Captain Judy Helmey
Kicking Fish Tail Since 1956
124 Palmetto Drive
Savannah, Georgia 31410
912 897 4921or 912 897 2478
912 897 3460 fax
Fishjudy2@aol.com
March 11, 2019 Captain Judy inshore offshore fishing report and Rubber Snakes or Us Story!
Fishing statement: To try to insure that fishing stays in the hearts of those that love it and to help the ones that are going too!
While inshore fishing with Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters Natacha Ansley August, Georgia is sporting a wonderful spotted sea trout catching smile! And I like t!
The August family fishing team: Ray, his wife Natacha, his brother Derek and of course Stewart “Pops” fish catching Ansley! Did I mention that Pops is 76 year of age going on 40? Who caught the most fish? Pops! Who caught the biggest fish? Natacha!
While inshore fishing with Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters Ray Ansley and his father Stewart aka “Pops!” had a wonderful time! And this trip was not all about fishing it also was a bout celebrating…it was Pops 76th birthday! However, he kept saying it was his 40th! All from August!
The family fishing team: Ray, his wife Natacha, his brother Derek and of course Stewart “Pops” fish catching Ansley! Did I mention that Pops is 76 year of age going on 40? Who caught the most fish? Pops! Who caught the biggest fish? Natacha!
Inshore Report!
Plain old bottom fishing in the rivers and sound!
Water temperatures are staying in the prefect range for the old whiting bite
The whiting bite is in full force with fishermen having a catching blast while using ultra light tackle. The best bait is going to be small piece of peeled shrimp or not fished on the bottom with Carolina type bottom rigs. Where do we fish for whiting? We like to start our whiting catching day by stopping, anchoring, and fishing where the river meets the sound. Our captains have been catching whiting near the bank and on shallow side of the deepest part of the river/sound. In our case, taking Wilmington River area into account, as soon as you pass the Landing Harbor Marina the banks on both sides of the river are holding fish. If the bite is slow I suggest moving to the deepest part of the river and fish either side while working your way back toward the direction of the bank. If your boat happens to a trolling motor that will keep you in a spot I suggest using it! If you can conger up a slow controlled drift some fun continuous catching in going to be in your future!
The fabulous four!
Red fish, spotted sea trout, and flounder!
We have already seen some unbelievable catches at the Miss Judy Charters dock and also by the local recreational fishermen. I am going to say this and get it out of the way..this is not an everyday occurrence! The inshore bite is not continuous, but if you fish a lot, can keep records, get a handle on feeding patterns, and have live shrimp as bait your chances of catching is better than not! I know I just listed four tall order things that may or may not be accomplish by those some timey fisherman. Of the four things I listed… fishing a lot and using live shrimp as bait is going to be the most important two! And if I had to narrow it down to one thing, please do get some live shrimp! I think you get my point!
Where do you get the live shrimp? Bait houses or get out the old cast net, which means get ready to exercise those arms!
While inshore fishing with Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters Jared Jones Mathew, NC, Tyler Cole Pittsburg, PA Erik Pratt Statesboro, GA Chris Collins Mathews, NC and Ryan Deer Great Meadows, NJ had a fun afternoon of chasing, catching, and releasing fish! This was a fishing bachelor party for Chris Collins! This is red fish, flounder, red fish, and spotted sea trout kind of a holding up bachelor party!
Near Shore Wrecks and Structure!
For those fishermen that really want to catch some nice sheepshead now is the time. Wrecks, rocks, and any sort of structure found to the east of the barrier islands is going to be holding some pretty health schools of very hungry fish. What kind of fish? You could find yourself catching spotted sea trout, flounder, red fish, black drum, and sheepshead as well as other biters. The secret to wreck, rock, or structure fishing at this time of the year is to anchor on or over and fish directly over or on the edge of the structure… Most fish whether it is the sheepshead, black drum, red fish, spotted sea trout, flounder or other biters will feed more so vertically around any sort of structure. Why? Most of the food source is located up in the water column not down directly on the bottom. So therefore if the structure you are fishing around sits 6 feet off the bottom, then the strike zone can be found anywhere from 1 foot to 7 feet up. And when fishing around or over structure schools of feeding fish have tendency to move clockwise on an outgoing tide and counter clock wise on an incoming tide. The best I can suggest is to not to sweat the technical stuff, just go fishing and forget all of this over thinking!
