Savana Georia Fishing Report Updated March 18, 2013
CAPTAIN JUDY HELMEY
“Kicking Fish Tail Since 1956”
POB 30771
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA 31410
912 897 4921 912 897 3460 FAX
www.missjudycharters.com
Captain Judy’s email fishjudy2@aol.com
March 18, 2013
Saltwater Inshore, Offshore, Blue Water fishing reports, Freshies
Suggestions, and “Little Miss Judy’s Believe It or Not story! Thanks
for Reading!
My fishing statement
To try to insure that fishing stays in the hearts that love it and to
help the ones that are going too!
The inshore catching deal!
For those inshore fishermen that want the best chance at catching a
spotted sea trout I suggest using mud minnows under traditional
adjustable floats. While fishing with Captain Rick Reynolds of Miss
Judy Charters this fisherman caught the trout for the day. While
floating in and around the structure this sight feeding trout couldn’t
pass up a chance to get a mouth full of mud minnow! As most inshore
fishermen know the live shrimp is hands down a spotted sea trout’s
meal of choice. However, as we all know there isn’t much of this table
fare around at this time of the year!
This is one of those fishing pictures that certainly does tell a fish
catching story. Joe is holding up a nice 25 inch red fish while
Santiago watches from behind. According to this report received from
Captain Jack, “Joe one and Santiago none!” This report once again
proves that sometimes you get them and sometimes you don’t!
Artificial Reef Report
The bottom fishing is great! And it’s true when fishing in the ocean
you really never know what you might catch! In Roy Deloach’s case it
was “trophy style!”
While fishing at the offshore KTK artificial reef with Daryl Chandler,
Roy Deloach caught, fought, and released this nice trophy red fish.
According to this fishing report the best bait for this offshore
fishing day was live finger mullet! For those fishermen that want to
get a chance at catching one of these trophies I suggest making way to
one of these artificial reefs and give it a try. During this time we
have been catching trophy red fish at these artificial reefs: KTK,
KC, DUA, and SAV
Please release these fish as soon as possible, but before you do that,
take a picture and send it to me!
Daryl Chandler and son Adam are new contributors to our weekly fishing
report! We welcome them onboard and we certainly do appreciate their
information! All that’s left to say now is “Please keep fishing and
please keep reporting!”
Artificial Reefs
Please meet the spiny dog fish it comes complete with two very strong
spines. The spines are located in front of the first dorsal fin and
in front of the second dorsal fin on the dog fish. There are two
kinds of dogfish. One is the spiny dog fish, which is shown in this
picture. It has white spots and spines. The second type is the
smooth dog fish, which doesn’t have white spots and not spines. At
this time we are catching smooth dogfish in the sounds and rivers.
And spiny dogfish while bottom fishing at the artificial reefs. The
secret to handling either fish is to always treat your dogfish like it
has spines. The reasons being is once picked up they are strong and
have tendency to curl back and hit your arm. The skin will burn you
and the spines will stick you! Removing a fish off a hook can be
tricky for sure! Fishermen beware!
Commercial Fishing Report
Brought to use by Captain Derek Brown
Jacob Daugherty is holding up two nice hog fish that Captain Derek
Brown caught while diving. Both fish killed using a power head.
While doing commercial diving in about 150 feet of water Captain
Derek shot quite a few amberjack and cobia. As he was making way to
the surface he noticed a large dark missile shaped object heading his
way. He watched as a 10 foot great white shark pass right under him
at a fast pace. Derek said, “At this moment he knew it was definitely
time to give this great white all the space it needed.”
Over the years Captain Derek has had more than a few close encounters
with great white sharks. I remember this one story that he shared
with me. While he was trying to get back to the surface that he had a
great white follow suit while getting closer and closer with every
ascending foot. This story could have been very different had the 15
footer decided to get up close and extra personal. According to
Captain Derek the great whites are not the only curious sharks in this
area. He says, “The bull sharks are too!”
A little about the Lion Fish!
