Jamee Barnard is holding a nice gag and her better half Don Crum is holding a very nice genuine red snapper! Here’s where I say, “We kept one and released one back to the wild!” What does this boil down too? We kept the brown and released the red!
A Happy Anniversary fishing trip! Captain Tommy Williams of Miss Judy Charters took Jim and Vikki Richmond Hill, Georgia inshore fishing. As you can see they caught a little of everything from red fish to spotted sea trout to flounder! Who caught the biggest? Vikki! Who caught the most? Vikki! Has Jim Vikki ever argued when it comes to fishing? Absolutely not! So therefore, we might just see them again next year! A big congratulation goes from us to them!
Captain Tommy Williams Miss Judy Charters took Sarah and Nick Vizzone visiting from Chicago on an inshore fish catching affair. I asked, “Why Savannah, Georgia?” They both quickly replied, “It’s a friendly place!”
Captain Tommy Williams Miss Judy Charters took Nick Vizzone visiting from Chicago is holding up a nice spotted sea trout! Who showed them the way? Captain Tommy Williams of Miss Judy Charters!
Please meet Sarah and Nick Vizzone visiting from Chicago and Captain Tommy Williams doing what is better called “Selfie Time!”
I always love a great fishing catching smile! Captain Garret Ross of Miss Judy Charters took Mark and Dana Spyker their daughter Bailey Cumming, Georgia on an inshore catching affair. They kept some and released the rest! Bailey is showing off her just caught soon to be released red fish!
Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters is showing us a nice soon to be released spotted sea trout. Mark Spyker Cumming, Georgia not only loves to catch them, he also loves to release them! This is a win win for everyone!
Dana and Mark Spyker are showing off their just caught soon to be released red fish! Who showed them the way? Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters
Bailey Spyker Cumming Georgia is being shown by Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters the best way to handle a just caught soon to be released shark!
Thomas McCurry blue button down shirt, Steve Kangas orange, Steven Kangas Green, Doug Shrier black camo booked the trip, Garry Gaspard Aqua blue shirt, and Captain Judy Helmey Miss Judy Too
Barracuda Grey Hounding!
Captain Kathy Brown of Miss Judy Charters is holding Spanish mackerel and the rest of the fishing team are holding as assorted sizes of barracuda! Aaron Garnett Batesville, Indiana Bengals shirt, Ron Burke Milford, Ohio White t shirt, Terry Obrien Fenton, Michigan Black shirt, John Abate Atlanta, Georgia Orange shirt, and Mike Castrucci Cincinnati Ohio blue t shirt
Now here’s the fishing thing..once hooked up most of the barracuda preformed aerobatic feats! Now, what does this mean when dealing with a hooked up barracuda? It is where this fish shows its ability to do some spectacular flying feats and maneuvers! And what is so amazing about this? Well, first it doesn’t have a set of wings and second it is not mechanically powered! So say what you want, but if this fish does even half of this, it simply is amazing! And just when I think I have seen it all, the old barracuda offers up yet another signature move! What is that? Barracuda grey hounding!
Please meet a grand all around fishing family! Don Crum is holding a nice genuine red snapper. His daughter Angel Barnard is getting instruction on exactly how to hold this fish and her mother Jamee Barnard is watching! Captain Kathy Brown is assisting by offering a bit of balance! And what are Steve Howell and I doing? (Captain Judy) He is watching and I am taking the picture!
Savannah Snapper Banks
Well, it has been a long time since my good old friend Jamee and Don went fishing with Captain Steve “Triple Trouble” Howell, Captain Kathy, and me! And this time they brought their daughter Angel! I already knew that all the above could fish, but adding Angel to this list, I wasn’t sure! Now I am for sure and can add Angel to the awesome offshore fishing team!
On this particular offshore fish day, it wasn’t so rough when we departed, but as we ventured further offshore the wave gain momentum. What does this mean? The darn waves got higher and were closer together! And of course, the winds were out of the east! And the old saying of “Fish bite the least when the winds are out of the east” was heavy on my mind. I will have to admit it had been only a few days since Hurricane Florence has passed us by! The ocean was still a little churned up. I was using a 30 foot leader and I could not see my bait at this range nor was I able to identify the fish at the end of leader. Most of the time I can see the bait and the hooked fish a lot better!
We still caught some nice large genuine red snapper, but since the season is not open we could not keep them! However, we did get pictures! We did manage to hook up a nice gag grouper and we had several other hits! However, with sea conditions resulting in a very fast drift the fish bite got slower and slower! And when you add not much bottom clarity, well you get what you get and might not catch what you want! All in all we had a great time and did catch some really nice fish! However, we do could not bring them home, but WE GOT PICTURES to prove it!
