Captain Judy Helmey
Miss Judy Charters
'Kicking Fish Tail Since 1956!'
124 Palmetto Drive
Savannah, Georgia 31410
912 897 4921 or 912 897 3460 fax
www.missjudycharters.com
September 22, 2008
Happy Fish Day!
Saltwater inshore, offshore, blue water fishing report, Freshies Suggestions, and 'Little Miss Judy's story! Thanks for reading! Captain Judy
Offshore Report!
Artificial Reef 'J' Report
September 16, 2008
The first thing I need to mention is that the yellow artificial reef buoy is missing. With that being said, make sure you have the correct coordinates for where you are planning on fishing. The reason being is some fishermen including myself use the buoy as a point of direction reference. The bottom line is it might be replaced by the time you get there, but as of right now no artificial reef 'J Buoy' exists!
Chris Newton, Alex Moore, and Robert Thornton took an afternoon fishing trip to the artificial reef 'J' Buoy. It wasn't rough with sea condition quite right for the heading to this area. As they left the Warsaw Sea Buoy they watched as they passed lot of floating Sargasso weed. With thoughts in their head about how they were going to troll? As soon as they got about 5 miles from the 'J Buoy' there was no floating weed. So therefore the trolling plan was back on!
Rubber Band Theory!
When there is lots of grass in the ocean!
Back in the old days 'weed less hooks homemade' were very popular! According to Captain Ray Crawley all you had to do was after rigging your ballyhoo was to add a rubber band. He simply put one end of the rubber band on the topside of the rigged bait and pulled it down to the hook's barb. This procedure doesn't change the way the bait is pulled and also doesn't lessen your chances for a good solid hook up. I haven't seen a fish yet that couldn't break a rubber band! Back to the story!
Once arriving they started trolling for king mackerel with deep pulled Drone spoons and surface pulled lures. It was soon ascertained that there were either no kings in the area or they were just not hungry. There was no king bite to be had. So therefore they crew stopped caught some Spanish sardines and a bottom fishing they went. I do have to report that according to this report there were acres and acres of surface schooling bait. This is very good since we haven't had much bait to speak of around the 'L' or CCA artificial reef buoys.'
While fishing the live bottom areas located a little southeast east from where the buoy used to be located the bite was good. They caught a lot of legal black sea bass. The bottom line was they caught more legal black sea bass than not. However, on the illegal side of catching they caught dozens of juvenile red snapper right at 19 ' inches. Just hearing this report made me realize that we all need a legal fish stretcher! The bad news about this fishing report is that they didn't catch any keeper red snapper. However, the good news is that there are plenty of those that are just about legal meaning only about 1 to ' inch from being 20 inches. As you are reading this they are growing!
After far as bait they used what they caught, which was Spanish sardines and cigar minnows. So therefore when you plan on trolling and you don't bring in bottom fishing bait, please remember you always have options. Don't forget to take along some gold hook Sabiki bait rigs. They always work like a charm. Don't panic if you don't have any of those onboard. Here are a few suggestions: cut a piece out of someone white t-shirt tail, check to see what on those sandwiches for lunch and please remember ham, chicken and bologna will stay on a hook long enough to get you a bite. Any fish caught will work cut up or not!
Thanks for Reading!
Captain Judy
'Story Teller of all times, even if it's only in my mind!'
Captain Judy Helmey
Miss Judy Charters