Meet a fish eating problem “the lion fish!” I guess the lion fish
doesn’t get a copy of the current offshore fishing regulations!
Captain Derek has been asked to catch 300 pounds of lion fish meat,
which in our world is a good thing. Since the lion fish don’t seem to
fall prey to any others this is a good thing for all of us fishermen.
The reason being is this…a lion fish eats everything, but nothing can
seem to figure out how to eat it. In this scenario Captain Derek is
doing us a favor and also is providing a so called meal to many. As
Derek and I talked about this situation we both figured that in some
cases 300 pounds of lion fish cleaned could equate to about 300 to 500
fish.
Why there are so many lion fish
The lion fish has venomous spines, have few natural predators, and are
known to be voracious (now there is a word) hunters. The multiply
quickly and can live in all depths of water from close to shore to the
deep waters of the continental shelf. The bottom line is this: When
it comes to working a reef or should I say “cleaning a reef out” the
lion fish knows its job!
Captain Derek Brown has been engaging in commercial diving in this
area for many years. It’s nice to have some one to call to find out
exactly what is going on down under! So with that being said, “When I
know I can share it with you!”
Savannah Snapper Banks
It’s time to start booking your offshore fishing trips!
Vermilion snapper opens April 1
Grouper opens May 1
Black sea bass opens June 1
Gulf Stream
We are up and running blue water trips again! Please call for
details!!
NOFA is a 2004 Custom Ritchie Howell 40ft Express powered by twin
715hp C12 Caterpillar motors. The boat cruises at between 28 and 32
knots depending on sea conditions with a top speed of 38 knots.
The blue water deal!
As far as what’s going on way out yonder….well this is that time of
year where the blue water can hold lots of the “finest kind!” The
bottom line is this, when fish are on the prowl they have to eat to
make all these moves work.
Yellow Bill Tropical Bird and those that swim under them! This
tropical bird was doing exactly what it wanted and that was take
advantage of the spoils. I remember this blue water day as if it was
only yesterday. We were bottom fishing at the b-liner hole with two
hook bottom rigs. Every time my customers reeled in they had two
large bottom fish. I got a break for a second and started looking
around. This is when I saw this bird, which was making all kinds of
different crazy moves. I didn’t see any bait on the surface, but what
I did notice was lot of fish oils. As you can see in this picture the
spot where the bird appears to be the most interested is the slick
spot right under it. Heck, the bird is even looking down as it makes
a pass over the spot.
When a large fish feeds oils for its prey as well as its parts floats
to the surface, which offers up one heck of a fresh meal for a bird.
It’s my opinion that these majestic birds prefer only the resent
kills. Since these birds follow as well as mimic every move from the
feeding fish down under I can only assume I am right.
I decided to put out a live red porgy hooked up like I would when live
lining for king mackerel. Since the bait was so big I decided I
needed to size up on the wire used. At the moment all I could find
was 80 pound single strand wire, which turned out to be a good choice.
I cast the bait out making a big splash and watched as the bird headed
over to my area. I had already figured out that the bird was most
likely following a large fish so therefore I could only assume I got
interest. It wasn’t but a few minute from my interest turned into a
big screaming hook up!
Three hours later while using 20 pound test monofilament main line we
finally landed an 80 pound Wahoo. All this action from just watching
birds!!
Freshies report!
It’s time to give Bill Vanderford a call!!
Bill Vanderford is “Lake Lanier’s Legend!”
For more about my long time friend Bill Vanderford as well as his
accomplishments, his freshwater charter trips or wildlife tours, books
written and his special line up of tackle offered, please visit his
site http://www.fishinglanier.com/contact.html for all the details!
For more details go http://stores.ebay.com/Fishy-Racer
http://www.youtube.com/fishyracer www.cafepress.com/grapefruitshop
http://fishinglanier.com/
Little Miss Judy’s Believe It or Not!
