Ryan Wolwode, Savannah Coach Mark Taylor Angela Taylor (both Byron, GA) Captain Judy, Kyle Jackson his brother Trey, Paul Jackson, and Alli DeYoung! (all Jacksons are Savannahian)



I consider the month of October as being one of the best fishing months for both fish and fishermen! The reason being is all fish both inshore and offshore are in full migration mode! With water temperatures on the fall the red fish, spotted sea trout, and flounder bite gets more predictable. Places where you caught them last year most likely will be a great place to start. And if you don’t find your fish in your old spots try giving those areas down or upriver a try. Best fall bait is going to be live shrimp fished anyway you care to deliver. The best news is once you get the bite going switching to artificial shrimp patterns or finger mullet is going to be very strong options.

Captain Kevin Rose of Miss Judy Charters had a great fish catching day! Where his customers? Resting!
It’s that time of the year where you can bring your cast net and catch your own bait. If doing so I suggest throwing any small fish (finger mullet, yellow tail, croaker, pinfish, etc.) that you happen to catch in your live well. Small live baits normally triggers a bigger fish bite. Artificial flukes rigged on red/black/white colored lead heads work great around any sort of structure. When working this lure if the fish doesn’t hit on the fall. Once it’s on the bottom let it sit for a few seconds. Then I suggest when retrieving to reel a few times, twitch, and repeat. Best flukes colors are baby bass, pearl white and golden bream.

While inshore fishing with Captain Robert Brown of Miss Judy Charters the David Carey Party done real darn good!






Inshore fishermen get to experience the big bull red fish migration, which starts taking place this month. These monsters start their migration pattern from where they have been holding in the creeks, rivers, and upper sound areas. Once making way to the sounds (closer to the ocean) this is a fish that finds a suitable place to “bulk up” before making way to the beachfronts and then to the ocean. Schooling baits such as mullet and menhaden provide much feeding opportunity for these fish. So therefore where you see any surface action stop, wait, and look for any turbulence underwater feeding or seabirds in a heavy feeding or holding pattern. Another place to look as well as fish are areas where currents come together forming some sort of a rip. Now not all rips will hold the interest of fish, but I can guarantee you once you figure out what to look for “instance hook ups” can happen. Here are a few suggestions: Always looks for any surface oils sometimes referred to as cat paws. If there is any bird feeding action always check out the size and type of the seabirds. If it’s pelicans only what you most likely have down under is schools of menhaden. However, if you have pelicans as well as other small sea birds then you have a possible big feeding frenzy going on down under! This would be your sign to “fish here!”
Best baits to use for big bulls reds when anchored in areas around live oyster beds I suggest using small adjustable floats with about 12 inches of 30 to 40 pound test fluorocarbon leader with either semi circle or a standard 2/0 to 3/0 Kahle style hook. Best baits for this rig are going to be lip hooked live mullet or peanut menhaden or live shrimp hooked up under the horn. If live bait isn’t an option there are plenty other baits that will work such as dead old or fresh smelly mullet cut in steaks like a loaf of bread or air dried shrimp with “heads on or off” threaded onto the hook. When working rips or actual feeding schools of red fish I suggest using diamond shape jigs (1 to 3 ounces) with or without red or green or yellow miniature tube lures. Jigs such as the 1 to 3 ounce Shimano Butterfly with double hooks located at the head of the lure are good to go. Please know that it has come to our attention (and also the fish’s) that most of the big and non brand names of jigs with hook or hooks attached to the head do work! All of this boils down to location and the working of the lure used!
Captain Kathy Brown of Miss Judy Charters is holding the head and Alex Carpenter Columbia, SC is controlling the tail! Yep Alex caught this Atlantic sharpnose shark and it was released unharmed!
Another way to get the best chance at a hook up when fishing a rip or surface schooling baits is to take a beefed up popping cork or traditional float rig rigged with some sort of bait. The meaning of bait when it comes to this situation is anything that you happen to have that is live or a chunk or steak of something fishy. Large sharks of all types, rays, and also any left behind tarpon would most likely find these baits alluring. Suspending your bait under a float whether it is alive or dead gives fish a 360 degree opportunity for attack prompting more serious hits.

