when and where will the jacks hit?

Friend of mine in Tennessee who guided for years and fished for jacks said he always had the best success once water temps got into the mid-50s and there was at mild to moderate current.

He also fished bigger hair jigs in neon green, chartreuse, yellow or orange tipped with minnows. Worked them below tailraces, not in the immediate current but downstream and/or in channel bends with some depth of 20 feet or more. Depths like that on down the river in bends also worked for him.

Nasty days - cold, clouds, front moving in or having arrived, seemed to be the best.

What fish are y'all calling jacks? Sauger?

you may call them sauger but here in guntersville they are jacks

I was just curious. In south Alabama we call chain pickeral jacks.

Sauger, Jacks ... same thing.

On guntersville the nastier the weather the better for jacks.

ima, do you fish for them below the dam or up on the lake?

Clem, I see ALOT of people fishing for them, right beside the bridge, coming into Guntersvile. If you are headed north, they are fishing about 100 yards south of the barge dock there at the bluff. Usually 10 or more boats when the current is moving and it's honey badger weather

Clem below the damn, haven't done it several years though. Guess I'm getting soft, no guess I know I am.

is think the same thing as a "skip jack"? if so, we used to catch the pi$$ out of them close to the mouth of five mile creek on warrior below miller plant

we used bettle spins. chartreuse and black

No. Skip Jacks are big Shad and not fit to eat. Jacks, Jack Salmon, Sauger or whatever else they may be called are in the top 3 finest eating freshwater fish out there. It's a cousin of the Walleye amd has 1 more or 1 less dorsal fin I believe but can
t remember which.

The sauger have been really, really slow for the past 5 yrs or so. I used to catch limits every week, good ones, but in the last 5 yrs they have dissappeared for some reason. Heard the same from a bunch of jack fishermen around here.

funny all the different fish that are referred to as Jacks. I live on the gulf and when I hear Jacks I think of Amberjacks. haha

Here in north Alabama a jack is a Sauger.

And I know a guy in Florida that calls Jack Crevalle "jacks". And Cobia are refered to as "Ling", "Brownies", and "Cobes" depending on your locale at the time.

Does anyone know if they are restocking jacks? And if they are not, then I wonder why that are not?

I'd like to know why the population has taken a nosedive if anyone has any insight. Is it overfishing? PCBs maybe?

LOL! That is why I clicked on this thread. I thought they were talking about Chain Pickerel. That is what I have always called a Jack too. I had no idea people called any other fresh water fish a jack.

I clicked here thinking "skip jacks" and wondered why folks would want such a trash fish.

What some of you call jacks, I've always called sauger. Have only caught a few while bass fishing. Several on a plastic worm, if memory serves. Have always heard they're great eating, but have never tried them.