• Savannah Georgia - Fishing Report

    Miss Judy Charters
    http://www.missjudycharters.com
  • Miss Judy Charters provides Inshore fishing, Offshore fishing, and Gulf Stream fishing charters. Whether it's sport fishing for the serious angler or a leisurely day for the family, we have the trip for you. We have been fishing in Savannah, Tybee and adjacent waters for over 50 years. We have the knowledge for your inshore and offshore fishing adventure.

  • Savannah Georgia - Fishing Report

    Starting with the first row of fish, first two large fish are amberjack better known as reef donkeys! Then we have 8 rows of very nice black sea bass of assorted sizes. Next is the gray trigger fish show row, which is the only fish that I know of that likes to trip it own trigger! And last but certainly not least are a few vermilion snapper better known as b-liners.


    Front row: Wayne Torres his son Rube (19) Weston Branch, and Captain Kathy
    Back row: Danny Webster, his son Daniel, Captain Judy, and Miss Judy Too



    A picture that I could put a thousand words too, but I will shorten it up a bit. While offshore fishing with Captain Judy Helmey and Captain Kathy Brown this team caught, kept, and released some very nice fish. What were we using as bait? Squid wings! What are squid wings? It is the wing part of the squid that had no entrails! Once cut up in small pieces it makes for great bait hanging on the hook. Why? Putting the small piece of squid on the hook keeps the exposed hook point closer to getting embedded in the fish’s lip! When targeting bottom fish such as these in the above picture you have to use some sort of circle hook. I suggest using an offset circle hook. Going with this style hook enables the one holding the rod, (that would be you) to set the hook once you feel the fish take any sort of nibble. When baiting up I suggest using small square cut pieces of squid! Why? Like I said this application enable the exposed hook’s point to do it job!


    I forgot to mention that the squid wings that we use for bait are cut from 60 pound squid!


    Fish On!

    While inshore fishing with Captain Justin Rahn of Miss Judy Charters James Morgan caught some beautiful fish! From the looks of what’s on the cleaning table fresh spotted sea trout is on the dinner menu tonight! I might add that is some nice size trout too! What did they eat? Well, their favorite was live shrimp presented under popping corks! It seems after the cast and cork splash down took place all it took was two snaps of the rod and the trout came a swimming! I bet you thought I was going to write, “Came a running?” I almost did!

    While inshore fishing with Captain Justin Rahn of Miss Judy Charters Terry and Lucky had a big catching day. While using live shrimp under traditional adjustable floats they caught a plenty. By the way this is what they kept and they released the rest! So what’s for breakfast lunch and dinner? For breakfast fried whiting and grits, for lunch crispy fried trout fingers with fries, and for dinner grilled spotted sea trout with a side order of black skillet fried crispy scored flounder with papaya chutney! Now I am not too fond of eating fish! However, I love to write about and cook it!

    While offshore fishing with Captain Judy Helmey of Miss Judy Charters Daniel Webster Jacksonville, Fla caught the beautiful male black sea bass!

    Who is this? The Snap-Ette Sisters! Captain Alli DeYoung and Captain Kathy Brown of Miss Judy Charters are doing what they do best, which is sporting a big time smile!

    While bottom fishing offshore with Captain Judy of Miss Judy Charters Weston Branch St Simons Island, Georgia caught this beautiful amberjack! What did it inhale? One small Ruby Red Lips better known as a Tomtate!
    Inshore fishing


    What’s new to report inshore?
    The flounder bite has been very good! While using live shrimp under small adjustable floats, Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters has been bringing some really nice flounder back to the dock. For those of you that want to give this fishing a try now is the time...your boat or ours!





    Talk about some nice looking fishers! From left to right: Justin Tidewell, Megan Thiede, Becky Thiede, and Robert Barlow (all from Phoenix and Tucson Arizona) All fishers are hooked with a bottom fish some being legal some not! The bottom line to the fishing trip is this...they never stopped fishing and the fish never stopped biting! All fish were caught fought and released back to the wild. Captain Kathy decided to keep a few black fish, vermilion, and trigger fish! On the big fish catching side they caught fought and released some really nice reef sharks, sand bars, and nurse sharks! Some of the sharks were as long as Megan and Becky are tall! Got to love those stats!

    While offshore fishing with Captain Judy Helmey of Miss Judy Charters Becky Thiede Tucson, Arizona caught this nice soon to be released genuine red snapper!



    Captain Kathy Brown of Miss Judy Charters is holding up a nice summer trout better known as a weak fish! This fish was caught while plain old bottom fishing with a small piece of cut squid!


