most of the ones I have heard of/seen have been late 50's. So no jack's under 40cm that I have seen or heard of in the Brisbane River, but still there are almost unlimited Cod under 40cm. Weird.