Winter Jacks

[AustralianFish]

Was quite warm on the water and we planned to leave a bit later than normal, brave the wind and hit the lower half of the run out. Perfect mangrove jack tides. Location was the Barron River, Cairns.

Not far from the boat ramp I caught a little grunter, my first on a lure. So I was already having a good day, but it doesn't take much



At the next spot (The Airport Lights Bridge) we jigged some vibes and blades for nothing more than a large piece of carpet that tested my gear to its limits lol.

Then we went up Redden Creek and I was pretty disappointed to see that all the snags have now mostly gone, hit the best one fairly hard and caught a small jack on a paused lure (playing with the electric).



Went all the way to the mouth and turned around and motored out to fish the junction of Redden Creek and the Barron River. Found a really good snag and drifted a plastic deep down right into the heart of it and felt a sharp pull then a fair weight. Tug of war commenced and I was starting to think barra for a split second due to the power then bam, bricked around a branch. My mate rips a poor archerfish straight out the snag into the boat past my face as he yells "got ya" LOL, he was expecting whatever had just slammed his lure to come back but just got a tiny archerfish instead. With his help we got off the top of the fish I still had under pressure and the snag. I let the pressure off for a second and the fish pulled away hard, then the fish swam out into the open and after another half decent run, up came a nice jack.





He was probably around 46-47cm maybe a touch more. All fish were caught on a 2 inch gulp shrimp rigged weedless with a small bullet sinker tied into the loop knot on the hook, fished very slow not far off deadsticking.

It was nice to get out, finally have a fish, and actually catch fish. Reminds me of how much I love catching jacks, they are just so tough!

[SuburbanFishoCairns]

Noice, noice, noice...
Good to see some bigger ones still whacking a lure.

[Micko]

Nice jacks Ben!!..Impressive at anytime let alone winter.Keep up the good work mate.

[Gippsy]

Good fish indeed. Bit dubious about it being winter in cairns. Is there such a thing. ��

[Bazil Brush]

Very nice Jack mate & I suppose it would get down to around 25deg in winter on a bad day lol..

Baz

[tackle_buster]

Nice pair of Red ones AF. Got to agree with Gippsy tho, is there such a thing as winter in Cairns Thanks for the report, keep up the good work

[AustralianFish]

YES THERE IS SUCH A THING AS WINTER?

What? I had to wear a jumper four times so far this winter, it's been terrible!!

But in all honesty there is a winter in the water, the barra go off the chew and you catch heaps of GTs. Everything slows down and the wind blows You just have to work a lot harder and really pick your moments when to go for a fish. I can't buy a barra over 35cm at the moment, no matter what technique I use, live prawns, herring, soft plastics, hard bodies, whatever.

[Snodger]

Great Jack good stuff

[rooboy98]

YES THERE IS SUCH A THING AS WINTER?

What? I had to wear a jumper four times so far this winter, it's been terrible!!

Nice work on the jacks.

BTW what is this "jumper" thing you speak of ?

I can barely remember winter what feels like now.

Cheers,
Roo.

[3Macks]

Jumper is what I'm wearing now but then, I'm getting a bit soft in my old age.
Nice fish Ben. I like the look of the Barron at Redden. Some nice snags there last year.