AJ fishing techniques

[ksong]

Originally Posted by Gunsmoke

Ksong,

My question to you is: How do you fish in that weather?

Sometimes in the summer, my wife throws me this question (Are you going "sweating" this weekend?).
My answer always is (yes, I'm going sweating in the deep blue).

It is not bad as you think. Even though the air temperature is 10 degree on land, it is warmer on the boat as water temperature is near 40 degree.
I went down to Ocean City, MD for catching blackfish on Saturday and I didn't need gloves. Blackfish is one of the most difficult fish to catch. We use live crab for them, and they swallow crab and spit off hooks in split second.
Traditionallly we catch cod in winter, but cod didn't migrate to NJ/NY areas last 20 years and we have to go up to New England to catch them in winter.
But they closed cod fishing for recreational anglers in winter from last year.
Less fish and more strict regulations. Fishing is getting tough.

[SkeeterRonnie]

i talked to one of our guys in coorporate in NJ and he said instead of ice, they try to keep the fish alive with aerated wells= they are worth more alive when they hit the docks.(nontuna fish) think thats the blackfish they try to keep alive.

[ksong]

Originally Posted by MrBill

Ksong,

Do you find that mono is more brittle in the cold weather? I would think that it gets rather stiff and holds a memory in your cold conditions. I guess you guys save a lot of money by lot having to take hundreds of pounds of ice with you.

I seldom feel the difference. I still like mono line when using bait though I use braided lines exclusively for jigging.

i talked to one of our guys in coorporate in NJ and he said instead of ice, they try to keep the fish alive with aerated wells= they are worth more alive when they hit the docks.(nontuna fish) think thats the blackfish they try to keep alive.

Since people in Hong Kong made exodus to NY areas when Hong Kong became under the authority of China, live blackfish have been very popular as they love eat live fish and they found blackfish are very tasty and easy to keep them alive.

We go down to Maryland in persuit of trophy blackfish and we tag and release most blackfish there.

Hong Kong live fish market


nice blackfish caught in Maryland.

[ksong]

Originally Posted by MrBill

I think I've had fish chowder made with blackfish. It's very mild tasting. Doesn't the meat look like sea bass? How deep are the blackfish this time of year? Do they have teeth? I like the picture of the Hong Kong live fish market. I didn't know there was such a thing as a live fish market. That's what I call fresh seafood.

MrBill, you are right. Blackfish chowder is very good. the meat is white like seabass. At this time of year when water temp is cold, they stay in 80-120 ft. When water temp drop down under 40 degree, they become dormant and stop biting.
While most Chinese like to cook live blackfsih, Koreans like to eat raw sashimi from live blackfish. Japanese don't eat blackfish sashimi too much as the fresh sahimi is too chewy for their taste.

Blackfish has strong teeth like sheepshead
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y2/...g?t=1172030548

[MrBill]

That blackfish in your picture looks like it needs some dental work. I gather they eat the same as a sheepshead. Sheepshead use their flat long teeth to crush mollusks and crabs and to scrap barnacles from rocks and pilings. It's no problem this time of year in Texas to stand at the docks and see the sheepshead eating the barnacles off the wood pilings. They are easy to catch with a small shrimp. I don't bother with them as I find them hard to clean.

[ksong]

Believe on not, I made a few trip to St George Island, east of Panama City, Fl a few times just to catch sheepshead. The Apalachicola Bay is famous for oyster and sheepshead move into the area when water temp drops.
The best bait for sheepshead there is oyster.

[AJ hunter]

[quote=ksong]I seldom feel the difference. I still like mono line when using bait though I use braided lines exclusively for jigging.

WOW that is one big wrasse! Where I am from we call that a Tautog. I bet they taste as good as their distant cousin hogfish, which is as good as it gets.

I'd like to request that posters keep this thread restricted to Amberjack fishing methods and how this or that is working for them. It just makes it easier for people to find info on fish and not having to wade through the info on the weather up here or there.

I was out yesterday with 3 of my friends. We only caught 8 AJs but 3 were close to 40 lbs. We caught the big ones on legal size black seabass. We also caught 5 on gold diamond jigs with assist hooks. The assist hooks were tied with dacron and didn't hold up worth a hoot. I will make my own in the future from fluorocarbon leader.

[AJ hunter]

We went out after AJs last week. Fortunately we saw only one boat and it pulled up to the wreck after us. We were using shrimp and caught 27 AJs in 2 1/2 hours, whew! When the current stopped, so did the bite. When it started flowing again several hours later, the bite came back on. We caught another 8 on live baitfish and then had to head home. Anyone else seen 'em act like this?

[AJ hunter]

Does anyone use large poppers or plugs for AJs?
If so what colors / brands work?

[Ragman]

Originally Posted by AJ hunter

We went out after AJs last week. Fortunately we saw only one boat and it pulled up to the wreck after us. We were using shrimp and caught 27 AJs in 2 1/2 hours, whew! When the current stopped, so did the bite. When it started flowing again several hours later, the bite came back on. We caught another 8 on live baitfish and then had to head home. Anyone else seen 'em act like this?

Great report AJ hunter! I missed this somehow! Any pics?

I've read reports of AJ's on topwater, but have not personally done so!

I read where they came up because of all of the action that was created by a chum slick.

The guys ran out of live bait and started throwing topwaters and had hook ups.