    What’s new to report offshore at the artificial reefs?


    Artificial Reefs in less than 50 feet of water are holding some very nice schools of summer trout. We caught them on plain old squid. However, this is a fish that loves shrimp in any form in which you care to present them!


    Artificial reefs in more than 50 feet of water are holding some very nice Spanish/king mackerel and Atlantic Bonita! These fish can be caught over the structure by trolling lures/spoons or pitching in some sort of shinny bling!


    While plain old bottom fishing at either under or over 50 feet artificial reefs there is a very solid chance of catching lots of undersize, almost legal, and some legal black sea bass. Now you can add summer trout, pig fish, trigger fish, white grunts, white bone porgy, ring tail perch, and other biters.



    Get you cobia candy jigs ready! Don’t forget the white plastic eel! Where do you get them?


    https://nuts-and-bolts-of-fishing-bo.../on-line-store
    Here’s a nice cobia that could not pass up a blue/white cobia candy jig with a white plastic eel threaded on the hook. How did we get this fish’s attention? We cast in the jig, let it fall about 10 feet, stop it, and started jigging. The cobia chased, nipped, attacked, and charged it until it got the main attraction, which is the hook! The secret to using the method of presenting is to never stop moving your lure up and down in the water column. Believe me it will trigger a serious bite from this fish! Resulting in a fast hit and stronger hook up! In regards to the allusive cobia! We have seen a few, but haven’t caught any!





    While plain old bottom fishing with a small piece of cut squid Justin Tidwell Phoenix, Arizona caught the prefect keeping size genuine red snapper! Did I mention that according to those that govern our fisheries that the genuine red snapper, way back when were overfished, and have not made a comeback? I think most fishermen whether they are fishing in Georgia or Florida would have to agree that someone had made a very big mistake or should I say, “A Confused calculation!” It would seem that after all of the genuine red snapper that have been caught fought and released in just about every depth from 40 to 130 feet of water while fishing live and artificial bottom that someone would consider making a change! If not a thing else consider letting us keep just one fish per person!



    While offshore fishing with Captain Judy Helmey of Miss Judy Charters Robert Barlow Phoenix, Arizona caught fought and we released a genuine red snapper! On this day, we probably caught fought and released over a dozen healthy genuine red snapper. Once again, we caught this allusive fish! Boy, we are good!
    Now in comes the rub of it all! Due to the fact that schools of assorted sized genuine red snapper are controlling most of the upper water column over the ledges we have now started catching these fish on our flat lines. What’s a flat line? It is a light tackle line baited with a live fish or one rigged with ballyhoo that you only allow to drop about 25 feet into the water column. In my case I let it out just until I can no longer see the live fish a swimming or the ballyhoo a flashing! What does this all boil down to is the fact that there are so many red snapper in these areas that your flat line aka king mackerel line is catching them! I got to tell you the other day when the flat line was hit a customer picked up the rod, started reeling, and we started moving around fast trying to get the gaff in ready position. On my boat we don’t usually take out the gaff until we see what we have hooked up! Why? We are a little on the superstitious side when in this mode. I know it sounds crazy, but getting the gaff out too soon might result in a lost fish! Crazy? Right? Please see Little Miss Judy’s Believe it or not at the end of this report it will explain somewhat the superstition of why Bananas on a boat in some cases is as scary as Snakes on a plane!
    Freshies Report!



    It is time to get your stripes ON!


    Cuz Captain Mickey reports that the lake is truly starting to be productive and is making things quite nice to produce some nice memories. We are catching fish on free lines and the top water artificial bite is almost ready and I’m so excited! Captain Judy says, “What does all of this boil down too?” It is time to go, because now you know! Give Captain Mickey a call today! (470 262 6035) Just do it!


    Freshies Report by Captain Mickey Holbrook Miss Judy Charter’s freshwater connection!


    My Cuz Captain Mickey Holbrook owner and operator of MAD GILLZ Fishing Guide Service! Captain Cuz is a member in very good standing with the gangster side of our family! And that is all I am going to say about that! And the best news is none of us have done any sort of prison time! Captain Mickey is also old time fishing friends with
    Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters


    So therefore any of you want to do a little fresh water fishing I highly suggest giving Captain 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 Lake Lanier fresh water connection is Cuz Captain Mickey Holbrook! And I approved this message times two!
    Little Miss Judy’s Believe It Or Not!

