So therefore
Please meet Cameron Cohn and J.D. Morgan as well as Cameron’s “smoker king mackerel!” (Of Savannah, Georgia this picture was taken August 23, 2010) Before this fish took the bait it sky rocketed cutting it in half. When the fish fell back into the water it swallowed the part with the hooks. When this happened it was “Game ON TIME!” The fish made two hard runs and the fight lasted about 10 minutes. Congratulations Cameron! Nice Fish!
In 2010..Padgett Mixon's "secret" numbers put them on fish!
The king was caught while slow trolling the artificial reef “J Buoy” located in about 65 feet of water. According to the report Padgett Mixon’s secret live bottom numbers put this fishing crew on fish! For bait they were using a live ocean porgy rigged on to a standard king rig. A standard king rig is light pound test wire (20 to 40 pounds single strand) and small live bait lead hooks and a treble hook in tow also know as the stinger. (Live bait hooks #4, #6, to 1/0 size hook. Treble hooks from #10, #8 to #6 sizes are best to use.) I suggest when purchasing any of your hooks that your first decide what size baits that you are going to use. The larger the bait the better chances you have for a bigger fish bite. However, your hooks used need to match the bait used. This boils down to small bait small hooks and so on! No matter what you don’t want your hooks used to detour your bait from acting normal.
King mackerel do have quite a bit of “Attitude!”
This information is still right on!
To catch a king you need to know a little about them. Once this fish’s big brown eyes focus on what it going to kill and then eat they go into “attack mode.” The fish’s first move is to disable the baitfish either with one strike or two!” If it’s one strike “the deal is done!” However, if the king decides to make the first pass a disabling one, as Cameron’s did, it takes the bait’s tail off first. Heck, a big fish knows that a smaller fish can’t swim without a tail. Once the baitfish is hit it should start to fall in the water column. This is when the angler needs to do a bit of free spooling so as to let the bait naturally fall. Once it starts to fall the king makes a turn and then eats the part it wanted in the first place, which is the head and the middle part. Now you know the rest of this king mackerel feeding story!
Back to the year of 2017......Inshore fishing report!
Well, I got to tell you; our inshore water temps have been on a roller coaster ride for sure. A couple of weeks ago as I was heading out to the Savannah Snapper Banks the water temperature in the creek and sound were about 51 degrees. I was shocked to say the least. And I am sure that the fish swimming in it were too! We had a week of 51 to 58 water temperatures. For the most part, which I thought was unbelievable, the fish bite, at least in some areas was not affected. I received several reports for inshore fishermen that couldn’t find a fish to bite while others fishers did quite well! There was absolutely no rhythm or reasoning behind this bite pattern. Then this past week the water temperatures went to 61 degrees, which turned the bite on, but only in some areas. Now it is cold again, but water temps are still holding at around 55 degrees! The inshore fish bite is once again scattered, but doable. That is, if you can avoid some possible rainy conditions and wait for the warming sunshine! All and all it is going to be a great week! And while I am writing this the inshore bite is back on.
This is a cormorant, which I have always called a fish bird! During cold water times the cormorant are “deep hole seekers” especially those located in the creeks. When cold water temperatures push wintering shrimp into deep holes these birds go into sort of a holding pattern. Normally about 6 birds will paddle in place either up or down current of the hole. If you watch close enough you will find that they as group develop somewhat of a feeding pattern. Sometimes, two birds will dive at the same time leaving the latter ones paddling in place. After a few minutes, they switch, and the ones on the surface take a diving turn. And no matter what, it seems that when these birds surface, there is always something hanging out of their bill.
We are still catching some nice keeper spotted sea trout! However, there have been days where all you could catch was spotted sea trout that were ¼ inch too short to keep! The red fish bite has been very good, that’s if you happen to be in the right place at the right time. Our captains have caught flounder, whiting, sheepshead, and black drum. Our inshore bite has pretty much stayed with a fall/winter bite design. And now it is back to the colder temps and I bet the water temperatures are going to fall again! So here’s my inshore report..It doesn’t matter whether it is cold or not I suggest giving inshore fishing a try...WHY? Because some fish are going into hibernation while others are not. So there is lots of confusion, which means them fish got to eat!
