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
May 14, 2007
Saltwater Fishing Report
Offshore Waters
Our bait inventory is low. We have some pods of menhaden in the Savannah River area, (offshore) a few schools of cigar minnows and Spanish sardines scattered over the artificial reefs. We normally are able to "bait-up" at any of these location in less than an hour before making the run to the snapper banks. I made a run all to way out to the MR26 naval tower just to get bait. The good news is they are there. The bad news is that it's a long run and sometimes the schools of bait are a bit scattered. Staying too long gets the fish populations around the tower in a "feeding up roar!" There are lots of catching opportunities around the tower, but none of them last too long.
Trolling for King Mackerel at Savannah Snapper Banks
I can only assume that the king mackerel that we have been catching at the banks in about 100 feet of water have moved. A few were caught while trolling the Naval towers. To be honest, it has been so rough that I haven't been able to local their new staging area. However, as soon as I do I will post it!
Bottom Fishing at Snapper Banks
After all of the rough sea conditions the water clarity wasn't too good on Friday, but on Saturday it improved greatly. The catch Friday was a little on the slow side. This was due to the fact that we all hadn't been out there for at least seven days. I can guarantee you that it's hard trying to locate fish after such a "turned up ocean" kind of a week. As the weekend progressed we got "in step with the fish!"
I found that we still had a black sea bass in 95 to 100 feet water. This area was mixed with a little of everything from black sea bass to legal vermilion snapper. We caught a few amberjack, but were too small to keep. I found that the red snapper bite in about 110 feet water, but most of them were less than 20 inches. We played "catch and release" a lot in this fish category.
Sharks
Atlantic sharp nose sharks were holding on most live bottom from 105 to 115 feet of water. We caught and released over 30 of there small composite sharks in one fishing day. They are lots of fun to catch and very good to eat. That's the good side of the coin. The bad side is that sometimes you can't get to the bottom before you are "shark hooked up!" Your next best thing to do when a shark feeding frenzy takes place is to move to the next drop, because you will never make it to the bottom before you are hooked up! Please be careful handling these sharks. They are strong and will definitely bite you!
Big Bottom Bite
The report is long enough without me going into detail about this subject. However, the bottom line to this part of the report is that you need nervous baits to catch a big red snapper or grouper! Nervous baits are those that don't have air bladders. The baits that fall into this category are Spanish sardines, Boston mackerel, small jacks, and cigar minnows. The others baits, which are those that have air bladders are still good, but don't trigger the bite of the larger fish as much as time. The baits that fall into this category are ruby red lips, sand perch, rock bass, and vermilion snapper. These baits listed have an air bladder, which needs to be puncture once brought up from the bottom. I have an unbelievable big gag grouper story to tell you in next weeks report!
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
May 14, 2007
Saltwater Fishing Report
Gulf stream
High winds bring in heavy sea conditions have kept us from venturing out to this area. However, some boats did make it to the Stream this weekend. Saturday was one of those days that looked good, but the further you went the rougher it got! The "South and Triple Ledge" held the attention of quite a few blue water fish. The bite was early, but died in the middle of the day, and started back around 5:30 PM. Rigged surface pulled ballyhoo and artificial baits that made lots of surface noise were the ticket to this blue water ride!