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 29, 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)
"Little Miss Judy's Believe It or Not!"
Little Captain Judy's Skiing Chronicles!
(Fifties, sixties, seventies!)
During the fifties I fished mostly with my dad, but water-skied as much as I could. During the late sixties I got my charter captain's license, but always had skiing as my first priority. My plans were at this time to take water skiing to a professional level, which I certainly did "dab at a bit!" When the seventies rolled around I turned into a full time charter captain. The sport of skiing took a backseat with "wanting to fish" taking the helm!
It's funny the conversations that you have while out on a boat for 10 hours. Here's one that prompted me to remember yet another serious, but fun chapter in my life. This past week I took out Steve Howell and his father Mr. Howell on some "whirl win fishing trips." I guess first, I should explain to you my meaning of these types of trips. The Howell's normally visits Savannah Beach for about a week. During this time frame, they fish with me offshore and with Captain Jack McGowan inshore. I have to admit normally when customers fish this much the fish don't always "commit to biting the hook!" However, this particular week "the fishing was greatly laced with catching! And the "Fellowship" was even better!" We all love these guys the best!
While making our run home from the snapper banks the subject of the conversation became water skiing. Steve of which, I thought was sleeping, tuned in and asked, "Do you remember "Dick Pope?" I had to think about it for a moment and then I remembered this name. Dick Pope was a professional water skier during the sixties/seventies. His named was on a wooden slalom "Cyprus Gardens" ski, which one of my skiing partners, Bob Turner used. Our young skiing team during this time frame was Bob Turner, Johnny Sasser, Susie Cornell, and I! We were skiing fanatics! We went skiing everyday! It was our life for sure! The more we skied the better we all got! We slalomed, barefooted, skied on boat paddles, rode on wooden octagon shaped stops signs, cut skis down to cup size to protect our feet while simulating bare footing, and skied backwards on ski's called "Banana Peel Tricksters!" It was truly a time in my life where everything was great and I won't soon forget! After all were finished doing what they had to do, we all met, and went skiing for the rest of the day! Life was good!
The slalom ski that Steve was talking about was a fine wooden one for sure. However, the set up wasn't me. For a ski to work for the person using it, it had to be set up properly kind of like a racecar! This particular ski had a "wider tail base," which would be prefect for a person that weighted over 150 pounds. When slalom skiing you need to be able to control your ski in order to make "controlled turns!" In my case I used a Cyprus Garden ski called "Lil Monster!" It was set up perfectly for my size. I could make my turns without any problems. About two years into the skiing game they came out with another "Lil Monster," which had a "concaved bottom!" The new concaved style was much faster giving me complete control.
Although "free styling" hadn't been invented yet, "that's what we all did for sure!" Our skiing style wasn't like any that you watched on the television or saw at the shows at Cyprus Gardens. Our custom techniques were "In the wild!"
Professional slalom water skiing was fun. However, the bottom line was when competing all you did was ski around a maze of strategically set buoys at 32 knots. The goal was to successfully set your pace and round them without missing any. It was hard especially when you didn't practice in the first place. The fact of the matter is to us "free stylers" it was a little boring! So therefore we came up with a way to double-teamed going down the maze rounding all buoys while skiing in pairs. I'm not going to say that we didn't have a few "run ins," because we did. There were quite a few black eyes and busies worn due to skiing collisions! We were great "entertainment for the dock watchers everyday on Turner Creek!"
Things we didn't share with our parents!
As Steve and I talked about our past skiing times we both has a "tale to tell" that our parents never were privy to the "real story!" One time while skiing Steve tried to make a ski jump on a regular set of skis. This resulted in making the jump without the assistance of the skis, which was a bad thing. We both laughed knowing to well what had happened. For those that don't know, jump skis don't have keels and regular skis do. As you can imagine as soon as Steve hit the "ski jump" the skis stayed and the jumper went on! The good news was that Steve wasn't seriously hurt, but a hospital visit still took place. I know his father is going to read this!
My story leads to the fact that children do need adult supervision no matter what! While training for my "backward skiing event" every time I turned, I lost one of my skis. Being a slalom skier I always put too much control weight on my right foot, which resulted in the left ski away slipping off. I was very frustrated and I should say, "stupid for the moment!" My next move became critical; I tied the ski on to my left foot. The next fall wasn't a fall, but an accident for sure! I broke two ribs! Of course when I got back to the dock and on my way to the hospital I never told my father exactly what happened! As you can see skiing wasn't that dangerous until we added "a child's stupidity" into the mix!
Here's my line, now bite my hook!
Captain Judy
"Fishing Physic!"