While inshore fishing with Captain Kevin Rose of Miss Judy Charters Wade Blackburn (age 19) caught the beautiful trophy red fish! The bottom line, yep, Wade caught more than one trophy red, but this was the prettiest not the biggest! And my friend beauty is in the eyes of the holder! A big congratulations goes out to Wade! Savannah, Georgia

While inshore fishing with Captain Kevin Rose of Miss Judy Charters Fisher McMillian age 11 of Rincon, Georgia caught quite a few fish. I believe he told me that he caught about 14! Fisher is holding a nice spotted sea trout that gladly hit his live shrimp bait offering! Now I got to say, “I love the name Fisher!” And it definitely fits this fisherman for sure

While inshore fishing with Captain Kevin Rose of Miss Judy Charters and his brother Wade, Mo Blackburn (age 16) caught this nice trophy red fish! (Savannah, Georgia)

While inshore fishing with Captain Kevin Rose of Miss Judy Charters Fisher McMillian age 11 of Rincon, Georgia is holding up a nice red fish!
Inshore Fishing Report
After taking a look at all of the fish pictures it’s so obvious that if you know where to fish you can catch fish! And if you don’t well, you already know what that might mean! So now you know that the fish are biting! And if you go to the right location, while using the right bait you are going to hook up!

What is the right location?


Fishermen know when something looks fishy for sure. You might not know you know, but think about it. I suggest fishing where you have before and if that doesn’t work move up or down the bank. Please remember fish do move but sometimes not too far. Anywhere you see birds hovering, diving, or just plain hanging around you most likely got fish going and coming! Take a ride during the low tide stage to find places where there is structure by a slough. What does this mean? If you got live green looking oysters by a slough believe me when the tide floods this area you most like are going to have some sort of fish a swimming! The bottom line they are going to be hungry too!


The right baits!
Red fish flounder and spotted sea trout no matter what live shrimp. It is easy to eat and easy to catch and just plain easy! Your best bet especially this time of the year is to visit your local bait shop and purchasing some live shrimp. If they are out be prepared and have you cast net on board. Believe me, you definitely can catch your own at this time of the year. And even if you purchase live shrimp you need to try and catch yourself some finger mullet! Why? , because it is that time of the year where these fish love themselves some of mullet! And here’s the thing, If the finger mullet are getting air (jumping) you can catch them! Break out the cast net! And one more thing you can put finger mullet in with your precious live shrimp. However, know this; you cannot put mud minnows in the say live well as your other bait. Believe it or not, but the muds are basically saltwater piranha in disguise!

When inshore fishing with Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters Jim Markward and his father Harold had a wonderful time! Here’s the amazing thing Harold is 89 years young! And there are a couple of things that you need to know about Harold firstly he certainly doesn’t look or act his age. And he can catch fish too!




When inshore fishing with Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters Jim Markward and his father Harold had a wonderful time! Jim is holding his father just caught red fish. This fish has two sets of eyes...one set at the head and one set at the tail!

When inshore fishing with Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters Harold Markward age 89 caught this nice red fish!



When inshore fishing with Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters Jim Markward and his father Harold had a wonderful time! Jim is holding up a nice red fish that gladly hit a live finger mullet! Now you know which bait is working like a charm! According to my father, every time a red fish escapes from being fatally attacked by a porpoise it develops a spot. Red fish have spots of both sides. According to my father each spot represents a near hit. On this side the red fish has survived 5 porpoise hits making it a darn lucky fish that is until along came fisherman Jim!

While inshore fishing with Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters Neal Pennington and his daughter Cailey had a grand catching time. Cailey is holding up a nice red fish that she caught fought and landed! (All from Milledgeville, Georgia)

While inshore fishing with Captain Garrett Ross and Captain Robert Brown both with Miss Judy Charters this good looking fishing team had a blast! From left to right: David Archer, Matt Bearden, David Joiner, Keith Rothwell, Chris Finke, Tim Sullivan, and Ken Garby! Fishermen David, Matt, and David are holding the biggest fish caught. And fishermen Keith, Chris, Tim and Ken are looking like the caught plenty of fish and also are still wetting their whistle! No matter what they are all still sporting grand fish catching smiles!

