Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Monster mangrove Jack caught off Noosa

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THIS fish is often mistaken for golden snapper, and in some cases, the red bass, though it is in fact the almighty mangrove jack. When caught in reefs out wide it’s often known as jack, dogtooth bream, or the most fitting red reef bream or mangrove red snapper.

While it’s common to catch Jacks around 40cm – 60cm in length, if you are lucky you may see one over a 100cm, Bill Murray was happy to measure his recent catch at not quite 100cm, with a mouth big enough to put both hands into when wide open.

Funnily enough, after an early morning session catching mainly snapper and a couple of pearlies and parrot, the next fish on the line gave a battle and a half, even though it was a decent size it was an ocean catfish, which fishermen either love or hate, in Bill’s case it’s the latter.

Next drop down the bait didn’t even make it to the 65-metre-deep reef drop off. About a dozen foot before the bait was taken drag screaming, and the battle began again.

This time the fight was so similar to the catfish and took no longer so no one anticipated this big red on the line when it came to the surface, let alone Bill. Tiredness was overtaken by excitement landing this massive fish.

While we know bigger ones have been landed, we’ve not seen such a good mangrove jack landed before, and simply wanted to share the experience.

If you’re looking to catch a Jack like this you’ll be looking at reefs up to 100 metre depth, fishing with a rig to suit. For Bill that’s his favourite snapper rig with a lure and live bait, and as you can see from the pic he knows what he’s doing.

The head and frame has been sent to research biologists for study, as it’s likely this fish about is 40 years old. In fact, that’s why it wasn’t released, the monster Jack gave up it’s fight at the boat, and didn’t bat an eyelid once on board. While we felt sad it had lost it’s fight we knew it wouldn’t last being let back. Let’s hope it helps the scientists find out more about big jacks or the Lutjanus Argentimaculatus. Even though the bag limit is five, even our big esky would be lucky to fit four of these fine specimens, and leave no room for other fish.

Bill Murray has been fishing off shore from Noosa for more than twenty years, with a reputation for anticipating both the species and the weight before the catch is even sighted at the boat, though in the case of this great mangrove jack even he was surprised when the golden red colours became evident on the surface.

Hoping you experience a catch like this one day.

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