Jack crevalle will attack most lures and baits placed in their path and instantly display their speed and incredible power. (Photo by Frank Sargeant)
July 07, 2025
By Frank Sargeant
Their savagery has been compared to that of a cage fighter. Their reckless feeding frenzies have prompted comparisons to giant piranhas. Yet, somehow, jack crevalle get no respect. These fish, which can exceed 30 pounds (the U.S. record weighed 58.8 pounds) and are the toughest pound-for-pound opponents most of us could encounter in inshore and nearshore waters, deserve our admiration instead of our disdain.
But countless anglers yell expletives when the monster redfish or snook they thought they’d hooked turns out to be a jack half the size. People will pay thousands of dollars and travel halfway around the world to pick a fight with a giant trevally (a larger cousin of the jack crevalle that swims in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific), when they can experience a similar excitement while battling jack crevalle right here at home.
Often called “canal tuna,” a moniker that points to their toughness and their tendency to patrol residential waterways in search of an easy meal, jack crevalle are perennially ravenous tackle busters that will claim baits and lures with a crash and then embark in several blazing, reel-emptying runs during the battle. What else could an angler want from a quarry? The only thing they don’t do is jump, but neither do redfish, bonefish and many other saltwater favorites, for that matter.
While Southern waters may be home to more glamorous species, trophy-size jack crevalle are often a greater challenge. (Photo courtesy of Shane Durrance) CHALLENGING SPECIES Ranging from far off western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico shores to their beaches, bays, salt flats, estuarine waters and coastal rivers, the jack crevalle is an everyman’s fish. And where you find one, you’ll usually find several more—sometimes dozens or hundreds more. They’re suckers for noisy topwaters but are rarely selective, and will attack most baits and lures with abandon. The all-out race among schoolmates to claim your offering is part of what makes fishing for these jacks so exciting. Hookups, therefore, are easy. Sometimes, if your lure has multiple treble hooks and is stuck outside the mouth of a jack, a second fish, attempting to steal the morsel, will latch on as well. Landing these fish is not quite as easy. Your stamina will be tested, as a fight with a big jack is bound to take a while. And your tackle better be up to snuff.
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TRACKING THEM DOWN The most difficult part of catching big jack crevalle is finding them. They travel in pods or schools of similar size. The juveniles of the species stay mostly in Florida waters until they get to about 5 pounds. Many of the lunkers of 20 pounds or more start their winters in the southern part of the Sunshine State before heading northward.
The East Coast migration progresses from Miami Beach to Stuart in February, then continues up the coast as waters warm in spring, with some fish going all the way to Cape Hatteras and beyond by mid-summer. They generally follow the 68- to 70-degree temperature curve, chasing massive baitfish schools like hungry lions following a herd of wildebeests. They’re sometimes right against the beach, sometimes miles offshore, but always moving with the bait.
In the Gulf, the giants go all the way to the bays of the Florida Panhandle, Mobile Bay and the Mississippi Delta. And while the Atlantic and Gulf schools may mix off the Florida Keys during the cooler months, biologist tell us that Gulf jacks always migrate up and down the Gulf Coast, and those that travel along the Atlantic’s beaches stick to the Eastern Seaboard.
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August through October is prime time to catch bragging-size jacks in coastal waters of the Gulf. The whoppers—sometimes weighing 30-pounds or more—also show up around the oil rigs off Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Smaller schools of the big jacks push up the Atlantic coast into Georgia and Carolina waters in the warmer months. In the Gulf, they run along the beaches just outside the “green reef,” venturing into the large bays like St. Andrews, Choctawhatchee and Pensacola along the way, feasting on schooling menhaden. July through September is giant jack time in Pensacola Bay, where five of the current line-class world records and one tippet-class record have been set during the three-month period.
When you pick a fight with a bragging-size jack, your tackle and your stamina better be up to the challenge. (Photo courtesy of Shane Durrance) TELLTALE SIGNS The search for big jacks requires some patience and should begin by locating schooling baitfish, usually along the beaches and inside major bays, often along the flats’ edges. These fish like to ride the tides, coming up on the flats during a strong incoming and dropping back to the edge on the outgoing. Runouts or sloughs, deeper areas that cut through the flats, are likely jack highways. So are causeways across coastal creeks, bayous and anything that creates a funnel where baitfish will be pushed through a narrow opening. Jacks also love to run along seawalls and trap bait against them. When they pin a school of mullet against a seawall, they’ll slam into the baitfish and knock them against the structure before returning to gulp down the stunned prey. They also hunt the riprap in the passes throughout the warmer months.
