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
Savannah Snapper Banks
Dave Hopp Fishing Party November 24, 2008
Gathering of the Bait
We fished the Savannah Snapper Banks on Monday November 24, 2008 and the bottom fishing was great! We stopped at the L buoy and loaded up with live cigar minnows and Spanish sardines, which turned out to be the "bait for the day! As luck would have it, once arriving to the buoy marking the artificial reef, we caught all of our live bait. However, if you didn't look for the bait on your fish finder you wouldn't have known that they were there. For some reason the bait were holding in the mid-water column, which was at about 20 to 25 feet down. We caught most of our bait while pulling up to the buoy and just drifting with the current for about 75 feet. As soon as we reach this point it was time to move back to the buoy and repeat the drift. At first I was using two fishermen with gold hook Sabiki bait rigs. Then I decided to add another fisherman, which allowed us to catch more baits quicker. The addition of one more rig added to the drift time, because the bait seem to follow the boat better. The best news was there weren't any large fish hitting and destroying our bait rigs.
The cigars minnows were holding below the Spanish sardines. The cigars are the minnows that have a smooth skin and no scales. The sardines have scales, which are easily loosen when touched. It's my opinion that sardines are better bait than the cigar minnows. However, both work great and always have.
Cigar minnows Versus Spanish Sardines
AKA Nervous baits
Cigar minnows are baitfish with smooth skin and no scales. They are shaped like a cigar, prefect-eating size, and large fish love them. They work live or fresh dead. They are the liveliest baits that we catch. Their moves have been known to trigger a serious bottom bite when absolutely nothing else would. One reason that I think that they trigger the bite is due to the fact that they have lots of spines in their fins. Fish know that if they don't attack fast and make the kill on the first hit "sharp pains will be delivered."
Sardines have scales, which once they start falling off have a lot to offer those fish down current. The first thing is "it's a sort of chumming event, in which get a fish's attention. When the scales become detached the "smell seal is broken." A simple smell test will prove this for sure. Hold a cigar minnows in one hand and a Spanish sardine in the other and take a serious smell. The cigars do have a smell and it's all their own. However, as you hold the live or fresh dead sardine you will know you would prefer this bait to the other. It smells "fishier and more oily!" As the scales rub off the oils down under are released. Believe me, it's hard getting it off your hands. The reason I call these baits the nervous baits is that they can survive being dropped down/ retrieved over and over again. They don't have air bladders, which means that can quickly adapt to any depth water.
Making Way at the Snapper Banks
We arrived at the Savannah Snapper banks around 10:30 AM. Our first drop to the bottom resulted in multiple hook ups. Everyone on board hooked up with black sea bass or vermilion snapper. The first areas fish was in dated with lots of large hungry black sea bass. I marked red snapper, but we didn't have a chance for this kind of hook up. This was due to the fact that the hungry bass and vermilion snapper were quick to the bait. So therefore I moved on. I knew that heading to deeper water would offer my customers a better chance for red snapper. I also knew that the amberjack AKA "reef donkeys" were guarding a lot of the live bottom areas that I want to fish. So here's how I worked it……
I fished my isolated spots, which means small "target Rich Environments" surrounded by lots of sand. It's my opinion, when fishing areas like this you really don't have a lot of "run off hits." This means there is "not much feeding opportunity" for these fish once they get over the sand. It's a "no go bite zone." This areas that I fish are called "fishing cities," which means everything lives in this one small area. It's basically an entire underwater operating city that has it all. The boils down to a happy live reef situation meaning those that reside, eat here too! (More next week on what exactly lives in the so called sand desert!)
Large fish such as amberjack also known as "reef donkeys" travel in schools and try to stage over areas that have lots of feeding value. I guess I should explain the reef donkey nickname. Amberjacks are seemly happy carefree feeders and everything that drops through their schooling event most likely gets eaten. They school together and when one fish gets hooked up the entire schools follows it. Once hooked up you can put another bait down and hook up number two fish. As long as you keep a fish hooked up you most likely will hold the attentions of all schooling amberjack on the reef. Fish such as this require an ample amount of food source to keep their attention. Small "fish cities" don't have enough sport to keep their attention. So this was my plight for the fish day, "to fish small isolated fish cites!"
It's my opinion that red snapper aren't just bottom feeders, because they like the nervous baits. It's stands to reason that if a nervous bait doesn't want to get eaten by a bottom fish all they have to do is to school up not down on the live reef. However, red snapper school at all depths in and over the reef allowing them full coverage of the feeding possibilities. More next week on red snapper bottom fishing techniques…look for "Profile of a Red Snapper"
Bottom Line to this Red Snapper Fishing Day
We arrived at the banks around 10:30 AM and the rest is catching history…we caught big red snapper in 110 feet of water! The group did a great job of catching quite a few nice red snapper, vermilion snapper, triggerfish, and amberjack! It was a great day in the catching arena! Congratulations go out to my Dave Hopp fishing Team! And we hope to see you soon…Thanks Captain Judy
To be continued in next weeks fishing December 8, 2008 fishing report