September 19, 2017 – Fishing reports and a Little Miss Judy Believe It or Not story! Thanks for reading!
Fishing statement: To try to ensure that fishing stays in the hearts of those that love it!
While inshore fishing this past weekend with Captain Stephen Thompson of Miss Judy Charters, this fishing bachelor party scored big time. The bottom line was they caught more than they kept and they kept just enough for dinner. Of course I had to ask Hunter, “Was this his last fishing trip?” And he replied, “Yes for at least 6 months!” I then had to ask why 6 months? He replied, “That’s about how long it is going to take before she wants me to go somewhere, so I might as well go fishing!” And now you know the rest of the story!
Here’s a grand after Irma inshore fishing report! Our captains are fishing inshore and they are catching. While using live shrimp, finger mullet, and artificial shrimp patterns the bite has been steady. What are they catching? Everything from red fish to spotted sea trout to flounder to black drum to sheepshead to other biters. The bottom line, the inshore fishing is great! And I am not trying to speak too early, but say what you want, but fall is in the air. And the fish know it!
What do we have here? Part one of the Sunbelt Rentals Inshore Fishing Team!
What did they catch? A mess of fish What kind? Red fish and spotted sea trout! What were they using as bait? Now this is an interesting question! They started out using live shrimp and then changed up to the ever popular soft artificial bait called Trout Trick.
This is the bait that Captain Kevin Rose of Miss Judy Charters switched to, once he got the bite a going while using live shrimp. Once the fish were in an eating mood they started preferring the plastic baits over the real deal! As you can see from the picture the trout tricks were threaded on too small single hook jig heads and tied directly on to the main line. How were they worked? The fishermen cast them into the preferred strike zone, let it free fall to the bottom, twitched it a few times, and then retrieved. Now here’s the thing the trout hit it on the fall and the reds preferred to go in the attack mode right after the bait touched down. No secrets here!
Captain Tommy Williams of Miss Judy Charters holding spotted sea trout. Chris Tyre – aka Chicken Scratcher – of Jesup, Georgia, Russell Haute of Statesboro, Georgia, and Logan Jett of Eden, Georgia. All fishermen are holding black drum. And that is not all that they caught! Can I say, “Big fish fry tonight?” While using live shrimp and fresh parts/pieces this inshore team caught lots of fish! According to this report the bite was steady and the reeling was even better! Just goes to show you that as long as a fisherman has a tug on the end of the line they are happy! In this case the tugs were pretty darn big ones! What kind of rig did they use? Well, without giving up the ghost, I believe they left adjustable cork fishing at the dock. What does this mean? If it sounds like bottom fishing, well, it was!
What colors go best with barracuda? Right now I am going to say “light green!” Heck, it brings out the color in this fish’s eyes!
Offshore Fishing
After the Irma offshore fishermen got to do a little fishing..and believe it or not, but STILL GOT FISH! So if the weather is good and you get the chance your boat or mine, let’s go! Artificial reefs are still holding top water fish from Spanish to king mackerel and barracuda! I am still reporting that the bottom bite in these areas is still on the slow side, but if you move and check enough spots, you just might catch a mess of black sea bass. To catch bottom fish such as black sea bass, white grunt, flounder, and etc on the artificial reefs you need to think outside of the box. Don’t fish the biggest spots on the reef! Go to the most isolated spots! Now I fish them all, but I know that if there is a large concentration of fish anywhere in these areas, it is going to be found when an fishing an isolated area. I sometimes refer to these areas as my desperation spots! Why do I call these spot this? Well, you can catch fish there, but the bite won’t last long. So if you fish isolated areas early and then maybe visit again on the way home before finishing your day, it will most likely make your day. (And sometimes not, but well worth the catching chance!)
Savannah Snapper Banks
I got to say, if you go I am always suggesting this area. The Savannah Snapper banks holds the attentions of different size and species of both top and bottom fish. With that being said, “It is oh so true that when put a bait in the water you really never know what might bite your hook!” I have caught the usual to most unusual top and bottom fish while just baiting up a hook. The bottom line is there is lots of action to be had when fishing these areas.
