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Amberjacks

Friday, May 30, 2008

I went out today with John, a friend from Wilmington and Sean.  We met at John’s work at 2:00pm and headed for the Wrightsville Beach boat ramp.  We intended to head to the Schoolhouse and if the weather was decent then onto WR-4 form some trolling and bottom fishing. 

The seas were a bit bumpy and got a little worse as we headed out but it was doable so we headed for the schoolhouse.  I had some new popping lures I hoped to try out as well as tap into my arsenal of vertical jigging rigs.  We were loaded with ballyhoo, sea witches and trolling gear too.

We began by trolling some ballyhoo around the wrecks. We were marking some bait pods on the surface and over the wrecks but after about 30 minutes of trolling and no takers, we decided to switch over to jigging gear. We attracted a large school of Amberjacks, curious as to what we were up to. They would follow our baits but wouldn’t take them. We tried a whole bunch of different jigs. Then we broke out the popping gear and lures. I used a Yo-Zuri dolphin colored popping lure, that did the trick. Before long I had an AJ blow up on a lure, he missed the first two times but on the third pass the game was on!

While I was fighting him, Sean hooked up as well. Double header! After a pretty good battle I landed my first amber jack on a surface popping lure! Sean broke off. John had a hook up but had the line jam on his spool and lost the fish. Sean had another hook up but this one broke him off. Then I had another but after a few minutes he managed to get into the wreckage and broke me off. Then it went quite. No more bites.

We kept switching out lures and jigs trying to find something they would hit. Sean had another hookup but he came unbuttoned. Then I switched over to a long butterfly jig in cigar minnow color and as soon as it hit the bottom, BAM - game on. This one fought even harder than the first making several good runs and trying to get over tot he wreck. I managed to keep him in clear water and continued the fight. Finally landed him, he was a little bigger and probably tipped the scales at around 28 - 30 pounds. What a fighter these fish are, they earned their nickname, Reef Donkey.

That was the last hook-up for the day. we tried some more trolling but to no avail so with sunset less than an hour away we headed for the hill. We didn’t catch many but I had a big smile on my face. Amberjacks on vertical jigs and popping gear are a blast! Had a great time, Thanks John! It was nice to met and get o know you too, Sean!