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Bite Compass
Estuary / Creek

Mangrove Jack

Lutjanus argentimaculatus

Where and when to catch Mangrove Jack in Queensland: the QLD season, the spots in our guide that hold them, and where to find QLD's current size and possession limits.

Size
Up to 10kg, commonly 1–3kg
QLD season
Year-round (best Nov–Mar)
QLD spots
29

QLD Size & Possession Limits

QLD limits for Mangrove Jack are set by Fisheries Queensland and change from time to time, so we link them rather than copy them. Check Fisheries Queensland's limits before you fish.

Western Australian limits don't apply in Queensland.

Where to Catch Mangrove Jack in QLD

Gold Coast

Budds Beach (Nerang River) Coombabah Creek Jetty (Turana Street) Currumbin Creek Mouth Nerang River Platform (Weedons Crossing)

Brisbane & Moreton Bay

Colmslie Beach Reserve (Brisbane River) Hornibrook Bridge Fishing Platform Kangaroo Point Cliffs (Brisbane River)

Sunshine Coast

Chambers Island (Maroochy River) Currimundi Lake Mouth Gympie Terrace (Noosaville) Muller Park (Maroochy River, Bli Bli) Stumers Creek

Fraser Coast

Burrum Heads Maaroom Mary River (Maryborough) River Heads Tin Can Bay (Norman Point) Toogoom (Beelbi Creek Mouth) Urangan Boat Harbour Wall

Bundaberg & Gladstone

Auckland Creek & East Shores (Gladstone Marina) Boyne River (Benaraby Bridge) Burnett River Town Reach (Bundaberg) Calliope River (Hanson Road Boat Ramp) Elliott Heads (Elliott River Mouth) Town of 1770 (Round Hill Creek)

Capricorn Coast

Causeway Lake Coorooman Creek Boat Ramp (Zilzie) Ross Creek Mouth (Yeppoon) Rosslyn Bay Harbour Breakwall

How to Catch

Best Baits

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.

  • From the Boyne River and Tannum Sands north, including Gladstone, the Calliope and Fitzroy rivers and the Capricorn Coast creeks, this is crocodile country: stay back from the water's edge, don't wade, and clean fish away from the water. Be Crocwise.

Identification

Also known as Jack, 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. Red bass are also no take in Queensland. Small jacks get called red bream or creek reds; same fish.

Mangrove Jack elsewhere: Western Australia

← All QLD Species