Kenny Tran making a move as soon as he gets off the boat to Sunny California and Captain Kathy Brown of course is just plain happy he caught this blue fish!
When it comes to offshore fishing during October lots of different bites can happen in the most unusual places. The reason being is that this is the month where fish start their fall migration patterns. With moving on their minds all fish have to bulk up as fast as they can, which boils down to major feeding times all of the time. Near shore artificial reefs and natural live bottom areas will start holding the attentions of lots of different size bottom and top water fish. For those fishermen that want to get some big bottom fish action I suggest filling the live well before reaching the fishing grounds. The best place to stop to load up on bait is wrecks located at the artificial reefs in 55 feet plus of water. However, our bait populations in these areas have not been too good so far this year, which has been the norm for a while. I still suggest stopping and giving it a try, because it is on your way. Spanish sardines and cigar minnows usually school up over any sort of high relief structure. Please know that most of the yellow buoys marking the offshore artificial reefs are gone. (Have been for years and they are not replacing them!) These buoys held the interest of all types and sizes of bait fish. Now here’s a well kept secret. The locations where the buoys used to be anchored are still holding bait. The anchoring system used on the buoys is still there and so are the types of baits that used to school around the chain. Check this out you might be catching surprised.
I always suggest having GPS coordinates for all structures on the artificial reefs that you are going to fish. I know paper isn’t popular, but having a hard copy on board of the coordinates for the Georgia’s artificial reefs can turn out to being a very good idea. This information is free and can be found at (https://coastalgadnr.org/HERU for artificial reef coordinates for both inshore and offshore) Also please pick up a copy of 2020-georgia-sport-fishing-regulations booklet. This booklet makes for good reading and the information can be very valuable!
I have fishermen ask me all of the time what are the best charts to purchase for this area. Well, here’s my standard answer: I have some (Miss Judy Charters) inshore charts available through www.sstcharts.com. Another set of charts that are a fisherman must is Top Spot charts, which are available at most tackle stores. The best chart for inshore fishing in Georgia is Brunswick area to Savannah Inshore. (Map number N232)Top Spots also offer a Georgia offshore chart, which covers Brunswick to Savannah. (Map number N229) Most GPS units have a lot of this information already loaded. However, updates are needed! Check your GPS machine out and if not sure contact the company. Most updates can be retrieved free off the web. Also coming up with somewhat of a boating/fishing plan before launching your boat is always a very good idea. Why? It basically gives you more fishing time, because you already know where you going, how to get there, and what you plans are once arriving!
In the baiting up department gold hook Sabiki bait rigs normally have 6 to 8 small hooks laced with fish skin. You can catch lots of bait each time you drop. Always make sure to have at least a dozen bait rigs in the old tackle box, because once hooked up large fish can attack. When this starts happening I suggest moving to another spot until the big fish feeding frenzy stops. These rigs are made for small baits not larger fish. Best live baits are cigar minnows, Spanish mackerel, Boston mackerel, horse mackerel, and any others that are hanging with the school. However, sometimes you will find yourself catching a lot of horny bellies, which isn’t the best of live baits to use. However, we have noticed since the lack of availability of live baits the old horny belly has worked a time or two. There is an old saying, “If you can’t catch the prefect bait there is a chance that the fish can’t either!” This all boils down to using what you happen to catch! Once again, this bait catching year has not been the best for sure. So I suggest taking, just in case you can’t catch any to have on board some frozen ones. Bait shops normally stock both frozen cigar minnows and Spanish sardines, which both will work just fine. My suggestion is when possible to purchase frozen Spanish sardines over cigar minnows. The reason being the sardines are cheaper and will bring on the absolute same bite. I suggest keeping it frozen as long as you can only taking only a few minnows out your cooler at a time. They will stay on your hook much better on the drop to the bottom. These bait work used whole and cut in half. When using this type of bait the smell seems to be the attractant not so much the shape. And believe me it does stink!







Ryan Wolwode, Savannah Coach Mark Taylor Angela Taylor (both Byron, GA) Captain Judy, Kyle Jackson his brother Trey, Paul Jackson, and Alli DeYoung! (all Jacksons are Savannahian)






Here’s a close up of just one of the big sharks that they caught fought and brought to the boat. We used if you touched the leader as the legal catch release routine! Heck, I mean these sharks were much too big to bring on board for a one on one picture! But if we had a saddle fit for a shark this might have been a different story! Yippee Ki-yay!
These fishermen are one heck of a fishing team. Now, this is what they kept and they released the rest! They did quite a bit of wrestling with some really big 6 to 8 foot sharks! They hooked up 3 large sharks and had a blast catching them! All sharks were released unharmed!
When bottom fishing in 100 feet (Savannah Snapper Banks) to 200 feet (edge of Gulf Stream) over any broken live bottom with ledges I always suggest using large live baits. Drop your lipped or dorsal hooked bait to the bottom and hang on for a grouper biting affair. Best baits for this type of rig are vermilion snapper, tomtates, rock bass, sand perch, pinfish, scup, blue fish and etc. The best rig to use is going to be a beefed up Carolina rig. I like using a 10 to 20 foot 80 to 100 monofilament leader between the hook (10/0 to 14/0 circle hook) and the egg (6 to 8 ounce) sinker. When using this style rig grouper is not the only fish that you might catch. Just to name a few: cubera snapper, amberjack, genuine red snapper, king mackerel, tuna, and etc.. In other words big mouth fish! The bottom line it’s time to GO FISH!
Please always check current regulations and fish closures before heading out. At this time when this report was posted genuine red snapper was the only species closed. However, please always check before making way to the fishing grounds. Best website to visit for current regulations is http://www.safmc.net/


Gulf Stream
During the spring when the waters to the west are much cooler than the stream a great edge is formed. This edge is where larger fish feed on the smaller fish. This edged forms in the spring and once again in the late fall. Now is the time to keep an eye on the surface temperatures and when the cooling event starts it will be time to do some serious blue water fishing! Please remember you can get free sea surface temperature readings from www.sstcharts.com they also offer for sale a fine set of proven to work when information is applied blue water charts, which can purchased from this website. This set offers lots of proven blue water fish catching suggestions! Just so you know, from a charter captain point of view, October through December is the best inshore and offshore fishing month in this area. There is lots of fish catching opportunities available, which makes for some very serious line stretching hook ups!


Little Miss Judy’s Believe it or not!

Paul Jackson’s Yahoo Wahoo!
Top: Tim Wong, Paul Jackson, Brian Johnson
Bottom: Mike Wodkowski, Dana Wodkowski, Dana MacElwee

This big Yahoo Wahoo that Paul Jackson caught in the mid nineties put up quite a fight. It hit a dead, but still very shinny Spanish mackerel! And of course it did all the things that a Yahoo Wahoo does, which is run and run and run! At the time Paul owned the Garden Bistro Restaurant, which was located at the Oglethorpe Mall. When ordered, his patrons got to experience the real taste of fresh fish. With that being said this 60 pound plus Wahoo made for dozens and dozens of fish dinners! So therefore this fish became for the moment a Cash Cow!


Thanks for reading! Captain Judy


What I remember about office