If it’s your first it might as well be a good one!
While fishing with Captain Alan Collins of Miss Judy Charters Cindy Turek of Jacksonville, Florida caught this……
Cindy Turek while visiting from Jacksonville, Floride went fishing or should I say catching with Captain Alan Collins. She fought, caught, tagged, and released her fish. Captain Alan has tagged a lot of red fish and feels that tagging is very important for research. According to Captain Alan about 98 percent of the fish that he has tagged get the returned information showing where the fish has been and how much it has grown. Captain Alan has reported on nurmerous time at most of his tagged fish are re-caught in about the same area. With that in mind… Captain Alan suggests…when you do come across a school of redfish the idea of keeping all you can every time from the same school will most likely fish this school out. With that being said if you do catch a tagged fish please write down tag number, phone number, where you caught it, and the measurement of the fish. For your efforts they will send you information on how much the fish grew, how far it moved, and you may even get a cap or t-shirt. Thanks Captain Alan.
Tagging a fish puts a lot of things into action! It offers fishermen a lot of opportuinty to know more about the fish that they are targeting!
It’s time to keep your net handy!
Every now and then we do catch one of these flat fish also known as flounder offshore while bottom fishing. For inshore fishermen that want to give flounder fishing a try now is the time. They are burrowed down in a place near you waiting for that prefect meal to be delievered and hopefully it’s your bait!
Inshore Report
Finger Mullet are great baits when targeting the larger inshore fish!
Fishing inshore has finally picked up! That statement right there should make all fishermen feel a little better. Live shrimp continues to be the bait of choice for spotted sea trout, red fish, and flounder. However, with the hot conditions prevailing larger experienced fish prefer bigger baits over smaller ones. After all if it’s spending the energy it might as well get the best out of it. With that being said, “Finger mullet makes for great bait especially when targeting a larger fish!” My father used to always say, “The bigger the bait the bigger the fish!” Well, in this case it just might be true.
Captain Matt Williams is showing us his secret lipped hooked finger mullet set up! How do you work this type of bait: You can use under a popping cork with three foot of leader or under a traditional adjustable float or using a Carolina rig. The Carolina Rig approach is my favorite, because once cast into place you can move every few seconds relocating your bait widening you opportunity for a more solid hook up. And the best news is although you have anchored your bait with a Carolina rig it is not limited to natural movement.
Tarpon and Ocean Menhaden
The tarpon also known as “silver kings” are running like mad on the beachfronts. Just watching a tarpon as is crashes a school of ocean menhaden is simple amazing. You can see the fish as well as pieces of fish as they go flying up into the air with each impact of a tarpon running through. And where you see a tarpon feeding it’s an opportunity to catch one. Best bait is going to be menhaden used live or dead. I suggest giving pieces of menhaden a try. The reason being is a tarpon does not have teeth so it goes more for the right size to swallow quickly. So give them what they want!
When a tarpon slices and dices through a school of menhaden there are lots of parts flying about and some of those pieces are not picked up. Those parts making it to the bottom are later picked up by the fish that just caused them to be there. With at being said, “Cut your menhaden into bite size parts and fish your bait right on the bottom!” Yes, you are going to catch sharks, but your might catch a silver king too!
Savannah River Channel better known as the Tybee Roads
There have been a few reports of Spanish mackerel schooling in this area. So if you want your best chance at catching this fish I suggest you at least start where they have been seen before.
Artificial Reefs
The artificial reefs located in less than 50 feet of water are holding the attentions of lots of black sea bass. However, not the legal to keep size of 13 inches tail length. On an average 6 fishermen can catch and release about 200 fish in a two hour fishing period. Our four hour offshore trips have been a hit for those fishermen that love this sort of count.
The artificial reefs in more than 50 feet of water are showing signs of improvement. We are now catching some keeper black sea bass. On the last couple artificial reefs trips our customer brought home about 25 to 35 fish black sea bass. Although this is about 50% less then we catch in the spring and fall, it is still good. However, if the top water fish ever show up our catches will certainly be a lot better.
Savannah Snapper Banks
Believe it or not, but there is an offshore pecking order!
This is a white bone porgy. The red porgy and knobbed porgy are this fish’s first cousins. Normally when you catch a white bone porgy it means the current feeding pattern has ended and a new one is just about to start. I know it sounds crazy, but it is very true. So once we caught this fish I moved back to my original catching spot to get in front of the changing of the feeding guards!
The ocean perch also known as the ring tail perch are this fish’s third cousins of the white bone porgy once removed! When you start catching the white bone porgy, reel your bait up a few feet up into the water column and you will get hooked up ring tail perch style!
Bottom fishing is just plain fun!
Bottom fishing in 100 feet of water also known as the Savannah Snapper banks is interesting and good….the reason being is when you drop your hook at this depth you really never know what might bite your hook…best bottom baits are cut squid, cut squid and cut fish combo, Spanish sardines halves and squid combo, and then change it up..you won’t believe the catching difference it will make…
Jacky Fiori and Captain Kathy Brown holding her just caught genuine red snapper
Bounce and Pounce Method of Catching Big Bottom fishing
During this time of the year you really never know what might bite your hook when you drop it 100 feet down. Here’s is a tip that has worked for me for years. I use a Caroline rig type rig with an 8 ounce egg sinker. If the drift is not too strong this amount of weight will keep your bait at the right depth. The length of the leader used can vary, but in most cases the longer the better. Sometimes I have been known to use a leader as long as 30 feet. The best length is around 15 feet and this should get the job done. Rig up with nice size bait such as a ruby red lips, vermillion snapper, sand perch, or rock bass, drop it to the bottom and reel up half the length of your leader. In my case this would be about 7 to 8 turns on my 4/0 Penn Senator reel. Then it’s best to put your rod in the rod holder and forget about it. Even when it gets a small nibble, forget about it. However, if the hit turns into a big time pulling match I suggest trying to get the rod out of the holder so as to get some of the line back. After this move the rest is up to you to try and get this big fish to the boat.
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