Captain Judy fishing report ,Savannah, 1-2

[Fishing Report]

CAPTAIN JUDY HELMEY

“Kicking Fish Tail Since 1956”

POB 30771

SAVANNAH, GEORGIA 31410

912 897 4921 912 897 3460 FAX

www.missjudycharters.com

Captain Judy’s email fishjudy2@aol.com

January 3 2011



Saltwater Inshore, Offshore, Blue Water fishing reports, Freshies Suggestions, and “Little Miss Judy’s Believe It or Not story! Thanks for Reading!



Table of Contents

2011 Inshore/Offshore Schools dates It’s time to sign up!

Inshore Striped Bass Section One call that’s all! Bait call! Mullet train!

Color of water doesn’t have to matter!

Captain Jack McGowan Red Fish Finding Man!

Jane Schonian is a local artist http://www.janecreates.com/

Captain Jack McGowan of Miss Judy Charters wishes everyone a Happy New Year and offers up the end of the year inshore fishing report

Artificial reefs Thursday December 30, 2010 Sheepshead Mania Captain Jack McGowan

Artificial reef, Snapper Banks, to the Gulf Stream

Blue Fin Tuna Alert has been posted. No sightings yet, but anytime now

Savannah Snapper Banks Big black fish are plentiful!

Gulf Stream Reports Part two it’s time to go birding

Freshies Suggestions Bill Vanderford is “Lake Lanier’s Legend!”

LITTLE MISS JUDY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT! GREAT NON RUSTING THROW AWAY TACKLES BOXES!


2011 Schools dates are

INSHORE FISHING CLINIC

Two Inshore School

Saturday February 19, 2011
Saturday March 12, 2011



One Offshore School

Saturday March 5, 2011



Time: 8:00AM – 2:00 PM

Place: Tubby’s Tank House 2909 River Drive, Thunderbolt, Georgia 31404

Cost: $100.00 (included one day class, breakfast, and lunch)

Please call 912 897 4921 now for reservations

Please sign up as soon as possible! There is limited entry!

Capt Judy’s email fishjudy2@aol.com

Capt Judy’s Cell 912 429 7671

For more details on the school please go to…

http://missjudycharters.com/fishingclinic.shtml





Inshore



Striped bass caught in the Savannah River.



Striped Bass Section

Some Interesting information that you can use to get you best chances at catching Striped bass also known as “rock fish.”



When the water temperature is cold and the wind is blowing or not or it’s raining or the sun is shinning, this is the time to go striped bass fishing. For those of you that want to give striped bass also known as rockfish fishing a try, it’s definitely that time of the year. The bite has been pretty good in the Ogeechee and Savannah River areas. Best baits are always to going to be the live stuff. However, if you can’t go that route try slow- trolling deep diving broken back plugs or large soft plastic weighted paddle tails. As my father would say, “If it’s too rough to go offshore we can always go fish for rock fish!” Hey, back in the old days we caught some big ones too!



One Call that’s all!

There are a few things that you need to know about the feeding ways of a striped bass. As I interview Captain Matt Williams of Miss Judy Charters, I listened carefully to his words in regards to the bait he used. Believe me when it comes to getting a striped bass’s attention you need to know a few things about them. The first thing is they key on certain bait noises such as the way a shrimp flips it’s tail as it’s making way or the sound that a mullet makes as it’s trying to go stealth. These are two very good live baits to use for striped bass or hybrid bass. However, keeping in mind live bait along with vibrations sent there is more to add to this equation.





Bait Call

When picking a live shrimp to use as bait make sure you get the liveliest ones in your tank. A half dead not moving much shrimp when it comes to turning a striped bass’s head might not score even a glance much less a hit. Always remember when you get a hit, which turns into a miss, always wait a few seconds, retrieve bait, and re-bait with a another one. It seems that if a striped bass hits your bait, but doesn’t swallow it or if the fish feels threaten it will not hit it again. So no matter what your choice of live bait used “one hit is all you are most likely going to get!” One call that’s all!



