December 22, 2008
Happy Holiday Fishing To All!
Saltwater inshore, offshore, blue water fishing report, Freshies Suggestions, and "Little Miss Judy's story! Thanks for reading! Captain Judy
Inshore
Speckle aka Spotted Sea Trout Fishing with Captain Matt Williams
December 4, 2008 Thursday
Low 5:51 AM Savannah River
High 12:14 AM Savannah River
Cold early very sunny by noon very good warming day
8:00 AM departure 12:30 return
Fished with Captain Matt, Jennifer Comcast did a show
It started out a cold and calm, but promised soon to be sunny day. Captain Matt William picked Jennifer Hartley and me (Captain Judy) up at my dock, which is located on Turner's Creek. As we pulled away the talk began of potential catches for the day. Captain Matt, which just came from Bull River areas remarked, "it was real foggy, but it looks like clearing and burning off is going to be fast." This told me that the winds were calm and that this cold wasn't going to last long, which made me happy enough. As we motored slowly through Turner's Creek, we all talked about how beautiful the morning was. Captain Matt decided since it was so cold that we would take the scenic tour, which is "slow as you go until it warms up!" This was great with both Jennifer and me. Even though we were dressed properly we both liked this slow riding idea just fine!
Before we get into the actual day of fishing let's talk about lay out and break down of Captain Matt's rod, reels, and terminal used on this particular fish day. Here's the line up of weapons used:
Rod and Reel Outfit Set up
Rod 7' Shimano "Clarisl" medium light to medium rod
Reel Shimano "Stradic" 4000 spinning reel loaded with
20-Pound test Power Pro braded line (green was the color)
Before Captain Matt ties on the terminal gear, he makes well-needed addition. He adds about 8 inches "line to line" monofilament to the braided line. This small piece of monofilament helps to keep the cork from tangling with the main line. It also helps in the casting program as well as the landing! In other words, "less tangles made!" So therefore when your main line is braided it's best to tie on this important 8" inches of 20 to 30 pound test monofilament before attaching your popping cork.
Terminal Gear
Bayside Oval popping cork made with the titanium wire shaft won't kink, which allows your float to slide freely offering clearer more realistic shrimp fleeing sounds made. This float comes complete with it own personal "bells and whistles.' When popped the sounds made imitates the noise that a fleeing shrimp makes as it "flaps its tail!" All this is good, but it can be made better with just one addition. Read on.
Just add this sinker to you Popping cork
ounce "rubber grip sinker" also known by me (Captain Judy) as a "Dogged eared sinker." This sinker needs to be attached to the titanium (shaft) wire between the two brass balls on the bottom side of the Bayside Popper. Once you press the sinker onto shaft the sinker moves and "clacks" together with the brass balls. The noise made with the addition of the sinker sends a strong clearer message increasing your "strike zone arena!" Not only this, but with the extra-added weight it allows you better casting control. \Leaders Used
36 to 40 inch long 30 lb test leader, which can be made from regular monofilament line or fluorocarbon leader material
Split shot "double BB size" This should be mash on about mid way on the leader. The purpose of this weight is to help keep the live bait in the water and the artificial bait in line.
Hooks Used
Hooks preferred. Captain Matt uses "Khale hooks," because they offer good hook up value and they don't regulate the movement live bait used. His favorite when using live shrimp is #4 Kale. When Captain Matt goes to artificial he uses 2/0 Khale hook. Just a note: #4 is smaller than 2/0 hook
First Fishing Drop
As we rode to the first fish drop, Captain Matt said, "we are going to test this spot until we find if we have a bite or not. That sounded good as well as very interesting to me. On the first drop, we anchored about 60 feet out from the bank. Since we were doing a show I got to ask all the questions that I wanted. As always Captain Matt was very accommodating with the answersmy first question was, "why so far from the bank?' In this particular spot we had a small slough, which was empting out into the main river and sort of an underwater soon to be out of the water mud bank. According to Captain Matt in the past he had caught quite a few trout on an in coming tide. I watched his every move; because it was so interesting watching as this seasoned captain cast placed exactly where he wanted. He worked the bank by casting up current allowing the popping cork to do its floating job. I watched as he scheduled popped. I asked. "How often do you pop the court?" Captain Matt answered, "About every 20 seconds." With a leader that was about 3 feet long I watched as he fished the bank at different distances out. His first casts were close to which he let his bait drift down a desired distance. After the float reached achieved distance, he retrieved, re-cast to further out from the bank, (closer to the boat) and allowed the bait to drift with the current while popping it every twenty seconds. After about 10 casts resulting in that many "float bys" no hits or misses were received. Captain Matt said, "We are going to my next considered fishing spot!"
