Amberjack Season

Amberjack is edable, and quite good on the barbie. It also smokes very well. The Amberjack is the surprise fish some of the time. You may set your hook into one, and being it's a long way down there, it may not respond immediately, leaving you to think you have a smaller fish hooked, and then, SURPRISE, they get the message, I"M HOOKED. If it's a large one you may have trouble standing up. I have seen many big men brought to their knees with a huge Amber.

They are mainly fished in the winter time when other sport fish may be scarce, or just not biting well. Found on wrecks and around some man made reefs, where the bait is plentiful, they are sometimes hard to pull from the wreck without getting cut off. Pulling a couple of large ones will make most healthy men take a break. If you are not that well built or that healthy, you may feel like taking a break the rest of the day. They are definitely like pulling a boxcar off the bottom. The largest one I have personally landed was 105 pounder, caught in the Middle Grounds of the Gulf of Mexico.

Tip-If you are having trouble keeping the fish from going back into a big wreck, drift over the wreck, when the Amber takes the bait, the angler hollers "FISH ON", and the skipper heaves the boat forward, dragging the Amber out over the sand where he will have to strougle to get back to his hiding place, usually if used properly this technique, can save you a lot of break-offs, and land some big Ambers. Chumming them away from their home is sometimes an easier way to handle the big ones.
Bent Rods & Screaming Reels, Captain RW

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