We are still catching shrimp in the creeks. It is a mixture of white and brown shrimp! For those fishermen that enjoy deep dropping in holes with the old cast net, it is your time to give this a try. I have been seeing the cormorants hanging down current of the deep holes in the creek. Normally when this happens, it means the shrimp have started migrating and are holding deep in the holes.
2018 Inshore/Offshore Fishing Clinics
February 24, 2018 Saturday and February 25, 2018 Sunday
On inshore/offshore boats in the water
$135.00 per person for inshore
$150.00 per person for offshore
Time: 8:00AM till12:00 NOON
Snacks and drinks provided by Captain Judy
Place: Miss Judy Charters dock
202 Wilmington Island Road
Savannah, Georgia 31410
912 897 4921 for more details!
2018 Inshore Subjects and handouts:
All those fishermen attending inshore classes on the boats in the water classes will receive what is biting best Inshore when 2018 fishing calendar! 2018 Tracking Fish Chart! Special techniques for targeting and catching red fish, spotted sea trout, sheepshead, and Flounder Trophy Reds & Gator Trout Tarpon Fishing Traditional adjustable and popping cork float fishing techniques, Learn how to take advantage and use the “Pecking Order” Basic Drifting & bottom fishing & 360 degrees line, Learn the value of rips, Best Times to catch your own bait and where to look, Structure and its value: Sand Bars, mud flats, oyster bars, rocks, docks, and rips, Suspended baits, pinching of baits (mashing) Live baits: mud minnows, shrimp, menhaden, and mullet, Triple tail catching techniques, Value Plus of trolling motors, Artificial bait techniques, Advantages of shrimp boats to fishermen, and Ask any questions that you might have and we will try to answer them! Captains on board will...be Captain Matt Williams, Captain Tommy Williams, Captain Garrett Ross, Captain Kevin Rose, and Captain Alan Collins
2018 Inshore Handout Booklet
My handout booklets are updated every year. It’s has plenty of detailed fishing information on best tackle and bait to use, rig illustrations, drawings showing techniques for fishing around buoys, shrimp boats, and birds. Shows best times to target fish when and where by each month.
2018 Offshore Fishing Clinic
February 24, 2018 Saturday and February 25, 2018 Sunday on offshore boats in the water
$150.00 per person
Time: 8:00AM till12:00 NOON
Snacks and drinks provided by Captain Judy
Place: Miss Judy Charters dock
202 Wilmington Island Road
Savannah, Georgia 31410
To make reservations or for more information, please contact Captain Judy
912 897 4921 office Email: Fishjudy2@aol.com
2018 Offshore Subjects and handout:
Log Book Procedures, How to catch the best bait and when, How to keep your bait alive, How to cut your bait up, Baiting up techniques, How to rig up when using live and dead bait, Artificial Reef Fishing Techniques, old school rigging ballyhoo techniques, butter-flying bait, Best Bottom Rigs for this area and how to make them yourself, slow, medium, and high speed trolling techniques, how to rig for large bottom fish, advantage of shrimp boats to fishermen, best flat line techniques, Sheepshead fishing/anchoring techniques, offshore flounder techniques, cobia fishing made easy, how to fish live bottom, wrecks, and rips. And you can ask questions and take pictures. Onboard will be Captain Ken Kennickell, Captain Deidra Helmey Jeffcoat, Captain Kathy Brown, and Captain Judy Helmey will be teaching and telling some fine fish catching stories!
Fishing techniques for: live bait Spanish sardines and cigar minnows, Spanish/king mackerel, large sharks, cobia, trophy red fish, sheepshead, flounder offshore, black fish, vermilion, triggerfish, as well as other bottom biters, genuine red snapper, grouper, amberjack, and Mahi Mahi!