I did notice that almost every stop to fish there were porpoise gathering and feeding about in the area. I had to ask, "Do the porpoises scare away the fish that you are targeting?" His answer, "Yes, but only if they swim right through where we are fishing." At this time we had these beautiful mammals just flapping their tails and moving about in the deepest part of the river. However, as soon as they got real close a large porpoise stuck its head up showing out it's just caught mullet, which was our sign to move on.As with all my fish days it seems that I always have some sort of tale that needs to be told. While fishing offshore we spotted dolphin for me in my world it is a good sign. The most referred phase in the fishing language is "where you have fish you have fish!" By the way this is a very true statement. In the offshore world I have seen schools and schools of dolphin feeding about, and yes, there aren't many other fish around. In some cases where you have a few dolphins sometimes you have other fish schooling together in cadence working what is called "bait ball." I have seen tuna, dolphin, (mammals) and billfish work together when trying to hold a school of fish at bay. This was truly an amazing sight to see. They actually took turns feeding on their personal "rounded up school of bait!"
There was this one occasion where I could see from a distance about 6 dolphin making continuous jumps in and out the water in what seemed to be about the same spot. I slowly approached the areas trying to see what all the commotion was about. Once I could make out what they were doing I really didn't believe my eyes. Six dolphins were playing catch with an octopus, which had the head size of a large grapefruit. As they tossed this now just caught lifeless bottom creature back and forth it tentacles flowed flapping in the wind. As I watched I couldn't' believe my eyes, because this was the first "dolphin octopus toss that I had ever seen!" Of course, before I could reach for my camera "game over!" I know I need to get back to my inshore spotted sea trout adventure with Captain Matt Williams.
Second Fishing DropOur second fished spot during offer not a bite much less a sign of "fish here" anywhere. So therefore Captain Matt said, "now it's time to go to my "go to spot!" Since I have been fishing for many years I realized that Captain Matt was really "just fishing" areas waiting for the prefect tide stage scenario to take place. Now this "go to spot" had all of the same characteristics as the other spots with only one great difference, "it really had fish and lots of them!"
"GO TO SPOT!"
The last area that we fish "sealed the movie made deal!" As soon as Captain Matt baited up and cast into the spot he got a hit resulting in "fish on!" As of this point I hadn't wet a hook, because I was a "watcher of fish catching possibilities" instead. However, when the stage was set, meaning, "we have fish I wanted to be a player!" While I am getting ready to cast, Captain Matt has hooked up retrieved, hooked up, and retrieved again. I probably would have been ready sooner, but I kept stopping to watch the fish being landed.
Captain Matt reloaded his hook with another live shrimp and cast place it right in the sweet spot, "fish on again!" After finally getting my shrimp hooked up I made my offering and as soon as it landed "cork down!" Now comes the confession of a "real fisherman" and that would be me. I couldn't seem to get in step with Captain Matt's "reel till you feel crank don't yank" method. It definitely was working for him. It seems that my reeling hand didn't match my "not supposed to be setting arm." So a serious losing and killing of shrimp took place. At any rate, I then made a request, which was "can I go to artificial stuff as bait? As Captain Matt was answering, "Yes" he was getting the lures out.
He pulled out a bag of assorted color "D.O.A." 3" inch shrimp pattern lures. Believe me he had all colors from solid to two-tone models. I watched as he carefully picked out what turned out to be the prefect and only lure that I would use for the rest of the day. Captain Matt picked out a light brown with green markings on the shrimp's legs and underneath. (Rootbeer/green #386) His DOA shrimp were not pre-rigged meaning "no weight or hooks here. He quickly grabbed my leader, cut the current #4 Khale hook off, and then he tied on a 2/0 Kale hook. As he tied he explained, "You need a larger hook when using artificial, because your chances of a hook up is much better." He also remarked that you needed to have that extra hook point extended out of the bait to "seal the hook up deal!"
