Fishing

Chasing Jacks
By Ed Kunze

The Jack Crevalle (Caranx hippos) is found in all the warm water seas of the Americas, in both the Atlantic and the Pacific. The Jack Crevalle, being a member of the jack family, is a first class fighter. The jack family includes amberjacks, California yellowtail, green jacks, roosterfish, and several others (including Jack Dempsy). Once you have slugged out 45 minutes with a 25-pound Jack Crevalle, you will know you have been in a serious fight.

One of the most exciting types of fishing here in Ixtapa - Zihuatanejo is chasing these hard fighting fish. March, April and May are probably the best months of the year to find them. It does not matter whether you are using a fly rod or conventional gear. The excitement of the chase, the adrenalin rush when approaching a school of hard-crashing jacks, the arm wrenching hookup, and the prolonged fight of a fish that does not know when to quit, makes for an incredible experience.

Jack Crevalle are a school fish. You find one, and the whole school will find you. They are incredibly aggressive when feeding, and it is not uncommon to have five or six at a time fighting to take your offering. Jacks are also experts at cornering baitfish against the beach or rock pinnacles. The mayhem that ensues is a spectacle you will not forget. Usually, the baitfish are driven into the shallow water against the beach. By taking away two dimensions of escape from their prey, the jacks charge in. And, the water will literally turn to white foam from the absolute furry of these feeding frenzies.

Plus, not unnoticed by the birds, they join in on the feast. There will be pelicans, boobies, terns, sea gulls, frigates and cormorants. Some of the birds, such as the boobies and pelicans, dive from up high, adding to the white water. Others, like the frigates and terns, swoop down to pick off the wounded bait fish as they struggle on the surface. There will easily be from 200 to 500 birds at a time, diving from above, and all are feeding on the same baitfish the school of jacks are pushing up from the bottom. It would not be a good idea to be a baitfish in these situations.

The easiest method to find feeding jacks is to cruise the beaches and watch for the birds. Once the diving birds are spotted, the throttle is opened up to get there quick, because it will be all over in a couple of minutes. The best method is to get on the bow of the panga and cast as you approach the school. Remember, you are just outside the wave line, and your captain also has to consider the danger of the breaking waves. The bow of a panga is not exactly a stable casting platform under these conditions, but when your offering hits the water, it will be consumed immediately – if it reaches the water. There are so many birds, they may fly under your line, and you end up bringing a bird back to the boat. Or, a pelican may beat the jack to it, and just simply eat your bait.

Surface poppers are probably the best all around bait / lure there is to use for catching Jack Crevalle. A six to eight inch surface popper, reeled as fast as you can, makes so much commotion on the surface, the jacks just cannot leave it alone. Surface poppers are so effective, when fly fishing, I usually cast one with no hooks. From the school of jacks, five to six fish will follow it all the way back to the boat, slashing and crashing on the hookless teaser. This gives the fly fishing client an easy 50 foot cast, and of course the fly is engulfed as soon as it hits the water. (Jacks can make a fly fishing guide look real good.)

Another effective way to find jacks is to cover a lot of water. Fast trolling a Rapala will find them if they are around. Once the Rapala locates the fish, work the area with a live bait, or cast a surface popper. Often, your captain will spot a school of jacks, when all you may see is ocean. He does this by seeing a defined ripple, different than the wind ripples. It is actually the wake of the school of jacks, caused from their tails as they cruise just under the surface.
The bait, when pinned against the beach, usually manage to escape after a couple minutes of absolute panic. The birds move off, and your captain will pull back away from the surf line. You can troll a Rapala to find the school again, but the best indicator is the birds. In a few minutes, the jacks will have cornered another school of bait, but it may be a mile or so down the beach. The birds start diving, the throttle goes wide open, and you are off chasing jacks again.

Ed Kunze is Zihuatanejo’s IGFA Representative and a charter fishing boat captain. He lives in Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo year-round and can be reached at (755) 554-4876 or edkunze@prodigy.net.mx. For more information on Capt. Ed and his boats go to www.sportfishing-ixtap.com or www.zihuatanejo.net/seaandsand

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