Miss Judy Charters
Captain Judy Helmey
'Kicking Fish Tail Since 1956!'
124 Palmetto Drive
Savannah, Georgia 31410
912 897 4921 or 912 897 3460 fax
www.missjudycharters.com
September 10, 2007
Captain Judy's Saltwater Fishing Report
Which includes:
Inshore report, Offshore Report, Freshies Suggestions, and 'Little Miss Judy's Believe It or Not!' (Story)
Captain 'Wild' Bill Jarrell's Yellow Bluff Monthly Fishing Report!
September 2007 Fishing Report
Life is sweet down at the Bluff; I love this place! We are within striking distance of the best time of year, fall, for harvesting shrimp, crabs and fish from our magnificent estuary. With September we approach the harvest season. If you are familiar with the coast, you can feel the shrimp teaming in the creeks. Pull out your cast net. Try tossing it along a mud bank, just before the water falls out of the marsh grass on the outgoing tide.
Our ever changing coastal waters are chock full of aquatic life. This is also a great time for catching and munching down on some blue crabs. They've had time to grow, and because there's plenty of food for them, they are full of meat.
The water temperatures have inched down a bit, and the days have been getting shorter. This is the time of year to start fishing for the adult redfish. Stag bass up to 30-lbs (or more) are running along our beaches. Cut mullet presented on a fish finder rig and pyramid sinker can be productive.
In the sounds, and along the Intercostals Waterway, medium size redfish (21 to 32-inches) can be found around the oyster reefs and small deep creek mouths. As the tide rises, patrol the flooded grass near these areas. Look for water disturbances and nervous baitfish to help detect the feeding reds.
September started out with numerous juvenile redfish averaging around 13-inches, a few up to 14-inches. Before the month is over, most all of them will exceed their 14-inch minimum size limit. They are surprisingly strong for their size and provide lots of action and fun.
The spotted sea trout are plentiful; mostly I'm hearing about "shorts" (sea trout under the 13-inch minimum size limit). Be assured, large trout are here too. Usually the larger trout are running at different areas but at the same drop as the shorts, or they are caught at slightly different stages of the tide. Last fall was a great season for trout fishing, and this fall is shaping up to be a great one too.
During this Labor Day Weekend there seemed to be a strong flurry of ladyfish action around the barrier islands. The way they jump and fight, they look like miniature tarpon. If you like to fight really big fish, tarpon action should stay with us at least till the middle of September. And, the tripletail should be around till the end of the month.
One trip in August I landed a 10-pound tripletail. On my next cast I hung another more than twice the size and fought it for about 15-seconds before it snapped my 20-lb braided line. Here's a fish story... my companion, Capt. Henderson Hope, then put a hook in one even larger. It made a boil on the surface the size of the bed of my pickup and it popped his line. We are very close to our harvest season and it feels great!
Thanks for reading!
Captain Judy