Anybody eat Amberjack? - OI - Tower G

[Kingmiker]

On vacation this week in OBX (Kill Devil Hills) with the family and my brother and his family. Since the wind died down Wednesday, we decided it would be a good day to give the ladies a quiet day on the beach so we took the kids fishing offshore. Since we hadn't heard any reports, we decided to make a run past the Tower G (about 24 miles straight out of OI). As usual I threw a spear gun, mask and snorkel in the boat just in case. Tower G was loaded with Amberjack, and I mean big 30 - 40 lbs. We caught 4 on hook and line, we boated one and it measured out at 50 inches. See Pic. Decided to roll in and give it an up close and personal look. As soon as I hit the water I was swarmed with both big and little amberjack, they pretty much circled me the whole time I was in the water. Was actually looking for something smaller to shoot. Saw a few spades (nice sized) but diving down with my amberjack entourage, spooked them to deeper depths.
I leveled the gun off several times at a couple of mid-size amberjacks but didn't shoot since I heard they were really fishy tasting. When we got back to the dock, we saw a couple of guys that were at the tower when we were there and they had kept several amberjacks. I asked what they taste like and one guy said they were as good as dolphin/mahi.
Anybody actually eat them? I read a post last year that compared them to Blue fish.

Mike

[fishooter]

Yeah, I've eaten them. Best way is to cut them into 1" cubes, roll the cubes in any old yellow mustard that you've mixed with hamburger seasoning, then roll those cubes in Italian Bread Crumbs and deep fry them. You can mask the taste of barracuda fairly well that way too. I'm not a fan of AJ fileted, even with marinating. The fried version is pretty good though.

Bottom line is they are edible but no comparison to mahi, tuna, wahoo, cobia or just about any other popular NC fish. Oh, and tail section is usually full of worms, which probably won't hurt you once cooked, but they are pretty unsightly.

Mark

[buckle7]

Just my 2 cents...and to each his own....but I eat grilled AJ all the time and it is awesome. It has a more firm texture and is one of my favorite fish to eat. Just be careful when you are filleting them...you can't get to close to the tail because they are known to have worms. Other than that they are great!

[Spearo]

I just have to agree 100% with fishooter!

[mainiac2]

I eat them deep fried with peanut oil and everyone in the family loves them. Stay clear of the blood line/red meat. Being relatively new to the spear fishing game, I have a question for you. These fish are known as wreck donkeys for a reason they are very strong and pull like hell if you put a spear into one would you be concerned of it pulling you into the deep where you may have to give up the gun to resurface?

[Mike McCabe]

DELICIOUS!!!!:yes:

Mike-Red Eye
24 Topaz

[Kingmiker]

Yo Maniac2 -
Usually I have the gun clipped into a 50 ft ski rope with a couple of boat fenders clipped onto the end. Then if I happen to shoot something of decent size, I can let go of the gun and fight it in from the rope if needed. When I was contemplating shoot the AJ's last week, I had planned on forgoing the boat fenders and just tieing off the rope to the boat.

Mike