Fishing for Amberjack off Miami and Miami Beach is best done as Live Bait bottom fishing, and jig fishing around reefs and wrecks is a great method to catch some really big bottom fish.  Golden Amberjack up to almost 100lbs.  We know 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 get about 10lbs 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 to 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.

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 40lb Golden Amberjack on a spinning rod in 300+ feet of water on a fast moving jig is just as thrilling as fishing can get.  Target species are Almaco Jacks, and Golden Amberjack.  The wrecks that we will fish range from about 150' of water and all the way out to 385'.  When conditions are right we can fish up to three jigs at a time and multiple hook ups are common.  

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 a special trophy.