Fishing the Fringe by Stephen Booth

I remember when I first arrived in Queensland. I literally saw red. Red fish that is, mangrove jack, the terror of the tropics.

It seemed impossible that I'd be living within 20 minutes of waters that held good jacks and I couldn't wait to test my skills. Almost 10 years down the track I still have a passion for chasing these mighty red fish and I've learnt plenty about where it's easy to catch them and where they're almost impossible to catch.

One habitat that rarely gets talked about but holds plenty of jacks is the mangrove fringes in the bottom third of an estuary. I'm not talking about the large fallen mangroves that look so inviting, but I am talking about barren looking mangrove banks that are dry at low tide and covered by about a metre of water at high tide.

There are miles and miles of these banks in just about every estuary system and they are rarely fished by anglers...