Mullet Train

When it comes to using live mullet as bait, there are a few things that you need to know in regards to this bait too! During this time you can cast and catch mullet, but as with anything when it’s cold there is an art to finding this bait. About the only thing I can suggest is checking backs of creeks and if you catch them you are going to have to keep them alive. So it might take a morning or afternoon just to catch bait, but as you know this is all part of it. Let’s say, “You have found the honey mullet hole, got live bait, and you are off to the fishing grounds.”



Go Smaller Baits First

All sizes of mullet from small also known as finger mullet to medium to large will work. The secret to getting your best chance at a hook up is to know the size fish that you are targeting. I already know it’s the big boys. However, what if the big striped bass aren’t the fish around on your particular fish day? So therefore I suggest if you can to get different size mullet when possible to use as bait. The smaller striped bass can’t get the larger mullet in its mouth and the larger striped bass might not stop to eat smaller bait. However, you know the old saying “Elephants eat peanuts too!” So when you don’t know what size fish you are dealing with and you have a choice “go smaller baits first!”



Let’s assume that you have live mullet in different sizes and they look pretty good at least to you. So it time to hook your bait up and you are now looking into the live well to make a mullet selection. When possible I suggest picking a smaller size mullet that looks lively, doesn’t have a lot of scales missing, and doesn’t have red bump nose. Once taking these considerations in mind I then suggest placing the hook either through the lips or behind the dorsal fin. As far as best style rig presentation it suggested when possible to use medium to large Float Hi old time adjustable traditional floats.



Color of water doesn’t have to matter!

I have said and so have others that when the water is muddy soup your chances aren’t great for lots of hook ups. However, if the timing is right and you got live bait, I still suggest giving it a try. Striped bass are somewhat sight feeders, but then there is their other keen sense of picking up on live bait vibrations. This means if your bait is lively enough you could still score some serious hits. More next week!









Captain Jack McGowan Red Fish Finding Man!





Photo by Christopher Rampton

Please meet Mike Husain, which is holding nice 24 inch red fish. While fishing with Captain Jack McGowan of Miss Judy Charters, Mike along with his family Christopher Rampton and Jane Schonian (information below) caught and released quite a few nice red fish. It was cold and according to Captain Jack hooking the fish up wasn’t easy. The bite was light, but the fishermen prevailed. A great day was had by all!



Jane Schonian is a local artist http://www.janecreates.com/



When Jane arrived to go fishing she handed me a great card. The card was her personal design. It was of turtles swimming in the blue water of the Gulf Stream. Simply unbelievable! Jane Schonian is a local artist that has quite a talent. This is a copy of one of many from her website of some of here work. For more information please go to http://www.janecreates.com/

912 308 0688



http://www.janecreates.com/gallery/silk_painting/39

Red Fish





Captain Jack McGowan is holding a nice red fish, which gladly took him up on his perfectly worked plastic curled grub. According to Captain Jack most plastics work great especially during cold times when the retrieved is “slow to go.” This fish ate a new 4 inch curl tail new penny grub, which was threaded on to a ¼ black jig head. Here’s a list of proven colors: gold, Arkansas shiner, olive and new penny.



Captain Jack McGowan of Miss Judy Charters wishes everyone a Happy New Year and offers up the end of the year inshore fishing report



Happy New Year! Despite winter officially beginning on the 21st we have already had several hard freezes. Fishermen south of Savannah have reported seeing a few Dead Sea trout around Ossabaw and St. Catherine’s. Last week water temperatures rose with several sunny days. When a cold front hits and water temperature rapidly decreases fish are more vulnerable. When the change is more gradual its likely fish can more easily find water where they can survive. Last winter’s prolonged cold was tough on the sea trout. Hopefully this winter when fronts hit we will have a warming trend soon to follow.

Despite last week cold there was good action particularly with redfish on the flats! Some anglers limited out. That said it’s not all about taking a limit. It’s about having an enjoyable time. One angler last week with me caught what would have been several limits on plastics. His plan was to keep one for supper, but each time he said the fish looked so pretty he wanted to release it. It’s guaranteed if you keep that fish you won’t catch it again. My feeling is keep only what you plan on eating and release the rest. Redfish are a fun fish! It’s likely there are more redfish in our waters now than when I was a child. That being said catch and release is still a very good thing!

