Gulf Stream Fishing - Vindicator Blue Water Vindicating!
While fishing the blue waters this past week the crew of the Vindicator had a great day!
Please meet the Vindicator blue water fishing crew!

Captain Ryan Howard of Miss Judy Charter, Daniel Owsley, David Melton, and Jack Holmes
Now this is what I call a great blue water selfie picture!



David Melton is holding the camera, left to right: Daniel Owsley, Captain Ryan Howard, and Jack Holmes

And of course the real reason for this picture “Yahoo Wahoo!”



Captain Ryan Howard is showing us what it looks like to have a lap full of Wahoo!
Blue/white and pink/white!



Daniel Owsley is holding up his just caught black fin tuna! Now, what does this picture show you? Well, lets see…The rig that caught the black fin, another rig that is ready to put out, the rod/reel that they used, and the boat they caught it on!




Jack Holmes holding a nice Mahi Mahi also known as a dolphin!

As the Propeller Turns…
Captain Buddy shows you how to operate your boat and Miss Judy Charters shows you how to catch fish! A winning combination!

If you want to get your best chance at learning serious and safe boating skills, this is a great place to start! Give Captain Buddy Lee a call!

Freshies Report
It’s time to wet a line.
Bill Vanderford is “Lake Lanier’s Legend!”
Lake Lanier Fishing Secrets Revealed [Kindle Edition]
Bill Vanderford (Author, Photographer)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IOW2A18
http://www.georgiafishing.com/
If you want to go, it’s time to make your spring time plans!
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

Little Miss Judy Believe It or Not!



Yes this is me (Little Miss Captain Judy) dressed possibly in my Easter Dress. The car that I am standing in front of was the car that my mother was killed in. I know, this is a strange subject for sure, but as you already know, most of my stories are a little out there! At any rate, I can’t say how long we had this red and white 4 door Ford. All I know is that Daddy never got that rear panel re-painted and this car was parked for quite a while in our yard. I never remember getting in it after the wreck. So why daddy though taking a picture of me standing in front of it was a good idea I really don’t know!
Isn’t it funny how you remember the past better that you did the details of what actually happened two days ago? Take for instance in my case, going fishing with my father in the good old days. Everybody’s good old days aren’t the same; mine started way over 50 years ago. It’s true in some case you remember the past a lot better than the present. My father died in 1993 at 93 years old. He lived a good life and believe me he always lived it to the fullest. I always look forward to that next dream that I have of fishing with him.

Let’s step back into memory lane and go fishing through the eyes of a young child, but first I will need to give you a little background information about my life. My father raised me from the young age of five years old. This was due to the fact that my mother was killed in an automobile accident, which immediately threw him into single parenthood. When something as tragic as this happens, you have to figure that someone up above must have had a plan.

My father loved to go out a lot. He called it “playing the field.” I didn’t have a clue what that phrase meant until later. All of this playing the field took place during the night hours, which was when I was sleeping. My father seemed to always be home when I got up. This was good thing, especially when we had a fishing party planned. My father was a charter boat captain. In the good old days, charter boat captains took people fishing about two days a week and they played the field the rest of the time. At any rate, when it was time to go fishing, I was ready. I would go most of time with him, especially on the weekends. We had the same ritual just about every morning before we left the house. We would get up, get dressed, and head out side to the ice machine. Daddy would back the car up to the ice machine, open the trunk, and fill it with ice. I often wonder about this situation until I looked inside the trunk. There was a large metal wash tub in the trunk in which he poured the ice. Occasionally, he would run over to the side of the house, grab the water hose, and drink until his belly looked like it was going to pop. It never did. He always told me that he was just purging himself for the day.

After loading up, which was about 7:00 AM we would head up to Soc’s 7/11 store on Wilmington Island for breakfast. If you ever visited Wilmington Island, you already know where Soc’s place is located. It’s is no longer open, but the building where it was still stands. We now have Ace Hardware on the island, which I am always referring to as Woo’s! Back then you could set your clock by Soc Woo’s arrival; he was always on the premises by 7:00 AM. Quite often we would help his remove the chain and lock that went through the handles of the two glass doors. My breakfast consisted of a coke and chips. This was my favorite meal. We never packed a lunch. Daddy always had provisions on the boat.

Since Daddy’s boat was dock at Tybee Island the ride to the boat seemed long to me. However, Daddy always made all rides interesting. Here’s how they went. We always played his counting game. On the road to Atlanta, we would count cows. On the road to the Tybee, we would count rabbits. Who ever had the most cows or rabbits on their side of the road won the contest. As I got older and after quite a bit of explanation we would count cow, bulls, and steers on the way to Atlanta. Believe me, as a child the explanation alone about the steers scared me to death.

Daddy’s yellow boat, “Miss Jerry” (which was named after my mother) was tied up at Captain Charlie Walsh’s dock located at Lazaretto Creek. These docks are still there and you can still rent dock space for your boat. However, time has flown by Captain Bill Walsh used to handle the docks, and then it went to his son, Captain Bill Walsh. Now, Captain Bill has retired from being the overseer of the docks. They have reverted back to the original owners. The bottom line is this these docks are still there and every time I go over the Lazaretto Creek bridge I think about the good old days that we all had at Captain Walsh’s dock.

Back to the fifties…Our charter customers as well as Captain Walsh’s would meet up under the bridge, walk over to the dock, and get on the boat. The Captains drove down the long dirt road, which stop right at the foot of the dock. Our walk to the boat was closer and a lot safer.

According to Daddy, where you had rabbits, you had rattlesnakes. Over the years, we did have lots of dealing with them. At first, I didn’t know how the two came together, but as I got older I understood a lot better. The snakes ate the rabbits. Somethings at five, I could have never understood. I will never forget what happened one morning as Daddy brought the large wash tub back to the car. He would always take the tub that was full of ice down to the boat, dump it in the cooler, and then put it back in the trunk.

I would always sit in the car and watch, until he finished this morning chore. I will never forget this one particular morning. He was coming up the dock swinging the empty shinny wash tub by his side. I heard a loud dull noise, which sounded like someone has thrown an orange at the wash tub. I looked up at Daddy and he was staring at something in the marsh. His actions were unusual. He was kind of like trying to move, but was not doing such a good job of it. You are not going to believe this one. A large rattlesnake must have caught the flash that the morning sun was making on the tub and hit it. I mean the snake hit it so hard, he supposedly had killed itself. Now we know the reason Daddy was trying to do that move-on scuffle so quick. Once Daddy realized what had happened, he quickly picked up the snake, and put it in a covered crab box. Did I mention that this was a big rattlesnake? Now here comes the best part of the story. Of course, Daddy wanted to show everyone any kill. It was a hunter’s thing back in those days and still is now. There isn’t a thing wrong with that unless the thing isn’t dead. Upon hitting the tub the rattlesnake had only knocked itself out. The first viewing of the snake was quite exciting. I have never seen grown men move so fast! I am so glad Daddy made me stay in the car.

All of this happened and I haven’t even gotten on the boat much less wet a hook!
Thanks for reading! Captain Judy