This is where it got real interesting. He took the artificial shrimp and place this hook where it would lay balanced. This means put the hook about inches behind where the head stops on the shrimp and the body begins. You want the shrimp to be balanced on the hook meaning not tip forward or backward. Another suggestion is that the artificial shrimp should able to move on the hook. This way when the fish attacks it, the bait will move freely on the hook's shaft making for more of a solid hook up.
When it comes to hooks Captain Matt's has his preferences. He prefers #4 hook for live shrimp and a 2/0 when he is using artificial shrimp patterns. He likes to use Khale style hooks, because of the roomy AKA wide gap. The area also referred to by Captain Matt as "the valley" allows your bait extra movement, which offers better flexibility. When the fish hits bait especially when there is a hook involved, it needs to pivot a bit to get the most actuate hookup opportunity.
Eddy-A-Tized
Before I go any further I would like to describe the area that we fished. It still amazes me that when I fish with someone else how much you can learn. Don't bother looking the word "eddy-a-tized up in the dictionary, because you certainly won't find it. However, after this explanation it might need to be added. The word has been added to a list of "Judy-isms." When an area is "eddy-a-tized" it means "the current that flows over it is opposite of the main body of water that is flowing by it." Sounds like a mouth full, because it is!
I am not talking about a regular eddy that is formed where you have a slough emptying into a main body of water. The area that I am talking about is one that is caused when you have real deep river with quick swallowing up banks. The prefect example is the Savannah River, which is where we were fishing!
The area that we fish didn't have a straight bank, it was kind of broken with over handing trees. As the incoming tide rushed through the deeper areas little by little opposite currents developed. I watched as the incoming tide made the current commonly swirl opposite over this perfect fishing area. When current changes such as this many imaginary walls are formed offering so-called "safe havens" for bait as well as fish to feed. The bottom line where there is fish there is fish!
Lets Talk about how the old shrimp looks before putting it to the best-rigged bait test!
When we are trolling offshore with lures rigged with ballyhoo we always check "how the bait pulls in the water before letting it out!" This means that we pull it close to the boat so that we can see its moves. You don't want it "helicopter-ing" or looking plain stupid. After all, since the boat is moving you want you bait pulled to look as natural a possible. If the bait doesn't look natural 50% of those hits by fish that really "look first" will be gone!
The meaning of "helicopter-ing" is bait spinning out of control. Believe me, most of the time it's a pulling waste of the time!
Captain Matt brought something to my attention that I soon won't forget. After placing the #4 hook right under the shrimp's horn he held it in the water in plain view and we both watched. What we saw was truly amazing. We watch as the shrimp's legs moved in the current. The eyes looked headlights on "high beam." Heck, I wanted to jump over and eat it myself. As we both watched the shrimp, Captain Matt said, "Take a good look at this shrimp, because this is exactly what a fish does before it attacks it." Then he said, "mostly from the bottom up!" I already knew that, but he was making a very strong point. And if you did the same thing you would understand more about your own bait. The first thing you need to know is that you're bait has to look like a shrimp from down under. In this case it was the real thing and it looked like one too! This definitely was good bait!
D.O.A Rootbeer/Green #386 Shrimp PatternNow for the "bait rub!" Captain Matt then changed hooks and went to a 2/0 Khale. He then placed the hook about inch behind the artificial shrimp's head. The secret is to hook the lure up so that is lays horizontal not vertical under the popping cork. It's always best to remove the hook and the weight that the shrimp comes pre-rigged with especially if using it under a popping cork like we were doing.
Captain Matt lowered the rigged bait into the passing current. It truly did look just like the real deal. Its legs were moving and the eyes even glowed! Believe me this shrimp looked exactly like the "real deal!" After seeing this I knew for sure that this bait would work, because from down under it really did look like the real thing. Heck, it even looked good from topside looking down! If trying this experiment doesn't build your confidents in regards to this particular shrimp pattern "you might just need glasses!" When doing this little checking experience with any bait "real or not" you know it hooked up right!
I have one more thing to add to this article, "We caught more fish with D.O.A's shrimp patterns than we did with the real thing!" The fact of the matter is I used the same bait all day!