Where and when to catch Mangrove Jack in New South Wales: the NSW season, the spots in our guide that hold them, and where to find NSW's current size and bag limits.
NSW limits for Mangrove Jack are set by NSW DPIRD and change from time to time, so we link them rather than copy them.
Check NSW DPIRD's limits before you fish.
Western Australian limits don't apply in New South Wales.
Live mullet, prawn, herring, mud crab, fresh strip baits, live whiting
Lures
Suspending hardbodies (Jackall Squirrels, Rapala X-Rap), 3–4" soft plastics, weedless rigged plastics for snags, surface walkers at dawn
Rigs
Heavy estuarine spin gear — 30–50lb braid, 30–50lb fluorocarbon leader. Single hook on lures, or a 4/0 circle hook on bait under a small running sinker pegged at the leader knot. Lock the drag — finesse loses fish to snags.
Technique
Cast tight to structure — the closer to the snag, the better the bite. Work suspending lures with a twitch-pause cadence; jacks commit on the pause. Bait fished alongside fallen timber on a run-out tide is the classic creek setup. The strike is instant; lift hard and lever the fish out of cover before it knows what's happening. If you give a jack any line at all on the strike, you've lost it.
Identification
Also known asJack, red bream, creek red bream
Copper-red to bronze snapper, darker over the back, with a big mouth and a pair of prominent canines up front. Creek fish are deep red-brown; adults that have moved offshore go more silvery-bronze, which throws people. Two separations matter. Fingermark, or golden snapper, carry a distinct dark thumbprint blotch high on the flank near the lateral line — jacks have none. Red bass have a deep groove in front of the eye and are a well-known ciguatera species, so learning that groove is worth the effort. Small jacks get called red bream or creek reds; same fish.