Is some count!
My little yearly junkets to the beach are giving me a chance to try saltwater fish I’ve never had before.
Last year, I had cobia for the first time. Tonight, it was amberjack. It was served over grits with a maniere (sp?) sauce.
I know, I know. April 2 I am getting serious about eating right and exercising. I did walk/jog and lift a little weights today.

I like some good blackened amberjack, but nothing beats cobia for eating purposes except halibut and I've never seen one of those come form the coast.

halibut and cobia are the best followed closely by a thick tuna steak on the grill.

Man that looks good.

Wish i was there now..

That looks real good. I may have to have fish of some kind tomorrow after seeing that. If you haven't tried Triggerfish, don't. When you run up on some, put it a cooler and bring it to me. I'll dispose of it properly for you. Don't listen to Troy either. Cobia sucks. Someone tries to give you some Cobia, same as above, just bring it to me and I'll get rid of it for you.

50 years ago when we used to fish Destin we'd catch 30-50 kings and a bunch of Trigger Fish on a half day trip. Our dumb asses would keep the kings and give the Triggerfish to the mate!!!

I used to work in a restaurant in Fort Walton Beach when I was in my early twenties. We suggested Amberjack to customers who didn't like fish because it was the closest thing to chicken. Those things had some long worms in them when we cleaned them. The further south we trucked them in, the more parasites they had because of the warmer waters.

I’ve heard my dad say the same thing. Said they’d curse it when they got a triggerfish on the line.

Dayum. You coulda kept the vorm comment to yo’self.
There’s a fairly new place down here called GT’s on the Bay that had the amberjack. It’s in The Cosmo’s/Cobalt Family. The waiter seemed very knowledgeable about various fishes. He talked about how mild amberjack is.

In 1960 my father taught me how to clean triggerfish. We would go out on head boats from Destin and I would spend most of the trip collecting unwanted triggerfish before folks kicked them through the scuppers. This was in addition to lots of snapper and grouper. Those old captions had no radar, no LORAN, no GPS, just a compass and a very good memory. They did have paper graph sonar, and could put you on bottom structure that was swarming with all sorts of tasty critters. Once everybody got LORAN, those spots got cleaned pretty regularly.

I have never liked it myself.

I liked Amberjack before I read this.

Dip a filet in Italian dressing with a lime squeezed in and grill. Toss it between two buns with lettuce, tomato and a little tarter sauce and all is forgiven.

Amberjack is my favorite fish to catch, and just about my favorite to eat.

Grilled, not overcooked.

Not a fan of AJ’s. Seen to many of the damn things full of worms. Most yankees on the coast in the off season love AJ’s when they go out to eat because it’s mild tasting and is usually the “ special of the night.”

Blackened Amberjack is awesome.

Not to mention how much fun they are to catch.

Amberjack is in my top 5 saltwater fish to eat. It's dang good.

Reef Donkeys around here are wormy for sure best made into smoked dip . Caught some south of Venice that didn't have any worms and was damn fine eating on the grill .