June 8, 2017 – Inshore fishing report and Little Miss Judy’s Believe It or Not story! Thanks for reading!
Fishing statement: To try to ensure that fishing stays in the hearts of those that loves it!
While inshore fishing with Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters, William Daughty of Bluffton, South Carolina caught this nice flounder. When they got back to the dock, Captain Garrett cleaned the flounder and handed it over to William. What did William to with his just caught and cleaned flounder? He turned it into a crispy scored flounder event with a side order of pineapple chutney!
Inshore
As far as the inshore bite our captains are catching a little of everything from redfish, spotted sea trout, flounder, whiting, sharks, sheepshead, black drum, cobia, and other biters. It is all about getting the right bait so as to get the bite a going…live shrimp, especially when fishing inshore is the best bait. However, sometimes live bait isn’t available! So I suggest the next best bait, which is the ever popular hardy mud minnow. And if you can’t find or catch this bait I suggest once again trying to throw the old cat net and whatever you catch put it on your hook!
While inshore fishing with Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters William Daughty Bluffton, SC caught this nice bonnet head shark, which he caught fought and released!
Pete Hodge (age 13) holding redfish and Frank Garrison holding a black drum and Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters holding a redfish.
Please meet Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters and Pete Hodge from Savannah, Georgia. While inshore fishing with Captain Garrett, Pete caught fought landed and released this nice redfish. Captain Garrett told me that Pete loves to fish. According to the story told Pete fought the reds like a pro and his cast placement is better than most. And most likely we will be seeing and hearing a lot about him in the upcoming fishing years!
Little Miss Judy’s Believe It or Not!
Please let me never forget about the good old days!
This is a picture that was given to me by Captain Elizabeth and Cecil Johnson. It was taken from the Lazaretto Creek Bridge. The first boat on the outside of the dock was my father’s boat named Miss Jerry. The boat across from it was the Sea Joy owned/operated by Captain Bragg. At this time I can’t remember who owned the boat in front of my father’s. My wooden boat, Miss Judy, was not in this picture. I guess I had taken her home! In the distance, you can see the historic Cockspur lighthouse! I remember this wonderful view as if it were only yesterday! I navigated through these waters hundreds of times to get to the offshore fishing grounds! Where did we fish? Gaskin Banks, Ganer Banks, Savannah River jetties, Tybee Roads shipping channel, Texas Tower, and Blackfish banks! Now, for those that remember, doesn’t that bring back some grand fish catching memories!
Let me tell you about my week…
First Captain Tommy Williams took Jim Nisbet, Jr Pooler, Georgia inshore fishing…but before departing he shared with me (Captain Judy) about an offshore trip that he had taken 52 years ago. Does this ring a bell? Well, it did for sure with me. Here’s how the story went, it seems that I took him fishing and we departed from Lazaretto Creek. Now, this was not a departure from Lazaretto Creek Marina, but from the dock located on the ocean side of the creek. (This is now the home of Captain Derek Brown’s dolphin and fishing boats!)
When we were docked here my father’s, as well as my charter boat, was wooden and slow as heck. As you know, my father’s first charter boat was a wooden boat named Miss Jerry named after my mother. In the late forties, all of the fifties, and most of the sixties we ran our wooden charter boats from Captain Charlie Walsh’s Marina located on Lazaretto Creek.
I started taking people fishing at the young age of 14. And Mr. Jim Nisbet Jr was among some of the first customers that I took out. At first, as Mr. Jim was doing the math he said, “It was fifty years ago that I fished with you!” (Captain Judy) and when he arrived to go fishing Mr. Jim shared some more interesting information. He said, “It wasn’t 50 years ago that I fished with you; it was 52 years! And I remember riding in the big yellow boat!” As he talked I started remembering on some occasions I would take my father’s boat instead of mine. Heck, it wasn’t that there was anything wrong with my boat; it was just that I had spent a lot more time on daddy’s boat. You could say and I will, since the age of six I was almost on it every day with him! So when we had a trip and daddy couldn’t or didn’t go, he took me to the boat, and while I was fishing he worked on my boat. You must remember back in those days all of our boats were wooden and there was always something on the engine that needed to be fixed or leaking holes that had to be plugged. My father always said, “A wooden boat needs to leak so that it keeps the bilge wet!” If the bilge of a wooden boat isn’t wet all of the time the planks will shrink making for a much bigger unfixable sinking problem! It’s funny a little water was ok, but when it poured in through the holes too fast, well it would be time to break out our homemade first aid kit for the boat.
I was truly amazed at all of the things that Mr. Jim Jr. (age 75) remembered. Back then, our trips departed around 8 am. Our fishing plan for the day was to go to the Black Fish Banks. Now that is an area that you don’t hear about any longer. The black fish banks were located about 10 to 12 miles off Tybee Island. It took exactly 2 hours from the dock to get to the fishing grounds. There was a black/white can that marked the area. The bottom line was this if you found the buoy you could fish around it! This was a great place to catch lots of bottoms and top water fish! Believe it or not but I caught my first red snapper at the good old but gone now Black Fish Banks!
Thanks for reading!
Captain Judy Helmey
Miss Judy Charters
Kicking Fish Tail Since 1956!
124 Palmetto Drive
Savannah, Georgia 31410
(912)-897-4921 or (912)-897-2478
(912)-897-3460 fax
fishjudy2@aol.com