Inshore Fishing
Still catching lots of short spotted sea trout!
What does this mean? Well, it looks like we are going to have another great spotted sea trout season. And when does it start? It is ramping up now! The best baits to use when targeting this fish is live shrimp, mud minnows, and juvenile mullet.
JCB fishing team!!
While fishing with Captain Greg Davis of Miss Judy Charters this JCB fishing team caught a little of everything from trophy reds to rat reds to triple tail to spotted sea trout to bonnet head sharks to I think you get the picture! It wasn’t fishing it was catching at it finest!
Plain old Sound Fishing!
Gerand Zape is holding her just caught whiting. She is the winner and I will give you one guess who is the loser? Since you don’t know let me introduce you to Nathan Realubit. See if you can pick him out in this picture!
A Light Tackle Adventure!
While plain old bottom fishing with small pieces of shrimp we caught whiting, summer trout, croaker, blue fish, and small sharks.
Artificial Reefs
Spanish mackerel on the beachfronts and on the artificial reefs
The Spanish mackerel continue to hold deep and once again are not showing their cards. Normally this time of the year we see these fish are pushing glass minnows and juvenile squid to the surface. However, this is not the case for the 2015 mackerel season, at least not at the artificial reefs. I have actually seen more Spanish “getting air” (jumping) in the sound than I have in the ocean!
How have we been catching them?
While trolling the artificial reefs located in less than 50 feet of water it has not been dependable, but just enough to be doable. While practicing trolling without seeing the fish we have caught quite a few Spanish macks. However, being from the old school I have always liked seeing them feeding on the surface and just when you thought things in this department could not change they certainly did. So here are a few pointers that might help you in your plight of catching the new acting Spanish mackerel…
At the artificial reefs!
Just because you can’t see them does not mean they are not there. However, instead of trolling blindly I suggest concentrating on any sort of live bottom or structure located at the artificial reefs. These are the areas where we have been catching them the most. We have been trolling 0 and 00 Clark spoons behind trolling sinkers, small birds, and all sizes of planers. When we find which method is working the best we go with it.
In the sound and beachfronts it is suggested where you see them jumping that you cast to them with a Clark Spoon or a Got-Cha lure. I have been seeing the most activity where rips are formed. Keep an eye out for bird feeding and this just might be a good spot to start pitching or trolling.
The toothy monsters!
Captain Kathy Brown is holding up a nice barracuda that was caught while trolling at the KC artificial reef. It hit horse ballyhoo and put up on one heck of a strong fight!
Cobia Bite Restarted!
Steve Boney shows us that it might not be considered cobia time, but it certainly didn’t matter to him or the fish! This fish was caught at the J Buoy while drifting live greenies on light naked tackle king mackerel rigs. The meaning of a naked king mackerel rig is “no skirts needed!” According to this report, Steve said, “I just let the bait swim on its own with no weight attached! The cobia came, ate, got hooked up, I fought, caught, and brought it home!”
Savannah Snapper Banks
It is time to go, buecase we all know the water temperatures have dropped and the start of fall migraitons have been put into motion. With this being reported, I suggest finding some live bottom in 95 to 120 feet and fishing it.
Captain Kathy Brown is holding a nice knobbed porgy that was caught while bottom fishing in about 100 feet. This fish hit a small piece of squid and put up quite a fight! We do not catch a lot of these fish at the Savannah Snapper Banks. Back in the old days we used to catch them all of the time while bottom fishing at 150 feet.
Gulf Stream
Captain Ryan Howard of Miss Judy Charters gives it a try! And now he knows that it is time to go!
There are all kinds and colors of Ilander lures out there to choose from. My favorite as well as the fish’s has always been the ones made with darker colors. (red/black, purple/black, black, and purple)
Wendy Coates’s first Wahoo and it was a nice one for sure! Captain Ryan Howard of Miss Judy Charters is assisting and took her fishing! Wendy’s fish was caught while trolling is 180 feet of water off Edisto Banks. It hit Captain Ryan black/red Ilander rigged with a horse ballyhoo. According to this blue water report, the team had lots of cut off, but not as many pickups.
Wahoo also knows as Tail Cutters!
Wahoo are fast swimmers, can see for great distances, and are known for cutting the tail off their prey, and then circling back to pick up the spoils. Quite often when a Wahoo strikes your bait they will deliver a short strong hit. As soon as you get this signature hit I suggest free spooling your bait that was hit instantly. After the strike it is the intentions of the Wahoo to circled back like it is cornering on rails and pick up its fresh killed fish. Especially if the struck bait is floundering and falling in the water column. However, if you don’t free spool back the Wahoo most likely is not going to strike the same bait again. The fact of the matter is, I have always suggested that dropping back all baits in your spread as soon as possible. The reason being is where you have one fish there could be more and also it offers a lot more opportunities to get hooked up! I call this prospect fishing at its finest!