Fishing the flats this week was good if not great! A variety of jigs, jerk worms and flies will work just fine! One local fisherman has said a redfish will eat just anything. This isn’t that much of an exaggeration. Lots of times redfish will push tight up on the flats to avoid the dolphins. With this in mind the sweet spot is generally tight to the mud bank. A cold-water bite is usually a bump rather a strong bite. When you feel the bump tighten up, set the hook and yell fish on! The exception is when don’t want to draw attention to you. Then you pass on yelling “fish on” and bring the fish to boat unbeknownst to any boat around you.

Fished one day last week with Chris Weber, veteran fly tier and fly fisherman. Lots of nice reds on flats! Chris is an excellent salt-water fly tier!

Don Adams closed his shop on Thursday. He typically opens again March 1st. Some years Don will keep his doors open as long as the weather is relatively mild and he is finding shrimp. Don said the shrimp have moved out. Those of you who like bait fishing. A small piece of dead shrimp can make an excellent winter sea trout bait. Winter sea trout will sometimes feed on a small shrimp, locals call hard backs. These shrimp are typically in the grassy matter under floating docks. It’s not unusual for whiting fishermen to produce good catches in deeper water during the winter. Dead bait can work well for redfish as well as for stripers. The lowly mud minnow is all-purpose live bait that can produce a variety of inshore species with Sheepshead as the exception. Sheepshead love fiddler crabs, oysters and clams! It been said when you see snails climbing the stalks of the marsh grass there Sheepshead that are feeding on them.

Good reports on both inshore and offshore Sheepshead! Both Tybee Island Bait and Tackle and Adams Bait House are closed for several weeks. Bait shops that might have fiddler crabs are Larry’s Bait 912.966.6946, Tackle and Bandy’s 912.354.6444, or Coffee Bluff Marina 912 925 7474. Best bet call ahead to arrange your bait.

Tides look pretty fishy as we head into the New Year! Water temperature is between high 40’s and low 50’s. Fish will eat but anticipate a soft slow bite. On sunny mild days the bite could be hot! Best action redfish on flats, striper’s upriver as well as inshore and offshore Sheepshead! Hope this is of interest and help! Fish On! Capt. Jack McGowan




























Artificial reefs

Thursday December 30, 2010

Sheepshead Mania



Captain Jack McGowan takes some friends Sheepshead fishing



Please meet Captain “Wild Bill” Jarrell. He along with Captain Jack McGowan and Stanley Devegter went fishing. As you can see Sheepshead were fought and caught. According to the report received by Stanley “A fun day was had by all!”



Stanley Devegter holding up a nice sheepshead, which he caught while using a purple back fiddler as bait.



Blue fin on a mission!



Artificial reef, Snapper Banks, to the Gulf Stream

Blue Fin Tuna Alert has been posted. No sightings yet, but anytime now…will keep you posted…



Savannah Snapper Banks Big black fish are plentiful!





For those of you that want to catch big black sea bass, trigger fish, and white grunts now is the time. While fishing about 32 miles offshore at the Savannah Snapper bank this past week our customers had a blast. It was a simple bite for sure…all you had to do was bait your hook with a small piece of squid, drop in to the bottom, wait for a bite, set the hook, and then reel you fish to the boat.. Fishing off the coast of Savannah is just plain fun



Seasons that is closed…

Can’t keep vermilion snapper (closed November-March opens April 1)

Can’t keep genuine red snapper (closed 2010 with possible closure extensions)

Can’t keep grouper (closed January-April opens May 1)



Gulf Stream Reports

My suggestion is especially at this time…if you get good weather be prepared to go…boats have gone during this time in the past and have done quite well in the catching department while doing just a little trolling and strolling! Whatever you do if you get to go, what the heck, give bottom fishing a try! Here’s the best line ever, “You won’t know unless you go!”

Part two

It’s time to go birding

Things I found out while “birding” the blue waters of the Gulf Stream!



When you find this sort of situation what do you do?



I suggest, “Just watching first!”

The first thing that I suggest is that you watch from as far as you can. The reason being is that you will get to see something amazing. From what I have seen the bird stays with the fish while it’s hunting, feeding, and moving to a new location. I remember one time that the bird had a hard time just trying to keep up with the fish. I guess the fish wasn’t a very good fisher and was doing more chasing than catching. All fishermen know that in some cases large fish do like to play “cat and mouse games!”



