Mangrove Jacks / Snappers / Fiji Damu

[Newell Nut]

Lee
The offshore mangrove rarely hits iron. The fish that my Mama is holding is what we call grunts. The best bait is to cut the fins, tail and head off and cut the what is left in half and you have mango bait. Every fish that I caught on the Thursday report was on that same bait.

[jurelometer]

Bula Erik,

One of my favorite species in that part of the world.  My first time for mangrove jacks was in the Solomons. The first decent sized jack I hooked destroyed a rapala shad.  All torn plastic, crushed balsa and bent trebles.  No place for largemouth bass lures!

Do you get many green jobfish in your neck of the woods?  That's another tough critter.

[SacFly]

If all you need is a gripper to control the fish, consider these.  They work great.  A lot of northeast surf-guys use them.  It closes with a ratcheting action, so once it's closed, it stays closed.

http://fishboneknives.com/the-fish-grip-1/

[erikpowell]

Daron, I figured you'd be bopping just about anything on the head and cutting it up for bait!   
Unless you use live bait...   .. Do ya??

Dwight, Thanks & keep up the good catch! Yes, they do love to play with their food    But it's a whole nother ballgame
when they know they are hooked!!

Lee, I've hooked a few on butterfly jigs on the reef... not common, but it's occasional.
big 4 oz curly tails work well, but reef dwelling Damu are usually speared here or on the troll with a rapala or halco diver.
Soft plastics- very effective- even on the reef, definitely in the river.

mature Damu on the reef are often confused with Red sea bass..... both will hit big poppers.. BIG !
Our local red bass almost always carry ciguatera and the big mature "Bati Damu" will have it too.
The north part of the other island it's said their red bass and Damu are safe from ciguatera... I won't be testing that. 

and jurelometer... yep... Love the job fish... was out looking for some yesterday but mo luck...
when the job fish (crimson & green) bite is ON... boy they are ON... and you pull em up everywhere on those days...then they switch off
and we won't see them for awhile... Good fighters and excellent on the table... I like em almost better than coral trout.

[Shark Hunter]

No Erik, I don't Bop everything on the head.
Usually we catch some pinfish in the Bay and then go to the Surf and catch bigger fish with the Pins.
I don't use smaller sharks for bait and there is a size limit on Blues. I target Bluefish, ladyfish and Mullet are good baits too. We usually spend a whole day catching bait and putting it on ice in plastic bags, then go sharkin the next. This is my Son Mike. He has the Bug!
This little Blue made a Tasty treat for a 7 footer.

We let the little Sharpnoses go.

[erikpowell]

  I'm just pulling your chain buddy. 
Nice pics Daron ..good looking young man you got there there.. he must have got his looks from his mom 
is that the Gulf? ...and I can see the teeth on that little sucker from here.
Ok so you won't be using the boca grip for your sharks. 
I know it's expensive, but I'll probably choke down one (the boca) next time I'm back. The old rapala one wasn't worth the dough and reviews on the new ones are poor. A friend of mine here has a boca thats lasted and they are nicer. I think its worthy of us 
I'll use it for a kayak tool mostly, as pretty much all the fish here are toothy...and spiny..

[Keta]

Look at what I have laying around. We use them for barotrauma releases.

[erikpowell]

OK i give up... what are those Lee? they look like mini plastic vise grips.
Do you send the fish down clipped to that via your line?

[Keta]

They are for griping toothy fish but we modify them with the lines.  Attach one line to a rod the other to a heavy weight.  Drop the fish down to the proper depth and give the rod a twitch to open up the gripper.

Here's SacFly's link  http://fishboneknives.com/the-fish-grip-1/

[Shark Hunter]

Do they hold up Lee? 12 Dollars sounds a lot better than 100.

[erikpowell]

x2 !

[Shark Hunter]

Lee is sending me a pair of those Eric. I'll let you know how they do. Yes, those pics are the Gulf. Navarre beach. That place is awesome! A little too rough for the Kayak today. Just Drinking some brews and catching bait! Life is Good!

This is How you Catch bait! Bring me another Beer Brother! Good Times. This is my screensaver.

[SacFly]

I got one of these fish grippers last fall after blowing through a couple of knock-off bogas.  Real deal bogas are great, except that I'm not interested in weighing fish under 30 lbs, and the 60lb boga is too heavy to carry all night.  Plus they're expensive.

I got it to control angry bluefish with a mouth full of trebles when I'm knee deep in the suds.  It works well and feels like a sturdy, well made tool. For 13 bucks it's a no brainer.  I had a treble removed from my hand at the ER one time and that was 700$.

[Shark Hunter]

Yikes! $700. I'm going to give these plastic ones a try. I was just talking to my brother and Son about our trip coming up. I told them we need some wine corks to put on the end of our hooks while we are kayaking them out. I heard a couple horror stories about the kayak getting flipped and one guy took a 20/0 circle in the neck!