2018 Offshore Handout Booklet
My hand out booklet is updated every year. It’s has plenty of detailed fishing information on best tackle and bait to use, rig illustrations, drawings showing techniques for fishing around buoys, shrimp boats, and birds. GPS fishing coordinates are included for west/south east live bottom areas located at artificial reef “J” and live bottom areas to fish at the North, Middle, and South Snapper Banks. There might be a genuine red snapper season in 2018; GPS coordinates furnished could help you find the fish that you are looking for! I say, “Why wait to learn, when you can find out now some of the secret top ways of fishing from the pros!” Thanks Captain Judy
While inshore fishing with Captain Kevin Rose of Miss Judy Charters and his father Greg, Mitchell McCarty caught this nice trophy red fish! According to this story told Mitchell out fished his father two to one!
From left to right...Sarah and Jason Fountain Dawsonville, Georgia, Captain Stephen Thompson and Cameron Cohn! Sarah and Jason were taking a quick holiday visit to Savannah; Captain Stephen is on his last couple days as a full time charter boat captain. He starts school in January and will run charters part time. Stephen’s long time childhood friend, Cameron is home from college for the holidays!
While inshore fishing with Captain Stephen Thompson and Cameron Cohn ...Sarah and Jason Fountain of Dawsonville, Georgia had a catching blast. What did they catch? Lots of slot red fish and even some larger ones that they had to release back to the wild! What were they using as bait? Live shrimp! Where did they catch them? In the mouth! I bet you thought I was going to say, “In the water!”
Captain Stephen Thompson of Miss Judy Charters and Cameron Cohn of Savannah are showing us exactly what a fist full of red fish really looks like! Now everyone knows the rest of the story!
Sara and Jason Fountain of Dawsonville, Georgia had a catching blast inshore fishing with Captain Stephen Thompson of Miss Judy Charters. Sara is holding a nice red fish, which won hands down as being the one that had the most unusual spots for the day. This red fish developed a certain spot pattern, which must have worked or it wouldn’t have grown them in the first place. Red fish are known for sporting some usual spots, but this fish had a pattern that it certainly stuck with. It had three prefect sets of three eyes. I call this the Cyclops eye affect! What is that? Two regular eyes and an extra Cyclops eye However, it might have gotten away with scaring off the dolphin, but it didn’t count on Sarah’s hook set! Now you know the rest of the story! According to my father and now me, red fish grow a spot on their tail every time they escape the hungry jaws of a dolphin. It seems Sarah’s fish thought outside of the box and came to the conclusion that three eyes patterns were better than two!
What’s a Frizzle?
From left to right: Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters, Jack Nowakowski Oklahoma, and Chad Bost, Hinesville Georgia
Chad Bost Hinesville, Georgia and Jack Nowakowski Oklahoma had a great day while inshore fishing with Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters. This is what they caught and the rest is still swimming! While targeting red fish this fishing team caught a lot of spotted sea trout that were almost keepers! What is an almost keeper spotted sea trout? Almost the legal keeping size of 14 inches, but a just a frizzle to short! What is a frizzle? When talking in terms of measuring a fish a frizzle is not a measurement. It is the length of the tail that almost meets the legal size on the ruler, but just isn’t! Legally a frizzle is just short of being a legal fish.Stay away from keeping just a frizzle to short fish...and I suggest considering staying away from a fish that is just a fizzle too long. Why? Because sometimes fish do a little frizzle of shrinking!
Savannah Snapper Banks
No matter when you go you really never know what you might catch. However, if it is grouper that you are looking for ...this season closes on January 2018 and doesn’t reopen until May 1 2018....
Gulf Stream
Yes it is a run and the weather needs to be perfect, but if you get a chance to go I suggest doing so! During this time and until early spring off our coast we have a pretty serious Wahoo and black fin tuna bite. Heck you might even catch a Mahi Mahi, king mackerel or African pompano! Bottom fishing is very good in 155 to 250 feet of water.
Little Miss Judy’s Believe It or Not!
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