Fly fishing for Amberjacks - with poppers -
Now there is a badass fish. They are big, heavy, and strong. We can find them on wrecks out in the Gulf on the bottom. If you come to a wreck where there are boats bait fishing, your chances are slim. If you have a wreck to yourself, the chances are much better. Capt. Baz, the premier fly fishing guide in the Panhandle area, has come up with the idea of casting poppers and thus luring these big fish to the surface. Clean and simple and no chumming. We can cast big poppers and work them for a while, and often the Amberjacks come to the surface to check out the commotion.
When hooked, they really are pissed off, and you sense their extreme displeasure. The rods need to be meaty (we were using 10 weights) both to fight these fish and also to cast the big popper, and the reel needs to have absolute top-notch drag. The leader needs to have a thick butt to help turn the popper over, and we keep it fairly short around 7´6´´for the same reason.
Now the strikes in the surface are just spectacular, and we strip-strike to set the hook. Now what to do? The Amberjacks will invariably dive to the wreck. If the fish gets there, it is game over and it will cut itself off. Maybe even severing the fly line itself. So we set the drag to max and just do not let the fish dive. The fight turns out to be very hard but short this way. I was astonished to experience that the fish fight hard for a minute or two, then they are done, then they just park under the boat. This short fight probably increases their survival after release.
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