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
December 1, 2008
Happy Fishing To All!
Saltwater inshore, offshore, blue water fishing report, Freshies Suggestions, and "Little Miss Judy's story! Thanks for reading! Captain Judy
Freshies Suggestions
Deep Cold Water Crappie
During this time this is one fish that "take a deep dive." Crappie as well as those baits that they are looking to eat are also holding deep especially during cold water conditions. So therefore where you have bait you have fish! I just had to throw that in, because when it comes to catching the larger fish, you had best think about the small fry too!
I had a great tip the other day from one of my saltwater customers that loves to freshwater fish. His favorite fish to target during the cold times is crappie also known by many as "slabs." My question is always going to be, "how do you know where to fish in the first place?" The freshwater fisherman at the other end of this question started rolling out tips best to consider when targeting crappy during cold times.
The first tip was "take a ride and look." He likes to fish around docks, but not just any of them. He looking for a special one, which he calls "a serious fisherman's dock!" As I listened I made notes so that I wouldn't miss this tip, because it sounded interesting for sure. The definition of a fisherman's dock is simple, at least after it was explained. Fishermen that fish off their own docks normally set them up. This means the dock could have some sort of rod holders placed on the railings or over hanging lights. If you add strategically placed chairs to this list you definitely need to take a strong "look-see!"
If all this is located on top of the dock there is probably more down under. Another thing "dock fishers" might do is to make their own underwater fishing paradise. This means sinking bush piles, rocks, or any sort of structure near their dock. This all boils down to the fact that "if it looks like a fisherman's dock it probably is one!" So therefore it's suggested to fish here, because the fish are!
Before I close this suggestion my informant offered up yet another thing to consider when looking for the right dock to fish. I called it "cruising the dock line." This boils down to turning the fish finder on and taking a ride along the outside of the docks so as to look for "drop offs." This could also be called "a ledge." When a dock is built on the top of an underwater ledge "it's definitely a good thing." The reason being is that anything that comes from topside and falls into the water is going to end up at the bottom of the ledge. Docks placed in this situation are great fish attracters during hot and cold times. More next week on "Cold Water Crappie Fishing!"