Captain Kathy Brown of Miss Judy Charters is holding a big barracuda! And if you would like a shot at catching one of these big boys now is the time! What did this fish eat? A live shinny just caught Spanish Mackerel!

Artificial Reefs
Less than 50 feet

Yep, we got Spanish and King mackerel and also those big toothy monsters better known as barracuda!

Here’s the barracuda rig that I use. So what happen here? Well, the barracuda hit this whole rigged Spanish mackerel took the tail off and as it was making way with half the bait in its mouth the tailing treble caught the hook and pulled it out of the cuda’s mouth! Yep, the fish did eat, all it got for the tail end section of the mackerel. Now, most of the time, if you free spool these leftovers the barracuda will swing around and pick up the spoils. But a lot of fishermen don’t get the just of this and keep reeling with they should be free spooling! I am just saying!

Ashley Benton is sporting a big thumbs up! Yep, she helped catch these fish! And she done real good! Who is Ashley Benton? Go to...


ASHLEY BENTON www.ashleybentonstudio.com
Ashley Benton is an Atlanta GA based artist whose works include fine art mixed media paintings and ceramic sculpture. Wholesale purchasing is available to qualified retailers.

Savannah Snapper Banks
For those that want to GO FISH this area now or later well it is time! The water temps are going to drop whether we like it or not! And here’s the thing, when they do the fish are going to start moving meaning they are going to start feeding a lot more than they have! Give us a call 912 897 4921 your boat of mine?

Gulf Stream


This is that time of the year where blue water fish can be found in green water! What does this mean to you? It means be ready for Mahi Mahi, be ready for that WAHOO, and be ready for that bill fish! And in the next couple of months the waters to the west of the Gulf Stream will cool and a feeding edge will form! Stay informed go to http://www.sstcharts.com/ (It’s free, but information is priceless!)
On the freshwater catching side...we have

My cuz (Captain Judy) and good friends with Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters, Mickey Holbrook owner operator of MAD GILLZ Fishing Guide Service a call. (470 262 6035) Mickey is a member on the gangster side of the family! And that is all I am going to say about that!)

For those of you that want to do a little fresh water fishing I highly suggest giving Mickey Holbrook owner operator of MAD GILLZ Fishing Guide Service a call. (470 262 6035) There are two things that we know for a fact ...and what is that? Our new fresh water connection is Mickey Holbrook! And I approved this message times two!

World famous Swirleybirds lures by Veteran Bill Vanderford
Old School is the Tool!
Now I have known Bill and fished with him for many years. And I know by saying this I am showing my age. However, sometimes when it comes to catching fish age equals seasoned and also equals lots of darn acquired knowledge! Between the two of us, well we are weighted down with fishing knowledge for sure! In Bill’s case he knows freshwater and saltwater fishing like the back of his hand and any lure he invents or endorses works more than not! So give them a try, but don’t unless you want your best chance at catching fish! Just do it!


Veteran Owned and Operated
Veteran's Fishing Lures is a veteran-owned and operated company selling high quality super productive fishing lures. All lures are made by hand in the United States by Veterans. https://www.fishing-lure-ga.com or text 770 289 1543!
Little Miss Judy’s Believe It or not!


My father used to say, “Red sky in the morning sailors heed warning!”


Fatal Disaster at Sea


This is a heart wrenching story with a fatal ending. This incident took place when we had one of those windy northeastern pop up weather situations in the early eighties. I will never forget this as long as I live. I was anchored over the wreck named “Henry Bacon,” which is located at the L Buoy artificial reef. This particular artificial reef is a located about 15 miles off the W2 Wassaw Sea buoy or about 18 miles off Wassaw Barrier Island.

Cutting the anchor line..

