When Brian comes deep-sea fishing in Orange Beach, Alabama, he wants the best. Brian Belzer is a regular guest and friend who lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He has been fishing with Lem and I for three years. This relationship has grown each trip and he keeps raising the bar, wanting to catch larger fish.
Today, was no exception. Brian loves to fight big Amberjack and Grouper while bottom fishing. He does not care catch a bunch of baby fish like the Vermilion Snapper or White Snapper. No sir, he wants to feel the pull of the reel and we work hard to give it to him.
Today was a great day. The weather was wonderful and we headed south of Orange Beach for some serious fishing. We stopped and caught some live bait to use to see if we could make big daddy bite. We did not waste much time. The bait fish were biting and we put some in the live well and kept on heading offshore.
It did not take long for Jervey's line to get hit and he was fighting a nice 30 pound Amberjack. Brian was jig fishing on the side when something slammed his jig hard but missed. Lem gave Brian a live bait and it did not take a minute and he was fighting a monster Amberjack. This jack was not baby. After a 15 minute fight, this big jack came to the surface. It took two of us to pull him over the rail. It was a 65.5 lb Sea Donkey.
Amberjack of this size are becoming more rare with over-fishing of the gulf waters. It takes really good angling skills and knowing how to catch big jacks in order to be successful. We are happy that we caught such a large fish. We also released over 15 Amberjack today because we simply did not want anything but a trophy. Today was great!