King and Spanish Mackerel

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

October 15, 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)

King and Spanish mackerel

This run has started with a very interesting twist! During this time we have a really good run with Spanish and King mackerel. Our artificial reefs as well as our offshore live bottom area, and naval tower normally hold 'big attentions' from these fish. These areas offer mackerel a great place to feed up before moving out other areas.

Spanish Mackerel is generally caught up to about sixty feet of water. The beachfront, near shore artificial reefs, and clear water rips that form just offshore are great places to target this fish. The world famous 'Clark Spoon' pulled deep, shallow, or cast into the school is hands down your best lure for this fish. I'm not saying, 'Other lures won't work, because they will!' However, in my case 'if it's not broken why fix it?'

While fishing this past week we added yet another area to target for both king and Spanish mackerel. We had Sargasso weeds so thick due to the past northeast winds that it had been pushed all the way to the beachfronts. These floating 'fish attracting islands' do a great job for us fishermen. Where you have any sort of cover providing shade you have small fish, which in turn attract the larger ones bringing to mind 'a fish is a fish is a fish!' Or when you have fish others wants to get involved!

We caught some of the largest Spanish mackerel that we have seen so far this year. Some were caught fishing with planers whiles other were hooked up trolling surface baits. On some occasions they were surface schooling. When we didn't see them jumping and feeding on the surface we still caught them deep. When we found patches of weed there were fish to catch!

The bulk of the kings started in about 50 feet of water. This fish also liked what the weeds had to offer, which was a 'target rich environment.' Normally when trolling for Spanish I use about 20 pound test line as leader material. I had a few hits, which resulted in loosing all my tackle. This is just about when I figured these fish were a little larger. I stepped up my leader size to about 40 pound test and tied on a little larger Clark spoon, which resulted in king mackerel hook up. Most kings holding under the Spanish were classified as 'snakes.' (Kings less than 10 pounds)

When this bite slowed I headed to the CCA in search of larger kings. Once arriving to this artificial reef, 3/12 Drone spoons were pulled at around 6.5 knots, resulting in some 'serious reeling going on!' This area provided me with the bite that I was looking for, which was 'teenagers and slingers!' These size kings are strong pullers and my customers get the 'fish catching action' that they came for in the first place!