Amberjack Fishing Miami

Our best methods for fishing for Amberjack off Miami Beach is two fold. Live Bait bottom fishing, and jig fishing around reefs and wrecks is a great method to catch some really big bottom fish.  Catching Golden Amberjack up to almost 100lbs is rare but has been done most trophy sieze fish are about 50lbs.

We currently fish more than 250 wrecks and rubble piles in our area and just love the opportunity to drop a live bait on any of them. The  “Amberjack” family has a few members that we target.  What we call lesser jacks, are banded rudder fish and lesser Amberjack. Both fish only grow to about 9lbs in our area. The Greater amberjack will average 20-40lbs, With real giants over 50lbs.  Almaco’s are the amberjacks cousin and are very similar, they just fight harder.  Almaco’s average 8lbs – 18lbs, giants are over 20lbs

Our most productive method of catching these fish is to place lively medium & large live baits over wrecks in the Gulf Stream in at least 150′ of water to almost 400’deep.  Strong baits placed on long leaders in medium to fast current works best.

Three Big Amberjacks

Almaco jack on light tackle

Another great way to catch Amberjacks is deep jigging. We have taken an old technique and combined the new technology of spectra line and butterfly jigs.  This deadly combination now allows us to place jigs on deeper wrecks with really light tackle.  Catching a 35lb Golden Amberjack on a light tackle spinning rod in 250+ feet of water on a fast moving eratic jig is just as thrilling as fishing can get.  Target species are Almaco Jacks, and Golden Amberjack.  The wrecks that we will fish are as shallow as 60′ of water and all the way out to nearly 400′.  When conditions are right we can fish up to four jigs at a time and multiple hook ups are not uncommon.  

Amberjacks and Almaco’s are aggressive, hard hitting, fast fish that are really a blast to catch.  The small school fish are a lot of fun, but a big Golden Greater Amberjack is truly an amazing catch & special trophy.                           

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Greater “Golden” Amberjack Almaco Jack