    This is my father Captain Sherman I Helmey and Judy Dog. To get you up to speed, way back when, all boats were called Judy, all dogs were called Judy, and my name was Judy. When, my father started screaming “Judy” I nor the dog didn’t know whether he was calling for Judy dog or Judy daughter! But here’s the thing, we both would “come a running!”

    The Bananas or not story!


    I have been fishing for many years and if I have heard this phrase one time, I have heard it dozens of times! And this would be, “Do not bring any bananas on board my boat!” The fishermen saying this are either seriously seasoned or not. This could mean that you are a true believer in bad luck bananas or you were taught to be one for sure!
    The younger fishermen can’t tell you why this is so, but for some reason they are carrying on the Bad Bananas Story tradition! They are so sure it will bring them bad luck that to this day I still see bananas left out on my picnic table. They basically harp on this subject of bad luck bananas endlessly!


    Over the years I have known of fishing tournaments that have been lost, because supposedly a banana was hidden somewhere on their boat. Heck, back in the old days, just a person mentioning to a fishing crew that they hid a banana on their boat meant they might as well not even leave the dock. If they did all the crew would have been doing is, I guess, looking for that banana. Well, to be honest, I was never brought into the banana superstition thing! And believe me I am considered one of the oldest salts around this area. However, I do believe that if fishermen think that this will bring them bad luck, well, nine times out of ten, it certainly will! So therefore I won’t argue with the fact that fishermen have superstitions, because I have quite a few myself! And I would be happy to share some of these, but I will save this story for another time!

    Bananas on boats!


    Back in the real old time shipping days it was quickly determined that when bananas were shipped with other fruit something very strange happened. The strange thing, which we all are certainly aware of at this day, is that bananas cause other fruits to ripen too quickly! I am sure that many a wooden vessel arrived with overly ripen fruit before the cause was determined. Once this was confirmed it changed the old fruit shipping industry forever! This all boiled down to you had boats full of all of kinds of fruit minus bananas. And then you had banana boats! Now this is where it gets interesting.


    Let’s first let’s talk about grog!


    Back in the early 1800’s most all seamen were guarantee upon availability a certain ration of water per day. However, water quite often became rancid due to the bacteria growing process, which took place especially when hot conditions prevailed. It was then determined that a little added liquor/rum killed “those would be bad inhabitants” that were trying to survive in the rancid water. It also made the water sport a much bearable taste while making the seamen a little happier! And thus the term grog was born, which is made with rancid water rum/liquor. Now this is one drink I wouldn’t care too much for. With this information, it is easy to understand the fact that some sea stories might have been just that. I mean after all, drinking alcohol clouds your judgment and also provides brain juices, which aid in creating some overly embellished stories. In my case grog not needed, but I am certainly not above giving this drink a solid try!



    With drinks being served with 1 part water and 3 part rum sea monster stories were spun and spun! This is just one account of how a giant cephalopod attacked the vessel causing men to abandon ship! This story is almost too good to be true, but in the minds of those telling it and those backing up the claims it is the real darn deal!

    So now I am going to share with you possibly one way that these stories were sprung during the so called Banana Boat Hauling Adventures. Sailors got their ration of grog about three times a day, which by the way kept them in a happy talkative mood. Their boats were packed below deck with hundreds of bunches of bananas. Firstly, according to stories shared when bananas are in the growing mode they attract lots of spiders. I mean that spiders of all types set up housekeeping for sure! So therefore when a stalk of bananas was cut down and hauled to the ship the spiders that live within basically were transported with. Now think about this, one stalk of bananas might have a dozens of spiders, but hundreds of them could have thousands of different types of these poisonous to non-poisonous multi legged creatures. It is a known fact, once a spider finds that it’s only way out of a situation is to climb up, well, the upper ship’s deck especially in this case becomes their next staging platform.
    So I guess here’s where the root of the where it’s bad to have bana
    nas onboard stories really might have gotten started! The more they drank the bigger the spiders got! And then the mega hungry squid showed up and what happened next? The big bad most unreal Kraken made its debut!



    Please meet the 1800’s version of the tale told about the Kraken! Pretty scary and drinking most likely was involved! Captain Steve “Triple Trouble” Howell knew someone that was told by another at least 100 times that this really did happen! So therefore the Kraken is not a myth it is the real deal!


    Thanks for reading! Captain Judy


    Front row: Wayne Torres his son Rube (19) Weston Branch, and Captain Kathy
    Back row: Danny Webster, his son Daniel, Captain Judy, and Miss Judy Too
  • Search Fishin.com

  • GA Power Lake Levels

  • Recent Articles