The best bait is going to be dead/live shrimp and fiddler crabs.
While inshore fishing with Captain Matt Williams of Miss Judy Charters Vince Tallucci Downingtown PA and Mike Richey Savannah, Georgia caught some really nice fish. Vince is holding a red fish and spotted sea trout and Mike’s got a pair of nice spotted sea trout! As you can see, if these fishermen wanted fresh fish for dinner tonight they certainly could!
Artificial Reefs in less than 50 feet of water
These areas are still holding some nice sheepshead! And lots of small undersize black sea bass! I call the black sea bass 30 to 1 marathon! What? The black fish look big enough, but they are not long enough. So therefore you might catch 30 before you find a 13 inch plus legal fish!
We have been using fiddlers/small pieces of shrimp for sheepshead and cut squid for black fish!
Artificial Reefs in more than 50 feet of water
I suggest if you have the time to start bottom fishing at this depth. Why? The keeping ratio is much better and you might catch some other keeper biters too!
While inshore fishing with Captain Matt Williams of Miss Judy Charters the Hoyal family fishing team caught themselves more than a mess of whiting! I am always asked, “Why is it called a mess of whiting?” Well, it’s a definitely a mess of fun light tackle fishing! And then there is that mess you make while cooking them! And they are so good!
Savannah Snapper Banks
If you have the time, this is the place to go to do some no nonsense bottom fishing. I should be saying, “Some serious catching and keeping!”
Gulf Stream Report
When I fished the Gulf Stream a lot I used to love this time of the year. Why? High speed trolling! A Yahoo Wahoo won’t let any sort of right under the surface pulled lure pass them by…and that even if the lure is traveling at speeds of over 18 knots. Unfortunately, once a hoo hits a lure at this speed there is not much fight left. However, if you slow you lure pulling speed down to about 8 to 10 knots you will get the best of both worlds! What is that? You still get to cover more area so that you can find the fish quicker! And when they do hit the lure after pulling back the throttles the fish normally does not!
What did I pull and still pull? https://ballyhood.com/high-speed-lures/
While inshore fishing with Captain Matt Williams of Miss Judy Charters Steven Simmons, Marshalltown, IA and Dick Langenfed, Winneconne, WI caught some really nice spotted sea trout! This is what they kept, but not what they released! Some are still swimming and growing!
While inshore fishing with Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters Rob Stephenson Savannah, GA caught this nice red fish! Check out the mouth on this fish!
While inshore fishing with Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters Ross Waters and Rob Stephenson both from Savannah Georgia had a grand catching time. Ross is no stranger to all types of fishing. The fact of the matter is Ross worked on the boat as a first mate with Captain Ken Kennickell of Miss Judy Charters quite a few years ago! I had to ask Ross how long had it been since he worked with Captain Ken? 20 years!!! Time is flying by!! Stop it please!
Want to have some flying fun? Call 1 912 572 8055 Dave Myers https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60814-d3368315-Reviews-Amphibian_Air-Savannah_Georgia.html
While inshore fishing with Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters Rob Stephenson Savannah, GA caught this nice red fish! And yes this fish is still swimming and growing!
Why am I still using these electrons?
http://www.lifesparkfishingtackle.com/
I always add an electron fish attractor to all of my double hook bottom rigs! I usually slip attractor on top hook only. The reason being is when the fish is swimming up to the top hook the second hook gets its attention first. And you know what that means you are almost guarantee two fish while making one drop! I am always saying “Location Location Location now I am saying location fish electron location fish electron..I think you get the picture and I got fish! Isn’t that what we all want? Check out Life Spark’s face book too!