When the fish day is over I always like to make a call on who caught the most fish. On this particular fish day I have to say hands down that Don Crum caught the most fish! And he also released the most fish! Congratulations Don on a job well done!
Angel Barnard is hanging tight with her father Don Crum of which is holding a very nice genuine red snapper! This was the first of many genuine red snapper that were released!
Jamee Barnard is holding a nice gag and her better half Don Crum is holding a very nice genuine red snapper! Here’s where I say, “We kept one and released one back to the wild!” What does this boil down too? We kept the brown and released the red! And how did this turn out? See next picture!
And what is this…well it is Jamee, Don and Angel favorite fish! Blackened and grilled fresh just caught gag grouper! Now I don’t even like to eat fish, but I just might like to give this a taste or two! Shown in the top of this picture is the tail section of the grouper, which is blackened. The bottom two slabs are the leftovers after the grouper’s tail section was removed! The larger section was grilled first on a copper pan. Don seared it and flipped it! Using the simplest seasoning of all! What was that? Lemon, butter, some assumed secret spices, experience, and love!
I had to show you this picture! It is definitely a big genuine red snapper! Yes, it was released! And could I get away from them on this fish day? NO! But they were lots of fun to catch! Don Crum goes down for this fish day as catching the most and the biggest!
Don Crum and Captain Kathy Brown of Miss Judy Charters are both sporting great fish catching smiles!
Don Crum’s last genuine red snapper catch of the day! If, I am counting right I believe he caught 6 big snapper! As you can see from the first to the last most of his hooked up fish were on the large side! What was he using as bait? Two hook bottom rig made with 80 pound test line, 5/0 circle hooks, and of course them added Electron fish attractors! https://www.lifesparkfishingtackle.com/
Captain Judy Helmey and Captain Steve “Triple Trouble” Howell are sporting a grand grouper catching smile! Let me tell you about this fish in regards to its coloring! Red is definitely our color!
The gag was a resident! What does that mean? This means it didn’t venture far from it home. Had it been a traveling fish it coloring would have been much lighter!
Little Miss Judy’s Believe It or Not!
Young Colt Williams holding a just retrieve march hen. This is just about the age I started hunting with daddy!
Captain Sherman I Helmey in his tan bathing trunks! And of course he is smoking that big King Edward Cigar that he was so famous for. I never saw him really smoking it. Daddy basically would light it, take a strong puff creating lots of smoke around his head, and that was it. I would find ¾ inch length leftover cigars all over the house and in the ash tray that was glued on the dash of his boat. Heck, I even found them in the bilge! There was a good thing about his always having a cigar handy. If you happen to get stung by a bee he would be the first to chew some of his cigar and plop it on the spot. Believe it or not, but wet cigar tobacco quickly took out the sting and almost instantly took the red coloring away!
Scaring, Rowing, and Dipping!
It’s marsh hen hunting season. I can’t say at the moment what the rules and regulations are in regards to this day and time. However, what I can tell you is a little about how my father and I used to hunt marsh hens. My father was a very avid bird hunter. In the case of the marsh hen, he always wanted to make the bird fly before taking a shot! According to him there is “no sport” shooting at a sitting bird. So therefore during my childhood time “scaring the heck out of sitting birds was my job!” Since I talked a lot anyway this was right up my alley! Normally when daddy and I hunted “QUITE” was the rule!
The best time is normally during the morning hours. Now to get your best shot you need to have lots of water covering the marsh grass. So therefore you need to have the highest tide possible staging in the morning hours. This limits your options right off the bat in regards to being able to go successful marsh hen hunting just any time. You had to plan if you wanted to be successful!
As time passed my job changed quite a bite in regards to the marsh hen hunting affair. As I said earlier, “it was my job to scare the heck out of them” which I was very good at! My father would shoot the marsh hen, the bird would fall, and I then became the “watcher!” As I watched I also “rowed!” Once we arrived to the location of the bird in question my next job was to dip the bird up with the dip net. After this occurrence my job process started all over again!
The short version: Scare the heck out of the bird, which in turn made them take flight. Watch and row to the site of the fallen bird. Dip the bird up and repeat! As I write this I now know why I was so tired when dear old dad took me marsh hen hunting! The bottom line to this story is a simple one: Treat every hunt with your father like it’s your last one!
Thanks for reading! Captain Judy