Port Canaveral 10-13-07

[emanuel]

Got to finally fish on the U.S.S. Lizardfish with Carl again. Forecast was calling for 3-4' seas and NE wind in the morning and building through the day but we decided that we were going anyways.

Left the port at 6am and headed to the 27 fathom ridge. First couple of drops yielded only some small red snapper and a triggerfish so we moved out deeper to 260-300 feet to try for snowy grouper and scamp. Got one really nice scamp grouper and then nothing else. Once the current started moving too fast, we came back in to the 27 ridge and started fishing it again. Not much going on except for triggerfish and more small snapper, so I rigged up a big grouper rig and sent down a fat pinfish. He got crushed in no time by a nice AJ. After that, we started sending down any big baits we could and cranked up AJs until our arms couldn't take any more.

Final tally of the day was:
7 AJs, kept 3
1 Scamp
1 Red Grouper (big)
3 big triggerfish.

[cpn_aaron]

sounds like a nice day on the water. How big were those ambers?

[bmcox86]

y didnt you did use your jigs man

[VICIII]

how the AJ's taste?

[Team Buddhahead]

Good job!!!... Can someone tell me what it feels like to have a fish pull on your line...It's been to long......

[RuddeDogg]

Congrats on the catch. I've heard that Amber Jacks are good eatin. Gotta let me know.

[emanuel]

The fish were really finicky. I tried the jigs on every spot but the only thing the fish really wanted were big pinfish, sandperch, etc.

The AJs were up to #25, I'd say. I've never eaten them before but they're supposed to be good. I had to get back to Orlando so once again, I didn't keep any fish. We did have two very nice dolphin swim up to the boat right before we called it quits but they were gone before we could get a bait to them.

[bmcox86]

i will certianly never kill an AJ again, i just feel its a waste now after seeing how many worms are in there meat, you only get a small portion of meat for such a large fish, i really wish i would of known that before we killed 3 of them, they put up one heck of a fight though cant wait to hook into another one

[emanuel]

All depends on the fish and where you catch them. The smaller ones don't have as many worms and honestly, the worms aren't harmful that I know of.

[cpn_aaron]

yeah, the worms are an asthetic thing mostly. It's small cysts you have to worry about. The worms in a healthy fish should be concentrated in the tail section to feed near the caudal (tail) vein blood supply, so you only lose the back portion of the fish. AJs are in the pompano family which may explain the rumored geat taste by anglers.