"The first thing we discovered was that jack crevalle are not tackle-shy! The big hooks and line we used for tarpon didn't bother them at all. As long as we kept chum in the water, the jacks kept coming," Nelson continued.

For chum, Nelson uses frozen menhaden, locally called pogies. He buys them by the 50-pound box and can go through several boxes during a weekend.

"We use a large chum bag tied to the back of the boat, right at water level. We fill it with cut-up pieces of the pogies. In the boat we cut up more pogies to toss overboard every now and then, maintaining a steady flow of chum. We also put pieces in a bucket with water to make a chum stew that we pour into the water behind the boat periodically," Nelson added.

OTHER OPTIONS
While Tarpon Alley is definitely a place in which to target jack crevalle, there are other spots that can pay off with jack action. The first is not actually a place, but a moving opportunity. Shrimp boats are working the waters of Mobile Bay in earnest during the month of July. The shrimpers mostly stick to a standard routine, mainly in search of brown shrimp at this time.

Brown shrimp are much more active at night than during daylight hours. Because of this, shrimp boats trawl all night and rest during the day.

Shrimp boats make their last drag right at daylight. At this time, they anchor and clean the boat before heading to bed. Before they can get to their bunks, the crew must shovel or wash any by-catch overboard from the decks. Opportunistic jacks are attracted by all these groceries in the water behind the boat.

Most shrimpers do not mind if you ease up behind their boat to fish. In fact, they sometimes will shovel up a 5-gallon bucketful of the by-catch for you to use for chum.

Now if someone is nice enough to do you a favor, like giving you a bucket of bait, it just stands to reason you should return the favor. Shrimpers are often out days at a time during the season. The simple gift of a morning newspaper or, better yet, a six-pack of malted beverages is a fair and much appreciated exchange.

Once you have made friends with the crew, you can slip your anchor into one of the tires hanging off the back of the shrimp boat. The tires are used as bumpers, but also make excellent anchor holders.

Once safely tethered to the boat, you can commence jack fishing. Start by drifting out whatever bait you have on flat lines with no weight. Put out additional lines that are weighted. It does not take long to see which ones work best.

You typically encounter numerous fish species while fishing around the shrimp boats. Spanish mackerel, gafftopsail catfish, redfish and even cobia may show up. But the biggest, meanest fish and most plentiful fish are likely to be the crevalle.

Targeting anchored shrimp boats is not the only method that is successful in catching jack crevalle. By pulling up beside a shrimp boat during trawling, you can take advantage of the constant flow of by-catch being shoveled off the boat between drags.

The shrimpers dump their catch into large boxes to be culled. Anything besides legal shrimp is considered by-catch and is pushed right back overboard. Hundreds of pounds of small fish, undersized shrimp, crabs and other creatures make a giant chumline behind the moving boat.

Jack crevalle are among the many species ready to take advantage of the by-catch. The jacks often swim right along with the boat, chomping away on the easy pickings littered by the boat.

You can cast a cigar minnow or pogie right behind the boat and allow it to drift back in the current. Greedy jacks, in competition with others, do not hesitate to inhale such offerings if they drift by close enough.

David Hare is another South Alabama angler who relies on jack crevalle for action. Hare gets a kick out of the smiles and excitement on the faces of kids fishing on his boat when they hook up a fish.