• Savannah Inshore Fishing Report - GA

    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 Inshore Fishing Report - GA

    While inshore fishing with Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters took Joshua Flippo Rincon, Georgia and Jason Salzer visiting from Wyoming had a great sheepshead catching day! On the fish cleaning table are eleven nice sheepshead that were caught while fishing inshore. This is what they kept, not what they caught. All they needed was enough for a dinner with family and friends. Joshua and Jason caught these fish while using purple back fiddlers as bait. Now this past Saturday might have looked like the perfect sunny fish day. However, the winds were howling and there was a raging 9 foot tide. What does all of this mean? Well, it should have been one of those stay at home kind of fishing days. However, Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters showed them the catching way! And what does all of this really mean? They had fish for dinner!





    This is a periwinkle snail. Where do you find them? In the marsh why am I bringing this up? Well, I though you would never ask! This snail plays a big part when it comes to a red fish and their desires to eat something that comes wrapped in a shell. You can find these snails from the edge of the grass all the way to the bank. Why am I telling you about this? Because being a “snail watcher” just might be in your future! Why? Well, when the snails sense harm coming their way they climb way up on the grass! What does this mean to a fisherman looking for the whereabouts of red fish? This snail is high on the red fish’s eating desires! Let’s re-cap....where you got snails a swaying in the wind and hanging on to the tops of marsh grass YOU GOT HUNGRY RED FISH TRYING TO FEED DOWN UNDER!

    What was this? It called a red fish ring! What is a red fish ring? Well, when a red fish swims it produces a push, which results in a wake producing rings. I was standing with camera in ready go, when this school of rat reds flashed by. A couple of fish pushed into much too shallow water and had to back track. Then the whole school went stealth. Hey, at least I could still see the rings!


    Cold Water Reds
    With surface water temps reaching a balmy 51 degrees a somewhat of a fish thaw starts. Now we all know that if we have another real cold snap that this could all change. However, let’s just focus on the NOW! Even though we had a late morning high tide stage this past weekend.. as soon as the water started leaving the grass the reds moves to their precise locations on the flats. Since we had somewhat of a warming trend, those fishermen that braved the strong winds and the 9 foot tides had a much better catching outlook. Heck, after all the poor cold water reds got to move better, eat better, and swim better.


    Inshore sheepshead!
    It is a known fact that they sheepshead is definitely a cold water fish. Heck, it doesn’t seem to bother them at all. So therefore when they are hungry or when a fiddler just happens by they are going to grab it and **** the inside right out of it. Now sometimes the old sheepshead prefers to crush first and then eat. However, over my many years of sheepshead fishing I had seen this fish hit a fiddler so hard so fast that it can **** the insides out while leaving the empty shell still hanging on the hook. And believe me when this happen no respectable or smart hungry sheepshead is going to be interested in an empty fiddler shell. Heck, they might look at it, but they are 9 times out of 10 not going to hit it.



    This is just an example of places to look for inshore sheepshead. They love to feed on marine life that has grown on any sort of vertical structure, underwater wrecks that you can’t see, and rocks. Actually, just about anything that will support any sort of marine growth. And I am talking about whether or not it is exposed at low tide is not important. However, the best areas to target the inshore sheepshead are places that are still covered even after low tide such as trees, wrecks, debris, and etc. And I need to add that these places should only be known by you and the fish that feed around them! Now you know the rest of the story!


    Artificial Reefs and Savannah Snapper Banks


    I have people ask me all of the time if the fish are biting? And when is the best time to. And my standard answer especially for this time of the year is to just go. The bottom line is it doesn’t matter whether it’s your boat or mine it is just a great time to go fishing! The artificial reefs are holding some very nice sheepshead, black drum, trophy red fish, and flounder. The best bait is going to be anything from a purple back fiddler to dead shrimp to squid.


