Went out to about 100 feet of water, on the way, I happened to run over a nice patch of bottom and i decided to check it out after my first spot produced nothing. Turns out the spot I happened upon was pretty decent. We made about 20-22 kts on the way out, and made 30 or so on the way back. The ride back was awesome, it even glassed over for the last several miles.
Keepers:
20 b-liners
10 bsb
2 AJ’s between 45 and 55 lbs.
2 triggerfish
about a half dozen porgies or others
Released:
few short b-liners
one million short black sea bass
6-10 atlantic sharp nose
couple short porgies
1 bank sea bass (largest i’ve seen)
about a dozen or so random fish of inconsequential size or variety.
1 huge AJ broke off right near the boat, so I’ll count it as a release, it was too big to keep anyway, probably 60+ inches long. I was afraid we were going to break a rod.
i got a couple pics, not a lot. may post them later.
Sounds like you guys had a great time. I’m gonna miss fishing this coming up week so it’ll be a month since I’ve had a line in the water. Really getting jealous of all these missed trips. I second your answer on the illegal snappers, throw em back an I’ll catch them, haha
not bad at all actually. i was very surprised and lucky, I’ve never kept one that big before. I’ve kept smaller ones just barely legal that had more. I was able to get more than 90-95% of the meat 100% worm free just by trimming the tail. The bigger AJ basically had none on one side of it (one near the tail). made for some great fish tacos this afternoon. Ended up with plenty of leftover AJ fillets, so the rest went to my mom and pop so it doesn’t go to waste in the freezer (I don’t find it lasts very long frozen).
The sections with worms don’t get thrown out either. I’ll cut or pull them out and boil them with rice and givem to the dogs. they love it.
On the flip side of that, I had a friend catch one Sunday that was about the size of my smaller one and he said he had to trim a significant portion of the tail to get the good stuff. Kind of a bummer.
Worms don’t bother me much anyhow, if you’ve ever ordered seafood at a florida restaurant or even here in Charleston, chances are you’ve eaten amberjack with worms and barracuda too and didn’t even know it. That really doesn’t bother me either, if it tastes good, is healthy, and it doesn’t get you sick; then what’s the problem? Big trout have’m as well as cod, black drum, large grouper (especially red for some reason), and swordfish. Somehow the reputation just sticks with AJs. If you ever catch a sword loaded up with worms, send the fillets to me and I’ll dispose of them properly.
Haha I was wondering, I always toss the reef donkeys back. I am going to hit some bottom during Thanksgiving break and I am sure to hook into a few unfortunately and was thinking about keeping one for tacos. I just never had because I am never sure how many they will have. Ill put one in the fish box this time though.
If you don’t like worms, there is still plenty of meat on most AJs that don’t have a trace of worms in them. People say the smaller ones have less, and I would tend to agree in most cases, but I’ve seen it go both ways… caught an AJ in the gulf once with no worms at all. If I were you, I’d keep a couple and see if you like it or are willing to deal with it. Usually I don’t keep more AJ than my family and I can readily use because it doesn’t last no matter what I do. I’ve had better luck freezing mackerel than AJ. perhaps i’m doing something wrong.
I am successfully freezing aj. I remove skin, blood lines , and cut into hand sized pieces. I vacuum seal everything in food saver bags.
seems like the aj’s i kept early in the summer were more wormy than the one’s I have kept lately. The fish is great table fare. Most of the fillets I keep are worm free, they are easy to spot and easy to remove.
funny you should say that deer hunter. I have these vacuum ziploc bags which I’ve tried on snapper before. I’m not sure if they are as effective as your foodsaver system though. I’ll give it a try. How long have you kept AJ frozen and had it not be overwhelmingly fishy upon thawing and cooking later?
so far only a few weeks…But the first time I have tried due to all negative ■■■■■■■■ I have read. The one piece I have thawed a few days ago was great. I thaw in the fridge normally
I agree deerhunter with vaccum sealing of aj and too I vaccm seal all fish and they tend to last much longer without freezer burn as well as fresh look and taste to include black fin tuna. It appears fresh and I sushi the vast majority of it.
“Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education”
chamber vac sealer is the way to go- the bags cost 1/10th of foodsaver bags and the seal is many times better- after having 3 foodsavers break i got the good one and its worth every penny- those look good though so if its working then don’t fix it!
If you catch them please throw them back for someone else to catch 
