CAPTAIN JUDY HELMEY
'Kicking Fish Tail Since 1956'
POB 30771
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA 31410
912 897 4921 912 897 3460 FAX
www.missjudycharters.com
Captain Judy's email fishjudy2@aol.com
Captain Judy's Cell 912 429 7671
January 5, 2009
Saltwater inshore, offshore, blue water fishing report, Freshies Suggestions, and 'Little Miss Judy's story! Thanks for reading! Captain Judy
Part Six
Savannah Snapper Banks
The water temperature in 90 to 100 feet of water is around 60 degrees, which is located about 30 miles off the Warsaw Sea buoy. If you move in an eastern direction another 10 miles offshore this puts you in about 120 to 130 feet of water and you will find a 62-degree surface temperature. I know you are wondering why I am going to all the trouble of listing the water temperatures. Well, the red snapper bite was better for me before noon in 120 to 130 feet of water. That 2 degree surface temperature change made all the different in a bigger fish bite.
From 60 to 100 feet of water the black sea bass bite was very good with fishermen catching their limit of 15 per person without any problem. The current legal size for black sea bass is they that have to be at least 11 inches tail length or more. I heard fishermen on the VHF radio saying that they didn't have any problem keeping 14 inches and up size fish., which is a very good thing. This means there were plenty of fish to be caught and the bite was steady.
I am always talking about stopping and catching live cigar minnows and Spanish sardines with Sabiki gold hook rigs. These are great bait and if the bite is slow dropping one of these baits down to the bottom normally gets you some sort of bite action. During this time stopping by the artificial reefs to load up on bait isn't possible, because most of the time there is 'no bait included in this deal!' You do have an option to run out to one of the navy towers and pick some up there. However, during this time frame you can't away count on those extra miles traveled to result in a 'live bait encounter.' So therefore I suggest going with some sort of flash frozen cigar minnows or Spanish sardines. The secret is to not thaw these fish completely out. Keep them in your bait cooler only taking out a few, as you need them. Cigar minnows after the freezing event hold on the hook much better than the Spanish Sardines. However, it's my opinion that the smells delivered from the Spanish sardines are much stronger than a cigar minnow.
Here's just two ways for me to back this up: The first is the fact that when it comes to the Spanish sardines the seal of smell is broken when the scales start to fall off. The trickling off scales provides a small chumming event, which offers a feeding opportunity for smaller fish. This feeding normally causes a feeding chain of events to start taking place. In other words where you have small fish feeding you have the larger ones 'watching in wait to eat!' Please understand I am not trying to take anything away from the cigar minnow as bait, because this too is another very good one to use. It's prefect in size and it also lures in the best of fish from small to large. The cigar minnow does stay on the hook longer whether it's live, fresh dead, or flash frozen. It's like the sardine is a prefect mouth full for a big fish. However, if you do the 'mash and smell test' you might just have to agree that the sardine is the king!
The bottom line to this report as far as bait is cut fish, squid, frozen cigar minnows and Spanish sardines make for great bait. This bait works from the artificial reefs to the Savannah Snapper banks. All you have to do is to put it on the bottom, wait for a hit, and set that hook. If you don't hook up in an instant, immediately let your bait back to the fish, and let it hit it again! After all, all you have at stake is your bait! And there is always plenty of that even if you have to take the ham out of your sandwich!