A serious bait catching team! And a nice looking one too!
Front row: Jim Beisel, his daughter Emma, Gerry Heebner
Back row: Charlie Ferrell, Keenan Osborne, and Kelli Beisel
In less than an hour this bait catching team caught over 100 baits. What kind of baits? Spanish sardines, horny bellies, cigar minnows, parrot fish, and squid! What did we do with them? It was a “catch and release” kind of a fishing boat riding day!
Captain Kathy Brown of Miss Judy Charters is assisting Kelli Beisel, which has clearly caught a stringer of fish!
Artificial reefs
We are still catching Spanish/king mackerel and barracuda. Not much bottom fishing at the reefs yet. However, a change is in the air!
For us that fish all of the time, it is easy to identify
If you are fishing in your own boat, please make sure that you pick up a copy of the 2017 Georgia Sport Fishing Regulation booklet. (where? most marinas and stores that sale tackle and boats have free copies) It is a great read and has some very helpful information for catching, keeping, and knowing.
Keenan Osborne Savannah Georgia has all 8 hooks locked and loaded! Captain Kathy Brown is showing him the way! Many years ago I had a customer that fished with me that always wanted to catch lots of bait fish before heading out to the snapper banks. The plan was to always catch about 200 bait fish. Now here’s the thing 100 of the first select bait fish went directly into their cooler. The preferred bait fish was always cigar minnows or Spanish sardines. I had to ask, do your scale the Spanish sardines and gut all of the small fish? (Which I was secretly hoping that the answer would be yes) and it was! Thanks goodness! I always wished I had gotten this receipt! So if you are that customer or someone that would like to share this recipe with all of us please contact me 912 897 4921 or email fishjudy2@aol.com! Heck, I would have to try it for sure!
Charlie Ferrell, Savannah Georgia has caught a fish on each hook! What is using for bait? Its call a sabiki bait rig. And there are many varieties of this type rig on the tackle shelves, believe me when I say this, “I can tell, which ones will work or not!” Here’s a tip, most of the time the rigs made with any sort of attached tassels tend to scare the bait fish off! Maybe not all of the time, but most of the time! The type of bait rig that I use is made with small gold hooks that are laced with piece of fish skin. Once introduced back into the water fish can’t resist the lure of it. I call this re-pagination! Yes, it is a Captain Judy-ism!
This is the bait rig that I prefer to use. Now, it is not the only one that will work. Here are a few tips when purchasing bait rigs: I like green heads on my bait hooks. However, I know that red and other colors will also work. I suggest always choosing bait rigs that have some sort of fish skin attached. This rig has that feature.
Green heads and fish skin really does get the attention of bait fish. Once you feel tugs I suggest reeling in right away, because if you don’t the fish hooked with swim in circles tangling your rig. Or a bigger fish will have a quick lunch while destroying your bait rig. As far as the best size weight I like using 2 ounce trout sinkers and or 3 to 4 ounce bank sinkers. I always suggest soaking your new sinkers, which will remove some of the shine. Shinny sinkers attract all size fish and it is just about guarantee that you won’t keep it long! Lets talk about the discarding of your bait rig. I know it take time to do this but a plastic bottle makes for a great place to put your discarded bait rig in.
Savannah Banks
No matter what I say go if you can because there is one I can say when there is a 100 feet of water involved...you just never know just what might bite your hook! Thanks for reading! Captain Judy
Little Miss Judy’s Believe It Or Not!
Mitchell’s Log Cabin Store on Wilmington Island It is not there now, but I still can remember visiting this place as if it were only yesterday!
Pretend this is a stuffed rattlesnake sitting on a counter and looking straight at you…and if it bites you in this scenario here’s the cure…Please don’t try this cure with regular live rattlesnake bites! Back in the fifties there was a two story log cabin and it was Archie Mitchell’s Wilmington Island grocery store, which had a meat counter and several rows of dry goods from flour to cookies. I do believe that his bar was the first sport bar that I have ever been in much less heard of. Mr. Mitchell had a large or what was consider big screen in the fifties sitting on a shelf in the corner of the bar, a large moose head mounted on the wall, and plenty of tables for you balance your drinks. At the back of the so called back then sport bar was a door that I was told to never open. Of course as a child I wanted so badly, but never did. I can say for sure, than normally when my father told me not to do something I somehow did it anyway and always seemed to get away with it. However, my father told me that this door and whatever was behind it wasn’t for young eyes. I had never been told that before. So you must know I never did open that door, but I certainly wish I had!
Rattlesnake bites at Archie Mitchell’s store and their cure Wilmington Island Style!
My Uncle Bobby author of “Lemon Dance” emailed me some very interesting information in regards to Archie’s Mitchell’s store.
According to his story, Mitchell’s was a great place to visit and lots of folks would stop by on their way home from work. On a counter in the store was large stuffed rattle snake, which Archie had killed on Wilmington Island. Archie had it stuffed so as to make persons aware of the serious snake population on the Island. He said “It might help people to be aware of where they stepped!” When Uncle Bobby told me about the snake I could not remember for the life of me seeing that snake. However, after I thought about it that snake was most likely right there, but my father never brought it to my attention. Since my father was deathly afraid of snakes, he might have thought that it would have caused me to have nightmares.
At any rate Archie owner of Mitchell’s store killed a snake on Wilmington Island and it was a big one, too. According to Uncle Bobby it looked so real that you might jump if you hadn’t thought about it being there on the counter. Uncle Bobby told me that this poor dead as well as stuffed rattle snake became involved in many a cover up story. There was this one time that a local had stopped by for a few beers and ending up having more than usual. When he finally arrived home late while being completely intoxicated his wife asked where the heck have you been? Well, he said, “I was at Archie’s aka Mitchells having a few beers, when that snake jumped up and bit me. Archie told me the only antidote for this particular snake bite was to drink at least 13 Pabst Blue Ribbon Beers. Since I had already drank two I went on and had 11 more as quick as I could!”
And now you know a little about how life went on Wilmington Island!!!
Thanks for reading! Captain Judy
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