Article By: Captain Judy Helmey
Captain Matt Williams of Miss Judy Charters took Chase Grelecki (8) and Blakes Barnes (7) both from Marietta, Georgia. What did they catch? Whiting, whiting, and more whiting. This is what they kept and the rest was released! Back to the wild!
Our inshore captains are still catching red fish, spotted sea trout, flounder, whiting, sheepshead, and black drum. Best bait is going to be last year’s dead smelly shrimp and mud minnows. Of course if you can find live shrimp….this is the bait that would put the bite pattern back in order.
The whiting bite in the sound has been also good one day and bad the next! However, we have been catching some nice whiting on the good bite days. Best bait is dead shrimp and small pieces of fillet whiting strips. Sharks have arrived!
Captain Matt Williams of Miss Judy Charter took Jeff &Emily Pettis their children Morgan (9) and Christopher (7) of Sevierville, Tennessee’s inshore fishing. Here’s exactly how this family’s fishing trip went….
In the whiting department they caught 53, kept 48, which resulted in 96 fillets or 288 bites. As if this wasn’t enough action they also caught a hake, 2 foot shark Atlantic sharpnose, platter plate size stingray, and a clump of yellow sea grass. And who showed them the way? Captain Matt!
Artificial reefs less 50 feet of water are holding small black fish, flounder, sheepshead, black drum, school blues, and trophy red fish. Best bait is going to be the purple back fiddler, when it comes to target sheepshead or black drum over the structure. If you plan on just plain old drifting I suggest cut squid, cut fish, and small pieces of shrimp. Sometimes using small amounts of these three baits on your hook at the same time will lure in a bigger bottom bite. For the flounder I suggest using any small live fish or long skinny strip of fish as bait. Best way to present these baits is to use a Carolina rig type. Please remember all red fish aka a trophy red fish or any size red fish are illegal to keep when fishing in federal waters. Once you round the sea buoy the fish you catch are regulated by the federal fisheries. Go here http://safmc.net/ JUST DON’T DO IT!
Know the rules!
We have been catching a lots of red fish offshore that if they had been caught in the state waters would have been legal to keep. The legal slot length for red fish inshore (state waters only) is 14-23 inches. There have been a few fishermen that are confused on this issue, they have been stopped, and given ticket by the GADNR ad SCDNR. http://coastalgadnr.org/ and http://www.dnr.sc.gov/fishing.html are great sites to be able to get up and close with all the regulations
Jack Svenningsen age 15 Apple Valley MN gets credit for the catching the first summer trout on the Miss Judy Too for the 2018 fishing year. Captain Kathy Brown of Miss Judy Charters is assisting!
Artificial reefs over 50 feet of waters Are holding some nice black sea bass, large blue fish, flounder, white grunt, and trophy red fish. We have been catching most all of these fish while using small pieces of squid. Please don’t get discouraged, it is a looking/moving game when targeting legal black sea bass. (Black sea bass have to be 13 inches tail length and has a bag limit of 7 per person) I suggest when measuring your fish that you make sure that it is a little over 13 inches tail length.
While offshore fishing with Captain Ken Kennickell and Captain Deidra Jeffcoat of Miss Judy Charters Blake Connell, Logan Denard, and J T Smith caught these nice trophy fish!
Captain Kathy Brown of Miss Judy Charters, Larkham Reidlinger age 10, and his father Dennis (Savannah Georgia) all had one heck of an offshore red fish catching time. While plain old bottom fishing Kathy, Larkham and Dennis hooked up two red fish each. This is the four red fish that were landed! As soon as this picture was taken they were released back to the wild!
Captain Kathy Brown of Miss Judy Charters is holding Larkham Reidlinger age 10 just caught nice blue fish. This blue fish is definitely not a school-ie! His father Dennis is smiling big time! Back in the real old days, schools of these larger version blue fish migrated into our area. The old school name for them was Chopper Blues! Larkham’s just caught blue fish was holding over a bit of structure along with assorted sizes of trophy red fish. It hit a small piece of squid and offered up quite a strong fight!
Now here’s a trophy red fish that has one tail of a story! Captain Kathy Brown of Miss Judy Charters is holding up a nice trophy red fish that she caught on a small piece of squid while plain old bottom fishing. Take a look that the tail spots that this fish is sporting! If my father was right about the red fish’s spots then this fish must have escaped quite a few times from the jaws of a porpoise or shark. Both the porpoise and the shark have this fish high up on their list of things that they prefer to eat. So with that being said, “This trophy red fish either got scare into making these spots are its smarter than most. I am going with the latter, smarter than most. This trophy red fish looks as though it is sporting an entire school of small fish. It is definitely an optical illusion! What does this mean? No respectable shark or porpoise is going to waste their time chasing a school of small fish!
Savannah Genuine Snapper Banks
The bottom fishing has been very good. We have been catching first and foremost LOTS OF GENIUNE RED SNAPPER! We cannot keep these fish! They fall under catch and release only! However, there are other keeper fish…white grunt, porgy, black sea bass, trigger fish, vermilion snapper, amberjack, almaco jack, banded rudder fish, cobia, and there are more catching/keeping opportunities. Grouper season opens May1 2018 till December 31, 2018.
Gulf Stream
It is that time of the year where if you get a good two day weather forecast that you take advantage of it! The top water bite for black fin, dolphin, Wahoo, and king mackerel should be good…and after about 15 years some are catching yellow fin! Ok, guys it’s coming back around! Trolling and strolling with your favorite rigged ballyhoo, secret cedars, kitchen sinks, and bird combos are the way to go! Just remember this…and at this time of the year all fish are aren’t as picky as they will be in 30 days! And if you don’t get a bite, I suggest dropping to the bottom and hanging on to that rod. Why? Them bottom fish are hungry! What kind of bait? Ballyhoo taken off you blue water rigs, white pieces of the tail of your t-shirt, and anything that will stay on the hook that might be found in your lunch box. The bottom line: They will eat!
Thanks for Reading!
Captain Judy Helmey
www.missjudycharters.com
912 897 4921