    And if you want a longer fish day I suggest giving the Savannah Snapper Banks a try. There are lots of different kinds of bottom fish just waiting to bite your hook. You could find yourself catching black sea bass, vermilion snapper, white bone porgy, red porgy, knobbed porgy, and triggerfish. Now just so you know there are more bottom biters. I just got tired of listing them! And when you start fishing in this depth the water temps dictates what type of top water fish that might be swimming in it. So to the already long list of what might be biting on the bottom you could find yourself catching some nice top water fish.


    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!”




    This photo was taken by Captain Ali Young, Miss Judy Charters sometimes in the mid-nineties!


    Now this is an oldie photo, but a darn goodie! Captain Judy and John Hubert (He has been cleaning fish for Miss Judy Charters for over 25 years! John is known as the fastest fish cleaner in town!) Oops, back in the old days electric knives were best operated while drinking beer! Just kidding!


    Ok, what is in the igloo coolers..well, normally once we transferred the fish from our cooler on the boat it would fill about two of these 180 quarts coolers. The fish box on the Miss Judy Too holds about 600 pounds of fish. These dock coolers are holding trigger fish, vermilion snapper, red snapper (genuine), grouper (snowy, gag, yellow mouth, scamp, etc), sand tile fish, black sea bass, porgy (white bone, knobbed, red) and heck some fish that we never could indentify. Most of these bottom fish during this time frame were caught while bottom fishing at the Bi-liner Hole, Triple ledge or the South ledge. There were other places such as “944 ledge, Table Top, The Mountains, Trigger hole, and I have to stop sometime!


    See the vertical galvanized pipe between me and John. Well, during this time, we had big state set of the art dock lights mounted on the top of these pipes at each end of the dock. Believe me when I say, “They were up there!” It was basically like daylight at night around our dock. And then we started getting lightning strikes just about every time a thunderstorm cared to pass! Lightning hit the dock, Miss Judy Too, and trees in the yard. Then there was one time that lightning hit this car in the yard so many times that no one would have believed it. To this day, why I didn’t take a picture I don’t know. There is one thing I am sure of and that’s the insurance company did for sure. When lighting hit the car the first time it caused the horn to start blowing and it didn’t stop until it killed the battery. And by the way it takes a long time for a car horn to kill your battery. I thought you might want to know that! Anyhow, it broke the wind shield and most of the side windows. The car exactly looked like it had a bomb thrown in it!
    Gulf Stream Bite!


    February is the month that all kinds of top water fish could be caught while strolling and trolling at the stream. The South Ledge has never let any of us down. It always seems to be able to hold the attentions of all kinds of fish from top, to mid column, and all the way to the bottom. Back in the day, when I fished this area a lot, I remember the building excitement that I felt while making way to the South Ledge fishing grounds. This feeling wasn’t about if we would catch it was about what we were going to catch! The fact of the matter is this area no matter the time of the year never let us down. There seem to be always some sort of fish catching option. The secret knew exactly what that was! I know I don’t have to say this, but I will and I did!
    The bottom line to all of these fishing report and suggestions whether it is inshore or offshore is that if you don’t go you certainly will not know!




    Connor aka Rock Man Gooding Prescott, Arizona is holding up a nice black sea bass, which was lured in by the Electron fish Attractor and then the small piece of squid finished the hooking up deal! I place the electron fish attractor on the leader first, then the red ball, and then the hook. I use this type of rig on most of my bottom rigs. Why? Sometimes 12 to 20 hooks all send signals are just too much!

    For more information go to https://www.lifesparkfishingtackle.com/
    There is only one thing left to say, “Pictures don’t lie and neither do the fish! Why? They can’t talk, but they can certainly eat!” Now there you have it!”

    Freshies Report and it’s a Salty Report Too!


    Just do it!

    Bill Vanderford
    My long time friend Bill Vanderford invented these lures many years ago. The best news is not only do the freshwater fish love them so do the saltwater ones too! A lure for all seasons with good reasons!


    Bill Vanderford says, “The fishing season is on the horizon, so if you want an easy way to catch more fish than ever....the Swirleybird is the answer!” Captain Judy says, “Order some today!”




    www.georgiafishing.com/swirleybird-spinners/
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