My customers were having a great day catching large chopper blue fish. Everyone was very happy due to the fact that not only could they catch a fish they could see them exactly take the bait. Back in the old days it was too easy to catch large chopper blue fish especially when they were schooling over a wreck. All you had to do was anchor up current of the wreck that they were schooling, throw out sinkable fresh water catfish food, and the chopper blues would come. Our party had caught about 25 blue fish with all weighting in at over 10 pounds each. Believe me when I say, “They were getting tired!” One by one each fisherman started taking a longer rest. I had noticed that the light westerly winds had switched a bit to the northeast. Upon wind direction change the boat moves accordingly, which it did. We were now facing at a dead northeast direction. Still didn’t think much of the wind change until it picked up. Now I might add it was a great sunny day with not a ripple in the ocean. It’s amazing how things can change so quickly especially when the weather is in control. All of a sudden the wind started blowing a gale out of the northeast. (Blowing a gale means 34-47 knots better known as 39-54 mph)


Then the wind picked up more speed pitching my 30 foot T-Craft boat around at unbelievable angles. I told Captain Ali Young (my first mate for over 25 years!) that we needed to pull the anchor as quick as possible so that we could start heading home. The seas were already up and I expected there was more to come. My instincts told me that I wasn’t wrong about this prediction. As Ali tried to get the anchor up it became obvious that it was hung in the wreck. When the anchor line became tight it held my bow down, which in this situation was not a good thing. So I screamed, “Cut the anchor rope!” While Captain Ali grabbed her knife the anchor line tighten up like a banjo string. With my bow pinned down a large wave completely covered the bow and it broke right on the main section almost taking Captain Ali with it. As soon as she was upright again, with knife in hand, all it took was one delivered sharp blow and we were free.


Once freed waves quickly pushed us sideways in the wind and I waited to make my next move until a drenched Ali was safely in the cockpit.


Getting in step with the waves…
Now under way I quickly came around on to my compass heading home, which put the waves directly off my stern putting me into a following sea condition. Had the waves not been so high and breaking this normally would have been the preferred situation. However, taking it easy was not going to happen. I was going to have to get in step with these waves and quick!

The other vessel involved…
Little did I know that there were others having problems at the same time and they were located only a few miles south of my location. It was a large vessel approximately 60 feet long, which was trying to hold a northeast heading. It has been traveling north while keeping about 10 miles off the coast. On board was a crew of two and one visitor. This big sport fisherman was fitted with state of the art equipment and was in mint condition. While still holding a northeast heading, the captain had cut his speed to accommodate the in creditable wave height.


Somehow and from somewhere the vessel had taken on a great deal of water. We don’t know exactly what could have happened to cause this event. (Sea water finds a way to penetrate the smallest excess!) I believe it could have been anything from a failed bilge pump to a high water alarm failure. At any rate, it was rough and the northeast waves showed no mercy when they are at this stage, which is big and breaking. Somehow the big boat got stern to the waves. I assumed that the boat was so heavy due to lots of water that it was forced around to the stern by the continuous breaking waves. The first waves probably flooded the cockpit and the second probably took the bridge off. Not only did it take the bridge off but also all the passengers. They got one MAYDAY call off before this happened. I didn’t hear it and there was a very good reason.




Customers were very uncomfortable with the situation….…
All of my customers were handling the weather situation pretty good with the exception of one. While in the panic mode this man of large stature starting flinging his arms making unrealistic moves compromising everyone on board. He started screaming that he wanted off of the boat, but at this point that request clearly had to be denied. I had turned my radio down because of all of the radio chatter about the weather. I figured any more information about the weather would have been too much for this passenger. Captain Ali was doing her part trying to calm this individual down, but nothing seemed to be working. However, every minute that Captain Ali even held half the interest of this customer we got closer to calm water conditions. My attentions were to drop off my customers at the first marina, which was Landing Harbor Marina. Upon finally arriving at the marina all asked if I had heard the MAYDAY, which as you already know I did not.




Morning after the sinking…
The next morning as I was going out fishing and right in my offshore tract was a black life raft floating on the surface. I immediately slowed down so to see if the raft had any occupants onboard. As I pulled close to the empty raft I noticed it looked as though it was anchored. It was at that time that I realized that the raft was tethered to the boat that was sitting on the ocean floor about 40 feet down. The water was very clear on this morning, which was the day after the sinking of this vessel. As I looked down into the water I thought that I could see an antenna or maybe an outrigger sticking up through the water column. As I became more aware of my surroundings I noticed colorful sheen of fuel on the surface, which was being continuously fed by the leaking fuel tanks below.

