Been trying to catch some jack crevalle. I am strictly shore bound. I fish mainly from piers and the shore. Anyone out there. Got any tips for fishing for them with live mullet or any other baitfish, and I was wondering do they bite at night in the surf or bays. Thank you in advance.

Ask for a few Shad or Menhaden at bait shops and cut in half. Use 30# mainline with 40# leader line and a nice hook!! They can strip a spool, so have plenty of line. They make good shark bait...not fit for human consumption. AKA Channel Tuna

Just not that many caught that close in. Not like u can go get a stringer of them. When I lived there and worked on the boats, we only heard of a handful caught like that. I guess off the ends of the beach piers and or ends of the jetties. Im sure Goff can weigh in on this.

I've seen them come out of east cut at Mansfield quite a few times.
Had one take a top water on north shore of matagorta.

Not really a fish you can actually target. More like a fluke encounter. After you catch one you can mark it off your list and never waste your time on another one.

yep,, what he said^^.. fights like lead bowling ball that the cat won't even eat.

I have caught crevalle (out of a boat) off the big jetty at Pt Oconnor. I would think you could do similar further down the big jetty at Pt A or somewhere similar. like said above though not the most common fish for inshore.

Leaving dolphin docks a few years back we drove past a big school boiling the top in the middle of the ferry channel. birds and fish were going crazy! All we had was our light tackle trout gear and some cut mullet. Threw a chunk right in the middle of them and in less than a second we were hooked up. after about 45 minutes we gave up and cut the line.

You'll know when you hook one

If you fish for dinner you'll hate jacks. If you fish for the fight you'll love them. As a kid in south Florida I caught them pretty much daily, and loved every minute of it. I don't encounter them nearly as often in Texas. One thing about them though; land a big one on a fly rod and you're pretty much done for the day. They will stomp a DEEEEEEP mudhole in your butt......

I guess I'm in the minority, but I really like catching Toros. They fight hard and are eager to pounce on pretty much any wobbling lure put in their face. I've caught them on everything from poppers, to inline spinners, to skip jigs. If I had an all-time favorite jig to chuck at these (with the possibility of a spanish mack or even a Redfish) I'd throw one of these:




It's called a 544 lure. The color is called scrambled egg. I'd throw the smaller one. It's a little under 5 inches and weighs about an ounce and a half. It's called a surface iron on the west coast, and we routinely killed all sorts of jacks and macks on them. They are really easy to fish. If you have a reel over 5:1 just simply cast out, and reel back in slowly. It wobbles and swims like crazy. Experiment with different speeds because each one is different. Once you get the proper speed and hit the sweet spot, fish jump all over them. I've even caught largemouth on them at Grapevine Lake.

Surface iron has been around for over 60 years on the west coast, and they really work all over the planet. I wouldn't obviously fish them on the flats or anything because you'll be loaded with grass on your hook.

When I would fish salt in so Cal everybody had surface iron tied on!

Great for about anything in the salt. Barracuda, bonita, tuna, calico bass etc.

Guys would even jig em off the bottom for halibut and rockfish.

Very versatile lure.