Keep an eye out for a “push” similar to that of a dolphin running in shallow water, or the longer wake of a big school cruising along. When they’re migrating off the beach during a calm day, you might see a school “finning” at the surface while swimming slowly or milling around like daisy-chaining tarpon during spawning time. On the flats, a marauding school will push a hump of water that can be seen from hundreds of yards away. Of course, the explosions big jacks create when slamming into mullet, sardines or menhaden are impossible to miss. Sometimes they create a slick on the water, the result of fish oil released as prey are mauled by the jacks, and you can smell a faint sardine-like scent if you cross it downwind.
Take into account that big jacks tend to move fast, and you’ll need to react quickly to get in front of them and present your baits or lures as they approach. Running along with a school or chasing it from behind usually prompts the fish to keep moving and even speed up. When the mullet and other baitfish migrations come South in the fall, the jacks go with them to repeat the cycle.
A live threadfin herring, pilchard, menhaden or mullet cast ahead of an incoming school of jacks practically guarantees a hookup. (Photo courtesy of Shane Durrance) GEAR UP While a 7-foot, medium-action rod and 3000-size spinning reel loaded with 15-pound-test braid will suffice for inshore fish to about 10 pounds, you’ll need beefier gear for bigger fish in open water and around structures like oil rigs and wrecks. Then, a 7- to 8-foot, medium-heavy rod with at least a 5500-size reel and 40- to 60-pound braid will make for a fair fight. If you know big jacks are around, it’s best to use 25- to 40-pound fluorocarbon leader. Jacks have small but very raspy teeth that will seriously chafe and weaken a leader if they take a hook or lure deep. Extra-strong hooks and lures solidly built with heavy-duty hardware are crucial if they are to survive a bout with one of these tough brawlers.
ON THE FLY It’s possible to catch big jacks on fly tackle, too, and a 20-pounder is a trophy any fly-rodder can be proud of. The same 12-weight outfit used for tarpon will serve you well, and big poppers and baitfish imitations are the favored flies. Both poppers and streamers should be 4 to 6 inches long and have 2/0 to 4/0, extra-strong hooks. As with all artificials, you’ll want to work the offering fast and loudly. Strip-set when a jack takes, and be ready to clear the loose fly line off the deck when it turns on the afterburners. While jack crevalle are pretty tough fish, they may still require a little reviving after a long, arduous battle. After you remove the hook, take a moment to let them recover—holding them by the tail in the water—before you release them to fight another day.
BIG JACK TEMPTATIONS Best artificials for trophy jack crevalle. Trophy jack crevalle lures: (left top to bottom) Rapala X-Rap Magnum X-Plode, Nomad Chug Norris and Hogy Charter Grade Dog Walker; (right top to bottom) Yo-Zuri 3DB Pencil Popper, Yo-Zuri Mag Popper and Heddon Saltwater Super Spook When it comes to drawing strikes from giant jacks, chuggers like the Yo-Zuri Mag Popper ($17.99; yo-zuri.com ), Rapala X-Rap Magnum X-Plode (from $24.39; rapala.com ) and Nomad Chug Norris ($32.99; nomadtackle.com ) do very well. Jerked hard, these lures sound like a toilet plunger at work, and they excel at calling in jacks from great distances. Walk-the-dog topwaters, like the Heddon Saltwater Super Spook ($8.99; lurenet.com ), Hogy Charter Grade Dog Walker (from $17.95; hogylures.com ) and Yo-Zuri 3DB Pencil Popper ($11.99), are also terrific choices.
Since most anglers release jack crevalle, it’s not a bad idea to flatten the barbs on the aft treble hook of your lures or replace it with a single heavy-duty hook. This will considerably cut down the time it takes to unhook and revive a fish for a healthy release.
This article was featured in the June-July issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe
