It was Key West in the ‘50s. A long four hour trip from Miami, it was where I spent my youngest years. It was where I was introduced to amberjacks.
I never caught any amberjacks until many years later, but I could tell you every color and line on their bodies. They hung as silent trophies from the long nails on the wooden racks that proclaimed the charter boat’s name. My guess is that amberjacks held the distinction back then of being the most photographed fish in the ocean off of Key West.
Every afternoon, I would be on the dock waiting for the fishing fleet to return. The fish would be pitched from the boat’s fish box, one by one up on the dock to be hung an the appropriate nail. Some days there would be grouper, some days snapper, and in the winter there would be kingfish. But on every trip, whether there were other fish or not, there would always be amberjack.
Most people who fish charter boats are tourists in some way shape or form. Many of them have never been in a boat, and many of those have never seen the ocean. They look to catch some fish, and the amberjack, because it is such a willing fish, became known as the charter captain’s best friend. It was, and still is in many places, the money fish. When all else fails, a good captain can hook you up with some arm straining AJs. At weights up to 100 pounds, these hard fighters are tough customers and they can wear an average angler down on a hot day.
All the AJs I saw in Key West either got pitched for the crabs to eat, or sold as bulk fish. Only in recent years did they arrive at the fish market. I tried a steak or two a while back, grilling them as you would swordfish. They actually were quite tasty!
We fished offshore again this week. The bottom fish had moved to the outer ledges farther out than we wanted to run. I think the latest wind patterns out of the west have moved them out. The middle and inner wrecks and reefs twenty-five to thirty miles out were loaded with barracuda and my old friend the amberjack.
We had a great day fighting AJs and a few undersized cobia. We kept the largest AJ for some steaks, and only after we were headed in and were snapping a few pictures did we notice that it had a tag. “National Marine Fisheries in South Carolina – Reward” and a phone number were on the tag. I’ll wait and see how much the award is!
On what could have been a tough day of fishing, our old friends the AJs came through once again, and my arms are sore. Sore arms – a sure sign that hard fighting fish were on the venue the day before!
