While inshore fishing with Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters Tad Frederick and girlfriend Melanie caught some nice spotted sea trout while fishing in 3 foot of water. What does this mean? It is good indication when you start catching spotted sea trout in 3 foot of water! What is the bait of choice? Live mud minnows and last year’s dead old smelly frozen shrimp. When we talk about Berkley Alive artificial soft baits we always say, “The secret definitely in the sauce!” Now when we talk about last year’s dead old smelly frozen bait we always say, “The secret is to freeze your shrimp with the head on not off!”
Inshore fishing as usual has been good one day and bad the next. The reason being is that there is no pattern to the way that all fish feed during this time of the year. Their food sources are not dependable as they are when the water temp gets above 65 degrees. And with cold front after front passing through water temp don’t have a climbing stable chance. Yes we got red fish (small, medium, and large) spotted sea trout (some legal and some shorts) flounder whiting and black drum!
However, and as you know there is always that but and if and maybe that can be thrown into the feeding opportunity mixed. The absolute best live bait and the easiest one to catch are going to be the ever popular cold water mud minnow. As far as the dead stuff I suggest finding yourself some of last year’s wild frozen shrimp. I have people ask me all of the time what’s a wild shrimp? Well, the answer is a simple one, “it’s not a farm raised shrimp!” It is a shrimp that is caught in the creeks, rivers, and sounds! Here’s another thing that you need to know when it comes to freezing shrimp. I suggest always leaving their head intact. Why? Heck, this is where most of the fish attracting shrimp smell comes from! Now you know the rest of the story!
Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters and Mike Lacey Holland, MA are getting their fish day started right!
While inshore fishing with Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters Cassie Holland, Mike Lacey (blue shirt) Holland, Mass, Cassie Courtney Holland, Mass, and Shawn Wilbur (green shirt) Omaha, NB had a fish catching blast. Cassie has been fishing with her grandfather since she was a baby. Today’s fish day just happened to be her grandfather’s 80th birthday. So when she caught this black drum, which was her biggest fish ever, she had sent it directly to her grandfather. Did it make him smile? YES! Was her grandfather just proud? Nope, he was super proud!
Check out this black drum’s healed over spot! A larger hungry fish decided to take a bite right at the front base of this fish’s dorsal fin. Why do we assume about this? The healed over shape tells it all! From the looking at the spot I think the chunk bitten out was pretty big, but that is all the attacker got was a mouth full. However, since it wasn’t taken from a life threatening area this fish survived the attack. However, Cassie caught this fish fair and square, which is right in the mouth. However, this fish still had more time in the water Cassie released it back to the wild! What does this mean to you? Now you have a chance! Here’s a suggestion, if you happen to catch this fish, pay it forward, release it back to the wild and keep this a going! Congratulations Cassie nice fish for sure!
While inshore fishing with Captain Garrett Ross of Miss Judy Charters Cassie Courtney, Holland, Mass Mike Lacey, Holland, Mass, and Shawn Wilbur Omaha, NB caught some really nice fish. Mike is holding up a nice slot red fish, which was released back to the wild!
Well, after rescheduling their inshore fishing trip three days in one week, this fishing duo finally got to go! While fishing with Captain Matt Williams of Miss Judy Charters Jack Comuen Canton, Ohio and Mike Ley, Durham, NC caught some caught some nice fish, kept some nice fish, and released some nice fish! All in all, according to Jack and Mike the fish day was definitely worth the wait! And guess what? They have already booked another trip for June!
Steven North Kansas and Captain Kathy Brown are discussing this catch! This is a beautiful male sea bass that has been in this mode for a while!
Artificial reefs in less than 50 feet of water! Yes they are still holding sheepshead, black drum, trophy red fish, summer trout, flounder, and black sea bass. If fishing in this area, I suggest anchoring over the structure and fishing with fiddlers.
Artificial reefs in more than 50 feet of water are holding quite a few legal size of over 14 inch black sea bass. It is a looking game, but once you find them they will eat. The best bait is going to be squid, cut fish, and parts pieces of old cigar minnow or Spanish sardines.
What do we have here? Smiling Fishermen! Ed Carlisle Savannah, Georgia, Steven North Kansas, Jeremy Jaecker Kansas, and Kevin Pimbleton Savannah, Georgia are all catching fish and smiling about it! Somebody is eating black fish tonight!
Jeremy Jaecker Kanses is holding up a nice ring tail perch. These fish are known for hovering above the structure that they are feeding around. So when the bottom bite slows I always suggest reeling up about 5 to 8 feet and waiting for a bite. Normally the bite will come in the form of a jab. All you have to do is to wait, let them eat, and don’t set the hook. Why? Because those circle hooks that you are supposed to be using will definitely do their hooking up job!
Savannah Snapper Banks It is a looking game in this area too! However, once you find fish they normally will eat. And there are a lot of species to be caught while bottom fishing in this area. Don’t forget you identification book! The best bait is going to be squid, cut fish, and parts pieces of old cigar minnow or Spanish sardines.
Steven North Kansas is holding up a pig fish! The reason it is called a pig fish is due to the fact that when you hold them they make very similar pig like sounds.
