Party Crashers

The steady rush of green water pouring through the jetties ushered in a healthy population of baitfish doing their best to seek shelter from the impending doom below. My good friend Alex Sahliyeh and his father-in-law Dr. Paul McCormick were busy dissecting the granite boulders with sub-surface plugs and enjoying a very nice bite of quality speckled trout when the uninvited party guests made their first appearance.

Alex’s rod doubled over under the weight of the attacker and the drag began to scream as the fish abruptly headed for the short rigs, attempting to run away with all Alex’s line. Immediately, we all shouted “Jackfish,” a bit unsure whether to feel blessed or disgusted at the interruption to our trout fishing. Luckily, Alex put on a masterful light-tackle demonstration and had the fish under control and boatside in a surprisingly short period of time.

Our perp was indeed an extremely healthy specimen of a Jack Crevalle, all forty-five inches of him. We all marveled at the fish while snapping photos and admiring the sight of such an efficient predator. I leaned over the gunwale to revive the big fish and it was gone in an instant to fight another day. With no further fanfare we went back to focusing on the speckled trout bite, but from time to time we would get back to admiring the Jack and the fight it provides. The Jack Crevalle gets a bad rap, but pound for pound, it more than holds its own as a great sport fish, especially on lighter tackle and fly gear.

As we worked our way toward a solid limit of trout we encountered a few more Jacks, and that brought up some interesting conversation that was truly thought provoking. We have all heard the saying that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and that’s exactly the case with the Jack Crevalle.

Think about this for a minute; what’s the difference between the Jack Crevalle, Roosterfish, and Giant Trevally? The Giant Trevally is one of the most popular and sought after fish on the planet right now and it’s nothing more than a bigger version of the Jack Crevalle that lives in beautiful water.

Same for Roosterfish, a very distant relative of the Jack Crevalle, but with a sexier paint job. Friends that I fish with down in Baja often refer to the Rooster as a disco jack, or a jack with a hat, in reference to the seven spine comb that the Roosterfish sports, instead of a single dorsal fin. There isn’t really a dime’s worth of difference in the fight these three fish put up and they are each as aggressive as it gets when it comes to their strikes. But for whatever unknown reason, Texas anglers look down on the Jack Crevalle and consider it almost a nuisance when, in fact, it should be completely the other way around.

Turning your nose up at the prospect of tangling with a top-of-the-line game fish is just mind-blowing, especially when it swims right here in our own backyard.

Now for years the offshore and nearshore guys have had their fill of jacks. The tarpon guides and folks shadowing the gulf shrimp boats as they cull their catches tell stories of being just absolutely covered in Jacks from time to time while pursuing other species. So much so that they’ve had to leave the area they were fishing because there were so many of them present that nothing else could get to their baits. I guess the flip side to running away from too many Jacks would be actually taking a trip to target them exclusively, which is what some Florida anglers will often do.

There are plenty of folks who will come to Texas and Louisiana to chase big Jacks, and to be honest I can see why they do it. When you get a school of big Jacks fired up it’s one of the most visually satisfying bites you will ever encounter. The strikes are violent and angry as they destroy anything even remotely edible. I have had schools of Jacks along the beachfront feeding so aggressively it sounded like guns going off as they ran through wads of pogies, trying to get to them before the next Jack could. The only way to describe it when Jacks go on a feeding frenzy like that is just plain carnage.

Now it seems almost a waste of time to give advice concerning baits for catching Jack Crevalle because they will eat virtually anything as they are truly the epitome of opportunistic feeders. Pick a bait, any bait, and it will more than likely draw a strike from a hungry Jack.

Easily the most popular way to catch them is on topwater plugs as the strikes are as vicious as they are visual. Soft plastics, either on jigs or fished under a rattling cork will also take their fair share of vicious Jacks. Free-lining live bait such as mullet or big pogies along the rocks or near slicks along the beach front is another great way to get your string stretched by a Jack as they rarely pass up an opportunity at a free meal.

The largest portion of all Jack encounters in my home waters will take place along the jetties, and that will happen to folks who aren’t even targeting them; they just happen to show up and the fight is on. Quite often these anglers will have to chase them down with the trolling motor to avoid getting spooled. It’s always fun to watch a boat hooked up on a big Jack work their way through the jetty traffic, kind of like a person in a packed movie theater returning to their seat…Excuse me, pardon me, sorry.

As we head into summer’s home stretch there will be ample opportunities to tangle with these hard-fighting fish as winds calm during the dog days and offer more angler-friendly conditions along the beach and nearshore gulf. Look for the big schools of pogies travelling along the beach and you will likely find the big Jack’s as well as the big, oversized redfish shadowing them.

Few things get as wild as a big school of frenzied Jacks and Bull Reds on a calm day in the gulf; it can be absolutely epic at times. If running the gulf is not your favorite thing then look no farther than the jetty systems because the Jack’s will be patrolling the rocks and looking for their next meal, so be ready.

I truly hope that each one of you gets an opportunity to tangle with these very underrated fish because they offer as good a fight as you will find anywhere. Hopefully, at some point, they will get the respect that they deserve. But until that happens, I for one will have no problem enjoying the chance to tangle with them when the opportunity presents.

As always, enjoy the resource responsibly and take a kid or someone new to the sport of fishing whenever you get the chance.