June 27, 2007Dr. Julie Ball with a big Amberjack caught off Virginia
If you've ever caught one of these suckers you know they pull like freight trains. Julie said they were fishing at the South Tower with spinning gear and 16-pound test line. A 53-inch amberjack on 16-pound-est line? Now that's a battle. A lot of fishermen release their amberjacks because the fish tend to have parasites. The grubs are harmless, but not exactly appetizing. I'm tempted to keep one next time I get a chance after recently sampling an amazing dish that featured smoked amberjack. It was actually a spread. My friend Terry Tomalin, the outdoors editor at the St. Petersburg Times in Florida, donated it for a cookout I had for some friends on the eve of the recent Outdoor Writers Association of America conference here in Roanoke. Tomalin didn't get here in time to make the cookout so he sent the stuff by overnight mail -- along with baggies of lemon wedges, jalepenos and crackers. Turn-key party food. You gotta love it. It's a good thing I stopped by my office that afternoon because otherwise it would have been sitting on my desk for five days. That could have been ugly. At the cookout there was no shortage of good chow, including some smoked salmon brought by my buddies Bill Monroe and Mark Freeman from Oregon. But I'm kind of spoiled on the smoked salmon front because my dad keeps me fairly well supplied, so I did most of my damage on the amberjack spread. I actually had no idea what kind of fish it was until Terry told me a couple days later. The key, Terry said, is to use a fairly small amberjack. Say, a 20-incher. I've caught them that size in Florida, but I don't even know if fish that small migrate up here with the big boys. I've never seen or caught one. Then again, I haven't exactly been looking for them. |
About this blog
While growing up in rural Southern Oregon, Mark Taylor developed a passion for the outdoors while he and his younger brother tagged along with their father on fishing, hunting and camping adventures. Graduating from Northwestern University in 1988, Taylor spent four years as an officer in the U.S. Navy based in Norfolk before moving into journalism. After five years writing about the military for a Norfolk-based publishing company, he became the outdoors editor at The Roanoke Times in 1998. He lives in Roanoke with his wife and twin daughters. .....Advertisement.....
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