Also known as AJ, Reef Donkey, Amberjack, Allied Kingfish. Bait, technique, tide windows, and where the bite is on right now.
Greater Amberjack — Gulf and South-Atlantic reef bruiser — live bait and speed jigs over deep structure. Also called AJ, Reef Donkey, Amberjack, Allied Kingfish.
Greater Amberjack is also known as: AJ, Reef Donkey, Amberjack, Allied Kingfish. Gulf and South-Atlantic reef bruiser — live bait and speed jigs over deep structure.
Regional names can confuse anglers and cause misidentification. The table of common names below covers the most-used alternatives across Australia, New Zealand and the US:
Key to correct identification: check the regulations-authority species sheet for your state or territory before keeping any fish — minimum legal sizes, bag limits and identification guides are published by each fisheries department and are the authoritative source.
Hero spots in our coverage where Greater Amberjack is in season for June. Click through for the live forecast.
Out of season across our covered spots in June.
Find the structure first — AJs stack over wrecks, artificial reefs, gas rigs and deep natural ledges in roughly 80–250 ft through the Gulf and off the SE Atlantic. Mark the fish on the sounder (a thick cloud halfway up the water column over the wreck), then drop. Live-bait approach: bridle a blue runner or cigar minnow on a 7/0–9/0 Owner or Gamakatsu live-bait hook, send it down on a knocker or fish-finder rig with enough lead to punch through the current, and hold on — the eat is a freight-train thump and the first run is straight back into the wreck. Lock the drag and lead them up; let an AJ get its head down and it reefs you off every time. Jigging approach: drop a 250–350 g knife jig to the structure, then crank-and-rip it up fast with the rod tip — that erratic darting action draws savage reaction strikes. Slow-pitch jigging with a sharper lift-drop cadence works the lethargic fish that won't chase. Run minimum 50–80 lb braid to a 80–130 lb fluorocarbon leader on a stout jigging stick — this is a forearm-burning fight, hence the \"reef donkey\" name.
A moving tide is everything over deep structure — slack water shuts the bite off and the fish go off the feed. The strongest eat comes on the run as current sweeps across the wreck and lines the AJs up on the down-current edge to ambush bait. Fish the build-up and the first hours of a tide change; once the current peaks too hard to hold bottom, reposition to drift baits naturally back into the structure rather than fighting heavier and heavier lead.
Spring tides around the new and full moon push stronger current across the wrecks and rigs, which fires up the AJ bite — more water moving means more bait swept onto the structure and more aggressive feeding. The trade-off is that ripping current makes it tough to hold bottom and to lead a hooked donkey up out of the wreck. Solunar major periods overlapping a moving tide and good light are the windows the offshore crews plan their deep drops around.
Greater amberjack are tightly managed and the recreational season is notoriously short — federal Gulf and South-Atlantic seasons are SET ANNUALLY with specific open windows, and state-water rules differ from federal. Like the grouper and Pacific groundfish fisheries, expect depth/area restrictions and a season that may be only a brief stretch of the year, often closed when you most want to fish it. State-water and federal size and bag limits both exist and they are not the same. Always verify the current open dates, size, and bag rules with the relevant state wildlife agency and the federal council before you run offshore.
US state size & bag limits for Greater Amberjack: FL · TX · NC · SC · GA · AL · LA · VA
Olli-Mikael Vaittinen has fished his whole life. Fifteen years of fly fishing, guiding seasons on Norway's Lakselva — his favourite Atlantic salmon river — and a blue marlin landed in Vava'u, Tonga. Founder of Fishare — the app that puts the data behind the decisions every angler makes on the water.
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