What is prospect fishing? And what does it do for you?
The old theory comes into play of “where there are fish there are fish!” When trolling and you get a hit/miss or when you are hooked up and can drop other lures back I strongly suggest it. It might not generate multiple hits or hooks ups all of the time. However, when we practiced “prospect fishing” it did more than not produce extra hit/hook up activity! The fact of the matter is I found it harder explaining this act to my customers than to the fish. So, before putting trolling spread out I tried to explain, before “hits happened” the reason behind prospect fishing. They all seem to understand, but when it came time to dropping baits back they were sluggish in their attempt to get the job done. This resulted in not getting the baits in the falling mode fast enough. However, if they did do it fast enough and did get hooked up this insured that I would get lots of participation from those in the cockpit crew!
The bottom line is this.. It is blue water fishing time! And it’s time to make your plans now!
Little Miss Judy’s Believe It or Not
My father used to say, “Red sky in the morning sailors heed warning!”
Fatal Disaster at Sea
This is a heart wrenching story with a fatal ending. This incident took place when we had one of those windy northeastern pop up weather situations in the early eighties. I will never forget this as long as I live. I was anchored over the wreck named “Henry Bacon,” which is located at the L Buoy artificial reef. This particular artificial reef is a located about 15 miles off the W2 Wassaw Sea buoy or about 18 miles off Wassaw Barrier Island.
Cutting the anchor line..
My customers were having a great day catching large chopper blue fish. Everyone was very happy due to the fact that not only could they catch a fish they could see them exactly take the bait. Back in the old days it was too easy to catch blue fish especially when they were schooling over a wreck. All you had to do was anchor up current of the wreck that they were schooling, throw out sinkable fresh water catfish food, and the blue fish would come. Our party had caught about 25 blue fish in all weighting in at over 10 pounds each. Believe me when I say, “They were getting tired!” One by one each fisherman started taking a longer rest. I had noticed that the light westerly winds had switched a bit to the northeast. Upon wind direction change the boat moves accordingly, which it did. We were now facing at a dead northeast direction. Still didn’t think much of the wind change until it picked up. Now I might add it was a great sunny day with not a ripple in the ocean. It’s amazing how things can change so quickly especially when the weather is in control. All of a sudden the wind started blowing a gale out of the northeast. (over 30 knots) Then the wind picked up more speed pitching my 30 foot boat around at unbelievable angles. I told Captain Ali that we needed to pull the anchor as quick as possible so that we could start heading home. The seas were already up and I expected there was more to come. My instincts told me that I wasn’t wrong about this prediction. As Ali tried to get the anchor up it became obvious that it was hung in the wreck. When the anchor line became tight it held my bow down, which in this situation was not a good thing. So I screamed, “Cut the anchor rope!” While Captain Ali grabbed her knife the anchor line tighten up like a banjo string. With my bow pinned down a large wave completely covered the bow and it broke right on the main section almost taking Captain Ali with it. As soon as she was upright again, with knife in hand, all it took was one sharp blow delivered and we were free. Once freed waves quickly pushed us sideways in the wind and I waited to make my next move until a drenched Ali was safely in the cockpit.
Getting in step with the waves…
Now under way I quickly came around on to my compass heading home, which put the waves directly off my stern putting me into a following sea condition. Had the waves not been so high and breaking this normally would have been the preferred situation. However, taking it easy was not going to happen. I was going to have to get in step with these waves and quick!
The other vessel involved…
Little did I know that there were others having problems at the same time and they were located only a few miles south of my locations. It was a large vessel approximately 60 feet long, which was trying to hold a northeast heading. It has been traveling north while keeping about 10 miles off the coast. On board was a crew of two and one visitor. This big sport fisherman was fitted with state of the art equipment and was in mint condition. While still holding a northeast heading, the captain had cut his speed to accommodate the in creditable wave height. Somehow and from somewhere the vessel had taken on a great deal of water. We don’t know exactly what could have happened to cause this event. However I believe it could have been anything from a failed bilge pump to a high water alarm failure. At any rate, it was rough and the northeast waves showed no mercy when they are at this stage, which is big and breaking. Somehow the big boat got stern to the waves. I assumed that the boat was so heavy due to lots of water that it was forced around to the stern by the continuous breaking waves. The first waves probably flooded the cockpit and the second probably took the bridge off. Not only did it take the bridge off but also all the passengers. They got one MAYDAY call off before this happened. I didn’t hear it and there was a very good reason.
