The Best Time To Catch Jack Crevalle – Explained!

Jack crevalle are a common species of marine fish and are known as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the ocean.

Like any fish, figuring out the best time to catch them comes down to understanding their behavior and habits.

In this article, I will go over the best time to catch jack crevalle and some tips to help you catch more of these hard fighting fish!

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The Best Time Of Year To Catch Jack Crevalle

Jack crevalle can be found just about anywhere…from brackish water to the middle of the ocean, on Florida’s coasts, down to South America, and all the way over to Africa and Portugal.

They have a very wide range, all over the world!

So when is the best time of year to catch jack crevalle?

Though it differs by geographic location, jack crevalle tend to be most active from the spring months through the fall, with the most activity early in the mornings and evenings.

The Best Time To Catch Jack Crevalle - Explained!

For example, where I live in Florida, jack crevalle fishing is fantastic during the early fall months of September and October.

When the water temperature gets over 60-70°F, you can probably expect to find Jacks in shallow enough water to target them inshore during the Spring and Fall season.

While jack crevalle live in temperate and tropical waters, they don’t stay in the temperate waters in the winter, instead, they migrate south as the year advances.

In places where they stay all year, like Florida, the time of year determines the best place to catch jack crevalle. Most of the best fishing is in the spring and the fall.

Fall Fishing

Jack crevalle are a fairly large and aggressive species that tend to hunt in schools. Some have even referred to them as “sea wolves” for their pack hunting techniques.

They like to move in groups to drive large schools of baitfish to the surface where they can attack them. Jacks like to do this when the water is warm, but not too hot.

The best time to catch large jack crevalle inshore is the fall, during the mullet run. Mullet are a favorite food of jack crevalle and the jacks will follow them, feeding on the migrating schools.

You can look for the surface disturbance that’s characteristic of feeding jacks and cast there.

Once you’ve spotted the tell-tale disturbance, cast your bait just past it, or even into the middle of it; an attacking jack is more likely to be provoked by a lure landing in front of it than it is to be spooked.

Live or dead mullet are both great baits for fishing the fall mullet run, as are mullet-colored lures.

Once you’ve made your cast and started reeling, don’t stop! Jack Crevalle like to attack fleeing fish and they love loud, aggressive, and noisy baits.

Spring Fishing

The spring is a great time to catch jacks around the shallow flats. This is because the water warms up there first. As it does, the baitfish move in to feed and spawn, and jack crevalle and other gamefish follow them.

For most of the spring, the jacks will be staying near the flats. Spring is the best time to fish channel beds, dropoffs, and grass lines nearby.

This can be a great time to fish with topwater lures that mimic the baitfish the jacks are feeding on. It’s one of the most fun ways to catch jack crevalle because their highly aggressive, attacking style of feeding makes topwater hits really exciting.

These spots stay productive all day until summer when the heat drives the jacks into deeper and cooler water.

The Best Time Of Day To Catch Jack Crevalle

Daylight

Jack crevalle are diurnal feeders who are primarily sight hunters, so their hunting is mostly done during the day.

They are also a type of fish where sight fishing is very effective. Since their preferred hunting methods tend to create a visible disturbance, looking for that disturbance is a great way to find your fishing spot.

Sometimes large schools of jacks will swim just under the surface, and you can see their tail fin or yellow-tipped dorsal fins breaking the surface of the water. Get ready!

Morning And Evening

During summer, many fishermen try to fish for jack crevalle by going deeper, where the jack go to escape the heat.

I fish Sebastian inlet a lot during the summer months, and I don’t think I have ever caught a jack during the evening! But during the daytime, they are everywhere.

While you can catch jack this way, you’re better off adjusting the time of day instead of the depth.

In summer, the jack crevalle do retreat to deeper water to escape the heat, but they aren’t doing the bulk of their feeding there.

They still feed around the shallower flats but do so in the early morning when the water hasn’t warmed up yet, or in the evening when it’s starting to cool from the heat of the day.

Be there early and late and you will catch more jacks in the summer.

You May Also Like: Jack Crevalle vs Amberjack, Differences Explained!

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