This is me, Captain Judy Helmey sitting on the stern of the old wooden
boat Miss Judy, which should go down in history as one of the
narrowest beam charter boats ever. I am holding a king mackerel,
which my father always called “silver kings.” After a while I figured
out where he got this name from. Most of the kings caught in this
area came straight from way offshore meaning their color sometimes
referred to as camouflaging hasn’t had time to turn to the darker
color mode. The waters where we fished were mostly green!
As I looked at the picture a lot of memories came to mind. This
wooden Miss Judy had a very narrow beam meaning she rocked and rolled
in a heavy sea. Not only that, but she didn’t have a whole lot of
power to use to push her out of a yaw. My father’s interpretation of
yaw was what he called yawing. This is when a boat would lay sideways
in a wave, which is called “Roll” and then start to surf
uncontrollable down the curl of wave.
As I think about these days I remember the many times I leaned too
while trying to get this boat’s rudder to take a bite when she was
sliding down a wave in that very out of control mode. I had mentioned
from time to time, but daddy didn’t seem too interested. So therefore
maybe I just wasn’t seasoned enough to keep her straight. So far I
had kept the narrowed beam Miss Judy up right.
Then one day my father took the old wooden Miss Judy out and it was
anything, but a calm day. On his returned and after according to him
that he almost rolled over several times he vowel to address this
problem. With that being said, “It seems I must have been seasoned
enough after all!
We pulled her out of the water and my father said, “This is between
you and me, but this boat is not seaworthy when it’s rough!” (Said to
the father to the daughter that had already tried to bring this to his
attention on several occasions.) Once we got her out of the water my
father walked down and around the sides while scratching his head.
He then leaned way over and looked at the shallow vee bottom.
As if a light went off in his head he said, “Judy get in the car, we
have got to go pick up a few things!” Once we arrived back at the
house he picked up a cloth ruler, four rough cut 2x4’s, a couple
hundred 4 inch long brass wood screws, a hand drill, and an old
Craftsman saw. With the car loaded down he started thinking, what
else do I need? Then he reached in the cabinet and put out a quart
can of white stuff and a hand full of string cotton. The white stuff
was the sealant he used on the screws. (It was kind of like 5200
today, but as you know it had not been invented yet.) After he dipped
the screw in the white stuff I would wrap the cotton around it. (To
this day I don’t like the fee of cotton it makes my skin crawl. I
remember one day I couldn’t get the cotton out of the top of an
aspirin bottle. I just waited the headache out!) And I might add
this was also before plastic gloves were used in the boat work place.
They might not have been invented yet either!! Boy, this was along
time ago!
When we got back to the boat, daddy starting measuring and ripping
2x4’s in half. Then I would hold one end while he held the other
while trying to decide exactly where he wanted to attached these
running rails. At least that is what he called them. After
determining where to attach the 2 inch by 2 inch rough cut board we
started drilling holes. Daddy had decided to attach the running board
right on the water line.
After hand dipping, wrapping cotton, and screwing in what seemed like
hundreds of screws our job was done. We then paint the additions and
it was time to drop her back into the water. Since the old Miss
Judy’s cruising speed was only 12 knots any results from the changes
made could not be felt by regular cruising. To get the feel of the
new additions I would have to put her in following sea situation.
Well, it just happened to be a little rough on trial day and both were
excited about the out come.
After making way bow first into the heavy seas for a couple of miles I
made my turn and put my stern to the waves. As soon as the boat
started to get pushed by the wave by habit I got ready to lean with
the boat. Once she started down into the wave I turned the helm
starboard a bit to pull out. As soon as I did the boat kind of lifted
up and the rudder bite was right. I basically had control of the
boat. There was only one last thing left to say, “She cornered like
she was on rails!”
Thanks for reading! Captain Judy
CAPTAIN JUDY HELMEY
"Kicking Fish Tail Since 1956"
POB 30771
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA 31410
Phone: 912 897 4921
912 897 3460 FAX
www.missjudycharters.com
E-mail
FishJudy2@aol.com
Born
to Bottom Fish