Customer very uncomfortable with situation….…
All of my customers were handling the weather situation pretty good with the exception of one. While in the panic mode this man of large stature starting flinging his arms making unrealistic moves compromising everyone on board. He started screaming that he wanted off of the boat, but at this point that request clearly had to be denied. I had turned my radio down because of all of the radio chatter about the weather. I figured any more information about the weather would have been too much for this passenger. Captain Ali was doing her part trying to calm this individual down, but nothing seemed to be working. However, every minute that Captain Ali even held half the interest of this customer we got closer to calm water conditions. My attentions were to drop off my customers at the first marina, which was Landing Harbor Marina. Upon arriving at the marina all asked if I had heard the MAYDAY, which as you already know I didn’t.
Morning after the sinking…
The next morning as I was going out fishing and right in my offshore tract was a black life raft floating on the surface. I immediately slowed down so to see if the raft had any occupants onboard. As I pulled close to the empty raft I noticed it looked as though it was anchored. It was at that time that I realized that the raft was tethered to the boat that was sitting on the ocean floor about 40 feet down. The water was very clear on this morning, which was the day after the sinking of this vessel. As I looked down into the water I thought that I could see an antenna or maybe an outrigger sticking up through the water column. As I became more aware of my surroundings I noticed colorful sheen of fuel on the surface, which was being continuously fed by the leaking fuel tanks below.
After thoughts…
And then just like someone poured a bucket of cold water over me chills started as thoughts happen. What was running through my mind wasn’t a comfortable feeling. As I put the information that I obtained as to what I think I knew had happened, I felt myself sinking into my helm seat. And since I also was out on the ocean the same time I had to wonder did I run right passed the captain floating free in his life jacket?
What might have happened to the other vessel…
I was told that when the boat lost power it became stern into the wind and waves. As I processed that thought I could see how that was possible since the boat had taken on so much water that most likely the engines had stalled. I can only assume that it didn’t take too many of these waves to completely fill the cockpit and salon area weighing the boat down deeper into the water. It was at this time that most likely a large wave ripped the entire bridge off along with it occupants. Through stories told, I heard that the captain was then thrown into the water putting too much distance between him and two other now hanging on to the half submerged detached bridge. According to stories told the two occupants kicked the windows out of the bridge, which barely kept it floating on the surface. After the storm subsided the captain was found drown floating in his life jacket. The two occupants were picked up by the coast guard and were unharmed.
Back to storm day..
While I was heading home on storm day the winds were sustained at around 40 knots. The waves quickly reached an 8 foot plus status. While surfing these size waves in some cases I was traveling at about 30 knots. As I was trying to hold a 290 degree heading there were times that I had to turn to the north placing me perpendicular to the curl of the breaking wave. Once I felt comfortable I then had to turn to the northeast putting my bow in the wave. This process kept me from losing control of my boat when it went into full surfacing mode. I know my customers had to think I was crazy making these apparent sharp U turns. And I forgot to mention that there was a complete white out. This means that I could only see what was directly around me. It was raining sideways and this was way before I had radar on the old Miss Judy. All I had for navigation was a Compass and a Loran the sometimes was one mile to 300 feet off.
Once again my father’s knowledge paid forward provided “wave know how”
My father always taught me in situations like this that after every 6th to 9th wave there was normally a larger one followed. Getting in step with the waves was particularly essential due to the serious sea conditions that prevailed on this day. Taking into consideration daddy’s wave sequence equation enabled me to basically think ahead. Knowing about the possible conditions between the regular and bigger waves also gave me more hope as well as confidence. With this knowledge I was able to gauge my surfing time on the wave. And I also was able to know exactly when it was time to cut away from the wave I was surfing on.
Making it back to calm waters…
I was never so happy to see the W2 Wassaw Sea buoy even if it was lying almost sideways every time a wave hit it. Once passing the sea buoy I still had to deal with rough conditions, but rain had eased up and the storm was clearly at my stern. I looked at my watch and it taken us a little over an hour to make what was normally a 40 minute run. Doing a little calculation in my head I figured that I had spent about 20 minute going in the wrong direction, but it certainly did seem like it was a lot longer than that.
How long ago did this happen?..
This happened about 35 years ago and I don’t think I will ever forget this day as long as I live. It’s something I get reminded of quite often especially when I round the W2 Sea Buoy. I have been out on the ocean a very long time and it still amazes me how it can be so calm one minute and rough in an instance. And it also astounds me that there is no way to realize this unless you are there to experience it. In this case I hope none of you ever do!
So far on my ocean time I have only experienced being in a sinking vessel once…and knocking on wood when I say this..
I do believe had my father not taught me about all of his perils at sea I would have not been here and able to pass this story on to you!
Thanks for reading! Captain Judy
Captain Judy Helmey
912 897 4921
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