My old friend Dennis Smithwick Atlanta, Georgia from many years ago has once again made his way to the coast to do a little bottom fishing. Dennis is holding up a nice black sea bass that soon will be cleaned, fried, and eaten!
From left to right: Adam Bunton Pooler, Ga, Steven North Kansas, Kevin Pimbleton Savannah, Ga, Joe Komnick, Savannah, Georgia, and Captain Kathy offering a big thumbs up! What is a great name for this picture? Fishermen with a gaggle of black sea bass!
Steve North Kansas is holding up a double header! Two nice black sea bass! Looks like a male on top hook and a female on the bottom. The top fish was a resident and the bottom fish was a traveler! What does this mean? The top fish is darker than the bottom. This means it’s a live in local to the reef in which it was caught. It has been in this holding pattern for a while, because it has already adapted to the darker coloring. The bottom lighter colored sea bass just got to this location and has migrated in from much clearer waters. The bottom line is this” Neither fish is either a resident or not, because they are now dinner!”
Captain Kathy Brown of Miss Judy Charters is assisting “College Boy” (nickname given to him by me) Adam Bunton with his just caught beautiful black sea bass. Here’s the thing, when I was introduced to Adam, I asked, “What year of college are you in?” Everyone laughed, “He is only 14 years old!” Now you know the rest of the story! The older I get the less I can guess the younger ones ages! I guess I am no longer a perfect candidate for age guessing at the Coastal Empire Fair!
This is me Captain Judy and Dennis Smithwick Atlanta, GA taking a headed home from the secret fishing grounds selfie! Over 20 years ago Dennis fished with me and Captain Alli Young. The party was in the name of the world famous “Lockwood Nix!” And boy is there a big story there! However, before I can share I will need to give Lockwood a call so that I can get clearance! But the bottom line was....way back then we loved fishing, we loved boat riding in the ocean, we loved beer, and we loved Elvis music! And that’s all I can say about this! But I can say, “Not much has changed in 25 years!” Yes Beer and Elvis do go together! Just can add a “whole lot of shaking going on” to this equation!
Gulf Stream Fishing Suggestions!
With the Easter Bunny arrival right around the corner it’s time to get ready to go. We have been plagued with very high winds, which have in turn caused some very rough sea conditions. However, if time and conclusions serve us right as soon as the Easter Bunny arrives the weather with straighten out! That is my story and I am sticking to it!
If you do go you need to be prepared to do some slow and high speed trolling. This is that time of the year where stopping about 5 miles before reach planned destination spot and pull out the high speed lures. Why? The fish are just like use. They are all like us making way for any sort of food source. It is a known fact that fish especially when targeting an early season bite are more apt to strike than not! Why? Food sources are limited! And those that are fast get the most opportunity to eat! And what fish corners like it is on rails? Yahoo Wahoo!
Little Miss Judy’s Believe It or Not!
“NO RIDERS TODAY!”
Please meet once again, my father Captain Sherman Israel Helmey! While holding his cigar, in his right hand, he had time to turn around and give us half a smile! He is sitting on my old boat, which, of course, was named Miss Judy Too! The first box hanging on the ceiling is a Loran C, which at the time was pretty darn state of the art piece of electronics. Heck, it would get you about 75 to 100 feet from where you thought you wanted to fish. Back in the day we traveled in micro-seconds and tenth of micro-seconds. I believe I figured that a micro second was 75 feet and a tenth was somewhere between 1 and 30 feet. It all sounded so complicated, but it wasn’t! Why? During the early stages of these technical navigational times, we didn’t understand it most of the time anyway! My father always said, “We need all of this stuff, because it looks good, no one says we have to know how to work it!” Daddy’s first loran, which was a Loran A and it was not installed on his dash. It was located way down in the bow of the boat. And if someone asks, “did we have LORAN?” We always said, “YES!” They never asked, “Do you know how to work it?” And it is a good thing!
Please remember when my father first started fishing (1945) all he had was a compass, which I truly believe was never calibrated! May father always used to say, “It is hard to get where you are going if you don’t know where you came from!” I called this “Navigation by the seat of your pants!”
“NO RIDERS TODAY!”
My father has always been a lot of fun to be around. For one thing you never actually knew what he might do next. There was this one thing that he did and I can’t ever remember being prepared for this “DOG-GONE” trick.
He would do this while he was driving in his car. If he happened to have to stop at a traffic light, which put him next to a bus stop this was his cue. However someone had to be waiting for the bus. He would push the electric window switch and his windows would quietly open. As soon as it opened he would make this noise that would have scared anyone. This would even include the passengers in the car, which usually happened to be me, Captain Judy. He could bark exactly like a dog. I am not talking about a small one, but a real LARGE MAD ONE! I don’t have to tell you what happened when this noise came screaming out of the car. Everyone included me jumped. He seemed to get a big kick out of it. This action by him made him “SMILE LIKE AN OLD CHEESY CAT!” For those of you who don’t know that old saying please try to picture this. A large big headed fat cat, sitting on its rear end with a smile that covers its entire face.
The bad news is that I never really knew what the waiters at the bus stops thought about it. It was hard hearing much less reading their lips with their backs to me. “No Riders Today!”
Thanks for reading! Captain Judy
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