Yes today I caught my first ever Mangrove Jack ( Lutjanus argentimaculatus ) land based, and it was also my first Mangrove Jack of the year.
So all in all, a pretty good day really.
I went to one of my old favourite haunt, namely East Point.
It is really close to my place, and I can be there in a few minutes, the place is beautiful and many different species of fish live there, what's not to love?
East Point in the morning.
Today my plan was to catch a Barramundi.
But the first fish I managed to hook was a little Catfish. It was so little that in fact we could nearly have called it a Kittenfish.
Little Catfish on the line.
But it was good to catch this little guy, as I was starting to think that maybe I should move away, that no fish were on the spot today.
Once I caught this Catfish, I told myself that they are one of the Barramundi favourite food, so I was going to stick around a bit longer.
I continued to flick my lure in the mangrove.
I had just made a cast deep between the submerged trees, when I saw some commotion in the water, just between my fishing lure and myself.
Beauty! This was just on the trajectory of the lure, and it was going to swim pretty close of the action.
And effectively, a soon as the lure got a few centimetres from where I had seen the splash in the water, something grabbed my offering.
It hit good, and went straight for the bottom and the mangrove roots.
At first I even thought that I had been bricked by the fish and that my lure was now stuck to a snag.
But no, by thumbing the spool of my reel and pulling up, I managed to feel the fish moving towards me.
Still, despite the fight no being like the one that a catfish would have given, I started to think that this was no Barramundi. It didn't jump, and fought a different type of fight.
When I finally saw the colour of the fish, I become as happy as if it had been a Barramundi.
Can you guess the fish?
The clues here are that I was fishing in the mangrove, and yes, the title of this blog post.
Yes it was a Mangrove Jack!
Morning Mangrove Jack.
This was no monster, but it was the first time ever that I got one land based. This was also my first Mangrove Jack of the year 2017.
I was in fact so happy with all that, that I decided that it would be his lucky day too, and released it.
Despite the fact that they are absolutely delicious to eat.
Mangrove.
This is the mangrove from where I plucked this little guy. As you can see, the place is full of snag, and the water wasn't very clear. Yet, it is on the occasion, when the tides are right, and the planets align the right way, a pretty good spot.
Today was not too bad, it made me happy to get this fish, in a place that I really enjoy.
Even if yes this is true, I didn't catch a Barramundi today.
So in a way, I failed to accomplish my goal.
But hey, it could be worse.
Have a good day,
Me.