Coming up with a fishing strategy!

After watching you will recognize that the bird is staying right over the fish that is feeding. If you are trolling you might want to pull your spread close to the area where the bird is holding court. OR you can…..



Another way to attack is to clear all you lines. In other words have everyone reel as fast as they can and while they are doing this, you keep an eye on the bird. As soon as you are cleared keep your distance so as to ascertain the current situation. Since I had already found an almost foul proof way of hooking up under these situations I was seemly always prepared for it. Back when I fished the blue waters of the Gulf Stream my customers got to bottom fish first and when they got tired of reeling fish to the boat we then trolled. My customers loved bottom fishing, but when going from the standard 100 to up to 200 feet water depth, fishermen got tired quick. Here’s the best news we caught lots of fish in short period of time. All we really had to do was bait the hooks, drop them to the bottom, take the bag out of the line so as to free the fish that are already hooked up, and then reel them to the boat. It was craziness in the bottom fish catching world for my customers that really never knew that they might want to troll. After about two hours of reeling continuously when I suggested trolling it definitely seemed like a good idea



Once I figured out what the bird and fish had in common I always made sure that I was ready in the event I got in that situation. While bottom fishing I would put vermilion snapper, red porgy, and some of the largest ruby reds lips you have ever seen in my live well. Once hooked these bait fish were serious runners. At first I tried the standard king mackerel rig with semi-light wire. However, after a few times of the big Wahoo basically cutting the wire like it was butter the lessons learned didn’t go un-noticed. As any fisherman would do I beefed up my rigging operations and found that 80 pound test wire leader with big 6/0 “J hook” as the lead and a 6/0 strong treble as the stinger was what worked. Now I already know what you are thinking, this sort of rig is not possible when targeting Wahoo. Well, I got to tell you when this big fish is around and the bird is making way above a “Wahoo will hunt!” Once I figured out where to present the large live bait it was only a matter of time before we hooked up solid. Now, I am not going to say that my customers at first thought I might just be a little crazy, because I am sure what I was doing was a little strange. However, it didn’t take them long to understand the drill either! From the time of my first screaming hooked up deal I really did have them watching for birds. I asked them to do it before, but I don’t think that got the just of it. However, a one hundred pound fish can definitely make believers out of those that can only see what they think!

Freshies Suggestions

Bill with nice bass



For those fishermen that want to “GO FISH LAKE LANIER”

Bill Vanderford is “Lake Lanier’s Legend!”

For more about my long time friend Bill Vanderford as well as his accomplishments, his freshwater charter trips or wildlife tours, books written and his special line up of tackle offered, please visit his site http://www.fishinglanier.com/contact.html for all the details! For more details go http://stores.ebay.com/Fishy-Racer http://www.youtube.com/fishyracer www.cafepress.com/grapefruitshop



LITTLE MISS JUDY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT!
GREAT NON RUSTING THROW AWAY TACKLES BOXES!

I found this picture of a cigar box and believe me it looks just like what dear old dads looked like. Most likely the only difference was the fact that his cigar boxes were pack full of tackle.

My father and I made a great fishing team. I loved how we would get packed up and off we would go on another fishing adventure. My father always smoked a big cigar. When he would get a big fish on, a special grin would appear on his face, and the smoke would form a circle around his head. It all seemed pretty normal to me. Another thing that I remember is that he never really ever finished any of his cigars. He only smoked about 25% of it and then he put it in the big ashtray that was glued to the dash of his big wooden boat.

My father’s favorite cigar was the King Edward brand. Not only did he love the cigars the old king made he also loved the boxes that they came packed in. In fact, all of the boxes were saved and put to a great use. Daddy only put one thing in the empty cigar boxes and that was his favorite tackle. Our old wooden boat’s big dash as you probably guessed was lined with cigar boxes. Not only did they all look alike he also knew their exact contents. Even when he was in a hurry, he would always grab the right box. I guess it’s funny now that you think about it; it was my father’s own special brand of tackle box. I know I should have patented this wonderful idea. They were great NON RUSTING THROW AWAY TACKLES BOXES!



Sea You Later,

Captain Judy