# jack identification



## Pass Time (Feb 6, 2009)

What is the best way to quickly distinguish the difference between a greater AJ and a lesser AJ, and almaco jackswithout counting dorsal rays and gill rakers. All seem to have the black bar thru the eye to the dorsal. Is this true?This method seems to leave the fish pretty dead from suffocation.Also...some fisherman have their own slang for different species, IE; bar jacks, amberines. Can anyone here tellme if an amberine is a lesser jack and exactly what a bar jack is. Sorry for the stupid question but lately I have thrown back several fish that I believed were keeper lesser aj's because I didn't think I could convince the FWC otherwise. I know there has got to be some way to identify species faster. Any intelligent answers will be appreciated and any smartass answers will be rembered for future reference (when I finally know everything). Haha.


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## wirebiter (Jun 4, 2008)

Almaco is easy, it has a noticeable cut back in the dorsal fin, and will be a green color. As for the other two I am not sure of an easy way other than the gill rakes. Hopefully someone else will help us both. Here is a Almaco Jack and you can see the scoop in his dorsal fin. They also have a broader body, less teardrop like than the other Jacks.


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## GROUPAGROUPAGROUPA (Apr 6, 2008)

a bar jack is the same as an almaco, amberine is slang for banded rudderfish, we really dont see any lesser amberjack around here


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