With water temps falling a bit and less daylight it has put all fish from small to super large on notice. And what would that notice be all about? Well, well, it is all about bulking up for not subtle but a darn hefty water temperature change.
How far can a yahoo wahoo open its mouth? Get out the old ruler! So now you know that this is a fish with serious options for taking on big baits! What does this fish do first with its prey? Disables it! How? By cutting the tail off first! Then what? Once the bait is tail less, but still very alive, it basically starts wiggling and falling in the water column. Why? Because it’s hard for a fish to swim without a tail! The yahoo wahoo is a fish that’s capable of making a quick turns in order to pick up the spoils. What do I know for a fact about this fish? It corners like it is on rails! So here’s a tip you can use! If you are trolling and your get a hit, I suggest as quickly as possible to free spool not just the bait that was just hit, but all baits! What is this called “Prospect Fishing!’ You got not a thing to loose, but your bait! But hopefully somewhere somehow the hook within will help make a grand score! Take time to sharpen hooks! Why, because a sharp hook gets hooked up faster and stays hooked longer than a dull one!
Gulf Stream
It hasn’t happened yet, but it is going to. Pretty soon water temps will fall and all waters to the west of the stream once meeting the pretty blue warmer Gulf Stream waters will form the old winter’s edge! And what does that mean for us blue water fishermen? It’s tuna and yahoo wahoo time! Just go when you know!
Well our new contributing editor Alli DeYoung is playing the fishing game again! Alli is showing us that the bottom fishing offshore is very good! While fishing offshore with her dad (Dan DeYoung) this is what they caught! Here’s a breakdown of their catch: Red porgy also known by us old timers as Charleston snapper, vermilion snapper also known as b-liners, and some nice trigger fish! Where did they catch them? The B-liner Hole, which is about 60 miles offshore and is located in about 155 feet of water. If you have been following my fishing reports from the years 1994 to around 2008 you already know that the B-Liner Hole was my second home! What does this mean? I fished this area about 100 times a year. This area had everything that a fisherman wanted. You could bottom fish and catch a big cooler full just about every time. I used to tell my customers that they could fish on the bottom until they got tired. And usually after about 3 hours of reeling up 155 to 200 feet plus each time this was their limit. I treated this area just like I did the snapper banks. While drifting I always had a live line out. What did I use for bait? Red porgy and vermilion snapper! Now occasionally I would use ruby red lips. Now, I must say the Rubies we caught at the B-liner hole were definitely big enough to eat! This line was called a flat line…and of course I always hung a rigged ballyhoo on my outrigger. This bait hung from my rigger at about 25 feet depth. When the boat rocked so did the bait. The up, down, and side to side movement caught gave us a lots of opportunity to catch lots of kings and Mahi Mahi!
After the bottom fishing event we would then start trolling. Believe it or not but while trolling regular and old school baits I caught a lot of nice Yahoo Wahoo, bull dolphin also known as Mahi Mahi, and some smoking king mackerel. My favorite area to troll at the B-liner hole was the 944 Ledge. This ledge is located on the so called back side of this area. There seemed to be always some sort of top water fish a feeding in this area. My trolling spread was simple. I pulled Aliens rigged with small/medium/large ballyhoo on the outriggers. On my wire line I pulled chartreuse Judy Jigs rigged with small/medium ballyhoo and silver (no flash) 31/2 inch Drone spoons on the #3 and #4 planers. I pulled birds with squid lures in tow. I called the bird’s people watching baits. Our customers loved to watch these baits skidding and splashing while being pulled on the surface. I pulled big baits from the bridge! How far back? About 200 feet! What kind of rig? Another old school bait! I pulled a black/burgundy (not red) Ilander rigged with horse ballyhoo!
This is a picture of my so called “people watching bait!” It a bird that when pulled it skips on top of the water. The lure is called a “No alibi” and I usually rigged it with 6/0 to 8/0 “J” style hook. The leader can be anything you care to us from wire braid to monofilament. What’s more important is the distance between the bird and the lure. I usually put about 4 to 5 feet between them. When pulled through the water especially for those fish that are looking up or from side to side it looks like something is on the chase. And what do fish do when they see something like that, “they attack!”
Top Water Way Back Bait!