After thoughts…
And then just like someone poured a bucket of cold water over me chills started as thoughts happen. What was running through my mind wasn’t a comfortable feeling. As I put the information that I obtained as to what I think I knew had happened, I felt myself sinking into my helm seat. And since I also was out on the ocean the same time I had to wonder did I run right passed the captain floating free in his life jacket?


What might have happened to the other vessel…
I was told that when the boat lost power it became stern into the wind and waves. As I processed that thought I could see how that was possible since the boat had taken on so much water that most likely the engines had stalled. I can only assume that it didn’t take too many of these waves to completely fill the cockpit and salon area weighing the boat down deeper into the water. It was at this time that most likely a large wave ripped the entire bridge off along with it occupants. Through stories told, I heard that the captain was then thrown into the water putting too much distance between him and two other now hanging on to the half submerged detached bridge. According to stories told the two occupants kicked the windows out of the bridge, which barely kept it floating on the surface. After the storm subsided the captain was found drown floating in his life jacket. The two occupants were picked up by the coast guard and were unharmed.


Back to storm day..


While I was heading home on storm day the winds were sustained at around 40 knots plus. The waves quickly reached an 8 foot plus status. While surfing these size waves in some cases I was traveling at about 30 knots. As I was trying to hold a 290 degree heading I found myself perpendicular to very large breaking waves. There were times that I had to turn to the north placing me sideways to the curl of the breaking wave. Once I felt comfortable I then had to turn to the northeast putting my bow in the wave. This process kept me from losing control of my boat when it went into full surfing mode. I know my customers had to think I was crazy making these apparent sharp U turns. And I forgot to mention that there was a complete white out. This means that I could only see what was directly around me. (Talking about less than 30 feet) It was raining sideways and this was way before I had radar on the old Miss Judy. All I had for navigation was a Compass and a Loran that sometimes was one mile to 300 feet off!


“U” Turns at sea....
The art of making sharp “U” turns in following sea conditions, at least for us, came about during the wooden boat era. Quite often our slow heavy, full of water most of the time, wooden boats were very hard to navigate in a following sea conditions. (Following sea conditions also is identified by the term staying ahead of the sea!) So therefore in the not so rough to the very rough sea conditions sharp “ocean U turns” were very necessary to keep from yawing. What is yawing? It is what you do when you get sideways to a wave and don’t have enough power to pull up and over it.


My father always taught me in situations like this that after every 6th to 9th wave there was normally a larger one followed. Getting in step with the waves was particularly essential due to the serious sea conditions that prevailed on this day. Taking into consideration daddy’s wave sequence equation enabled me to basically think ahead. Knowing about the possible conditions between the regular and bigger waves also gave me more hope as well as confidence. With this knowledge I was able to gauge my surfing time on the wave. And I also was able to know exactly when it was time to cut away from the wave I was surfing on.
Once again my father’s knowledge paid forward provided me with some unbelievable “wave know how!”

Making it back to calm waters…
I was never so happy to see the W2 Wassaw Sea buoy even if it was lying almost sideways every time a wave hit it. Once passing the sea buoy I still had to deal with rough conditions, but rain had eased up and the storm was clearly at my stern. I looked at my watch and it taken us a little over an hour to make what was normally a 40 minute run. Doing a little calculation in my head I figured that I had spent about 20 minute going in the wrong direction, but it certainly did seem like it was a lot longer than that.


How long ago did this happen?..


This happened a little over 35 years ago and I don’t think I will ever forget this day as long as I live. It’s something I get reminded of quite often especially when I round the W2 Sea Buoy. I have been out on the ocean a very long time and it still amazes me how it can be so calm one minute and rough in an instance. And it also astounds me that there is no way to realize this unless you are there to experience it. In this case I hope none of you ever do!


So far on my ocean time I have only experienced being in a sinking vessel once…and knocking on wood when I say this..


I do believe had my father not taught me about all of his perils at sea I would have not been here and able to pass this story on to you!


Thanks for reading! Captain Judy



The End!