While inshore fishing with Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters Blake Sheppard Savannah, GA caught this beautiful spotted sea trout! What did it eat? Live shrimp!
While inshore fishing with Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters Jason Miller Savannah Georgia caught some really nice red fish and spotted sea trout!
While inshore fishing with Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters Danny Webster, Brunswick Ga caught this nice red fish! Don’t you just love the spots that this fish is sporting? What do I think this combination of spots mean? Well, it could mean two sets of fish eyes facing head on and one fish port or starboard side too or side views from five different fish!
Now isn’t this a fun guessing game?
While inshore fishing with Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters DJ Hill, Douglasville, GA (aka a Tall Boy! Caught this nice spotted sea trout! Check out those winter time cold water colors! This fish is sporting some fantastic style!
While inshore fishing with Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters Joel Johns, Lithia Springs, GA, DJ Hill, Douglasville, GA (aka a Tall Boy!) and Darrell Johns, Lithia Springs caught some really nice fish! What am I saying, “Yes we are having fresh fish for dinner!”
On the freshwater side…we have
Mickey Holbrook got striped bass! Nice fish! And if you want to go fishing in Lake Lanier give Mickey a call 470 262 6035!
Little Miss Judy’s Believe It Or Not!
I didn’t have a picture of my father’s old rubber snakes. However, I found this old style vintage rubber snake that looked a lot like the ones he always used! After reading this story you will definitely understand why rubber snakes were no longer used on my father’ boat!
Rubber SNAKES AND US!
My father had a lot of ideas and most of them were pretty good, but there was this one particular time that his idea sort of turned on him. According to my father the presents of a snake would make birds stay clear of said area. As you all know daddy was an avid hunter so therefore I am sure that he studied the habits of the snakes and birds before coming to this conclusion.
We always had trouble keeping that nasty bird poop off of our windshields. I think that the birds liked Daddy’s old yellow colored boat. My father brought a lot of rubber snakes. They really did look “life like.” Some of the rubber snakes seemed to be crawling while others that he brought were coiled up in the almost striking position. I didn’t really think of it till now, but a bird must have wondered how long a snake can crawl in one place. This small inexpensive feat did the trick and all was well for a while. The birds seemed to think that the snakes were actually real. The good news was when they flew in our boat’s direction they would always make a noticeable detour. It was truly amazing.
As the days went by we basically forgot about the snakes on top of the boat. We had made a few charters and it had been a little rough offshore. Apparently all this wave action caused the rubber snakes to be pushed back toward the cockpit of the boat. This is where they stayed until that wave hit us.
I will never forget this as long as I live. We were bottom fishing and it was very rough. My father was standing at the aft cabin door explaining to one of our customers the affects of long-term seasickness. He had just started talking about the dry heaves when it happened. A wave broadsided the big boat and it lunged sideways. This caused everything on the deck to sift with the direction of the wave. As daddy secured himself and the boat edged over three rubber snakes fell off the top of the boat. Two of the snaked were the crawling type, which meant they basically fell off the roof and straight to the deck. However, the coiled snake didn’t fall so directly. As daddy was flinging his arms and explaining the seasickness situation the coiled snaked slipped right on to his arm. When this happened the snake basically slid right up his arm in a life like rolling motion. The falling of the first rubber snakes had already stunted my father. When he met face to face with the coiled snake at least for the second before he realized it fear raged in his face. I have never seemed my father move so quickly. The bad news was that the coiled snake was right there with him mimicking his every move. This scene only lasted seconds, but for me it was in slow motion. My father was scare to death of snakes. He used to say, “There are two types of snakes a live one and a dead one.” However after this day he should have changed his saying to, “there are three types of snakes lives one, dead ones, and rubber ones.” Take your pick they are all dangerous at certain times. This is just about when I had to once again be in charge of cleaning the bird poop off daddy’s windshield! Why? The rubber snakes did not make the ride home!