Making Deposits into the Burrum River Jack Bank – By Dave Magner
I guess most anglers have a species that they struggle to fully come to grips with and for me that would definitely have to be mangrove jack. Sure, I’ve caught quite a few of them over the years, including a couple of massive river fish over the magical half-metre mark. If I’m being totally honest however, I have always treated them as more of an unexpected bonus, rather than my main target.
About as close as I’ve ever got to zeroing in on them was when I was living in Tannum Sands. While central Queensland is not usually the first place that comes to mind when you think of jack fishing, most of the nearby waterways hold considerable populations of these crimson killers. Still, even with reliable jack fishing right on my doorstep, I never really felt like I was confidently able to predict exactly when and where they would be at any given time. I just didn’t have a big enough bank of knowledge to be sure what made them tick.
The author’s solo skiff has really helped him to target jacks. The shallow draft and almost silent approach are great assets, especially in the clear water conditions of winter.
Moving back home to Bundy didn’t exactly put me on the path to becoming a jack specialist either. The Wide Bay region sits right on the crossover point between northern and southern species, and there are simply far too many fishy distractions on offer here, so why would you restrict yourself to any single one or even limit yourself to one waterway? It really wasn’t until life got in the way and forced me to focus on close-to-home options that I finally got stuck into the Burrum river and began to understand what makes it such a great place to seek out a few jacks.
Winter Jack Attack
Now I know that winter is not the ideal time to start chasing jacks. The fact that I have been able to average at least one per trip on hard-bodied lures during such a cool spell of weather has been quite encouraging, however. I feel like my results can only improve once the weather warms back up again.
As I mentioned earlier, I’m still learning with each trip, but the biggest takeaway for me so far has been that if you want to learn how to fish a waterway, you have to put the time into it. Despite all the advances with live screen, side scan, GPS and even fishing reports and videos on YouTube, there’s simply no substitute for getting out on the water and experiencing it for yourself.
Jacks have seriously good eyesight. Leader choice seems to be critical at times.
Even the unsuccessful trips have generally taught me something. I like to think that every time I get out on the river, I’m making one more deposit into my account at the knowledge bank. I’ve gotten to know the river better, and each trip usually sees me with a new theory to work on or another technique to try.
So, what else have I learned? Well apart from the fact that the damn things are highly uncooperative when you try and take their photo, the other main lesson has been just how important it is to fish light for jacks at this time of year. How light, you might ask? Well, the first winter jack I stumbled upon came on what was meant to be a bream fishing trip. So that means eight pound leader, six pound braid and a 1-3 kilo outfit.
Lure wise, I was tossing a tiny little 50mm RTB Shimmy minnow, which is a superb bream/grunter lure but probably a fair bit smaller than your typical jack offering. I’d just cast my lure at the base of some snags which had been exposed by the dropping tide when I felt the hit. At first, I thought it was a bream, as it didn’t fight as hard as jacks normally do. As soon as I saw a flash of that lovely crimson colour, however, I realized what it was. As far as Burrum River jacks go, it wasn’t a huge fish, measuring just 35cm. Still, any jack is a welcome capture and when you can pull them out of the shallows on bream gear, you know you have done well.
My most recent winter jack capture happened just days ago (at the time of writing). This fish was almost a twin of that earlier capture but it was fooled in completely different circumstances. On this occasion, it came at the end of an almost fishless session where I had spent several hours flicking hard-bodies for one tiny little cod and a bream. I had one last little spot up my sleeve on that trip, and I left it till late afternoon to hit it.
All jacks should be handled carefully, for their sake and your own. These things love chewing on careless digits.
Unlike the previous fish, which was taken on one of the warmer days, this day had been quite cool and very windy. The tide was also coming in, instead of going out. Thinking about it, I recon this fish taught me a lot more than the others simply because its capture only came about due to a very specific combination of circumstances.
Firstly, the shallow rock bar I hooked it on was in a very sheltered section of the river. The wind might have been howling overhead, but this section was completely sheltered by high banks and trees. The second very important factor was the rocks themselves. They had been exposed by the low tide and had been sitting in the sun and out of the wind for a few hours over mid-day. No doubt the dark rocks had absorbed quite a bit of heat, and this created a lovely little pocket of warm water over the top of this shallow structure.
I had hoped that the warm water might be just enough to fire the fish up. Certainly, it must have been warm enough to trigger a bite for this jack when the little diving minnow was allowed to pause after bumping into the rockbar. This fish fought a fair bit harder too. Again, I put that down to the water temp helping to make it more active.
Actually, in this cooler weather I’ve really noticed just how critical it is to pause your lure. Most of the fish hit the lure while it’s sitting still. I know that probably happens in summer a lot too, but I believe it’s absolutely critical in winter when the fish are less active. Obviously, lures which suspend, or at least slowly rise on the pause are a key part of the deal.
One of the few jacks the author has been able to get lip grips into. I’m surprised he didn’t chew them to bits!
Looking Forward
As the season changes and things warm back up, I’ve no doubt that I’ll need to adapt my approach to keep being successful. For example; while the light gear might be okay when the fish are not so fired up, I can see I’m going to need to go heavier once the water heats up a few degrees.
Jacks are very visual feeders, so I guess it will be a case of trying to walk that fine line between a heavy enough leader to cope with bigger and angrier fish whilst not reducing the number of hits. Of course, there is a substantial population of barra in the Burrum to contend with as well, so it might be better to go a bit heavier than expected in case one jumps on.
No doubt, the time of day and locations will also have to change. That’s all part of the deal however. You can’t expect to stay on top of things without putting the effort in. Guess I’ll just have to keep depositing into the knowledge bank if I want to finally work out the Burrum’s jack population.
What every estuary angler wants to see staring up at them from the bottom of the landing net.