My favorite and always will be is Ilander lures rigged with medium to large ballyhoo. Back in the old days black/burgundy with silver head worked the best, at least on my boat. Then there was purple/black hair rigged with ballyhoo. I pulled these lures “way way way back!” We sometimes called this bait pulled the trash line, which meant it picked up everything. However, when you do get a hit, it’s normally a real big fish and most likely a yahoo wahoo!!! I learned the hard way that once you get a hookup even when the line is screaming off the reel you don’t take the boat out of gear… keep it moving… you can pull back on the throttles, just don’t take it out gear. And if you happen to get a short hit, if you immediately free spool the bait nine times out of ten the fish would come back. The fact of the matter is I would slow the boat down and we would drop all baits back. I called the prospect fishing! What is prospect fishing? Well, once you get a hit, you know that a fish or fishes are there in the spread. Dropping back not just the line hit, but also the old baits creates a target rich environment and lots of strange hits that you would have missed!
Yahoo Wahoo
When a wahoo gets hooked up the hook is normally just lying in the hole that it just made. This means if you give this fish any sort of slack it will swim right off the hook. Since the fish is known for swimming away from the pressure in all different directions leaving your boat in gear is going offer you a better chance at landing your fish.
Little Miss Judy’s Believe It or Not!
This is my father Captain Sherman I Helmey of way back then Captain Helmey’s Charter Boat Company. He is sitting on a 1980 T-Craft that he had built in Titusville, Florida. The board that he is sitting on is actually a fine piece of teak wood, which my father has graciously painted with white oil base paint! Why not passing highway yellow? He ran out of that paint!
This was our old fishing sign, which was hung in a many a gas station and tackle store! Let’s see, while thinking about yesteryear, exactly what were we advertising! Deep sea fishing was consider bottom fishing at its finest and believe me we caught a whole lot of bottom fish! And or course sport fishing was trolling and live lining for top water fish! What do I remember most about this era? No regulations! There was something else that I certainly remember also and that’s all the different kinds of fish we caught that we couldn’t possibly identify! One of the first fish that we caught, which looked like a very strange king mackerel was in fact a yahoo wahoo! Our first ever seen on our boats genuine red snapper was caught while bottom fishing at the black fish banks! Believe me the only reason we knew it was a red snapper was because it was red! Then there were those brown fish sporting different colors/spots and flashy tails. Yes, you guessed it! It was scamp and gags grouper!
Weather by Sherman Weather-logy
My father wasn’t a meteorologist nor did he claim to be, but he knew his weather. He also had a few signs that he respected and trusted when he saw them.
My father and I would travel quite a bit together especially when I was young. Back in the good old days there weren’t any hand held video game to play with. So therefore Daddy made up a few counting games that were great and very time consuming. The one that liked the most was the counting of the cow’s game. The rules were simple. The one who had the most cows on their side at the end of the trip won. As I got older he tried to complicate the counting of the cows a little more, but we won’t get into that story at this time.
At any rate the weather story for this game was again simple. If the cow were laying down this was an indication that it was going to rain and it usually did. Another thing that he would point out to me was the leaves on the trees. If there were pointed up this meant it was going to rain. The sad thing about these particular weather logics is that I haven’t been able to apply it my offshore activities.
However here’s one you can use offshore. It’s about the arrival of the “biting black flies.” According to my father weather forecasting logic arrival of these flies is an indication that the northeast wind is going to blow. In other words if you are offshore and the biting black flies attack you can count on the northeast winds to start blowing soon. Please don’t think you have to head home at that particular time, because this is just a pre warming of the winds to come. For instance, if only a few flies come to your boat the wind probably isn’t going to be real bad. However if a lot of them show up it could very well mean that you are in for one heck of a blow. According to my father a northeaster usually lasts in a pattern of certain amount of days. This means that this wind will usually blow for 3, 6, or 9 days. The good news is you usually have at least 24 to 36 hours before the northeast winds starts to howl.
For the good news this stuff really works. I have used this Sherman weather-logy that my father passed down to me time a time again with great luck. In fact it’s kind of nice knowing and predicting the weather without having to turn on the television or computer. However, I still do just in case those flies just happened to have taken a very wrong turn!
Thanks for reading! – Captain Judy
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