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I went out on a short fishing trip in the morning last Monday. Just expecting to catch some amberjacks to bring to my wife’s parents in Kobe.

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Looking good. 150m deep. Underwater ridges.

The tide wasn’t strong. First I dropped a 300g Rector with Slow Jerker 603-6. Even though Rector is slow to fall, but I figured that the slow tide and 300g weight should keep me in line.
Something hit at 12 counts. And after it dragged out my line about 5 seconds, my line broke. Noooo… When I pulled it up, it was cut at PE. Great…! What was that? Drag was set a little weaker than usual, about 3kg. I need this OJ2000 reel, and I took time to tie the leader while I was thinking.

I chose to go for stronger action tone.
Hungry for a contact as this was a 6 hour trip and 2 hours had already passed.
I needed to bring back some fish for my folks! The pressure was on.

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[highlight1 variation=”orange”]Rod[/highlight1] Slow Jerker 603-6
[highlight1 variation=”orange”]Reel[/highlight1] Ocea Jigger 2000NR-HG
[highlight1 variation=”orange”]Line[/highlight1] Fireline Tracer Braid #2.0
[highlight1 variation=”orange”]Leader[/highlight1] Seaguar FXR Fluoro #10
[highlight1 variation=”orange”]Jigs[/highlight1] SFC Rector Secret Model 230g, Silver / Pearl Zebra Glow

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3kg Amberjack at 10 counts. (= 10 cranks of actions off the bottom) (= roughly 8m above the bottom)
3 Fast turns, 3 full turn slow pitch, 3 fast turns, 1 slow pitch and fall… and 2 slow… Bingo! The fish bit on the fall, hooking on the rear hook.

Rector Secret Model swims and slides longer than the normal model. Nice punchy slow pitch with a full crank works well. Falling is about the same as the normal model.

I got another small AJ but that was it for the day. It’s OK. I got what I wanted.
Mission complete.
Move on to the next one… Cold Smoked Amberjack.

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I cleaned the fish in the evening. Marinated overnight with salt, gin, rosemary, ginger, sugar.
And wrap the fillets in Pichitto! the next whole day for dry-aging.

This is the same process as in this post.
[fancy_link link=”http://anglers-secrets.com/v2020/?p=3737″ variation=”orange”]Pichitto! for smoking tuna[/fancy_link]

And here it is, perfectly dried. Pichitto! does it so well, fast and easy in the fridge.

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Now I’m getting my smoker out with a bag of ice in it.

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Now smoking with Apple wood brick. The ice kept it under 30C degrees inside the smoker.

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After smoking 2 hours, I let it sit in the fridge for another day.

And here it is, cold-smoked amberjack. This is Wednesday night. Dried, smoked and aged.

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The flavor is amazing. The texture is like smoked salmon, soft and rich… This should do it!

On Thursday night we partied at my wife’s parents house in Kobe. They loved it. The flavor was even richer. I was going to cook the leftover in olive oil in low-temperature, but we ate it all. We ate all that Kobe beef too… I really need a work-out.