Login

CaptJudyHelmey · 07-28-2002, 03:20 PM

Inshore Most fishermen are reporting lots of small trout and bass. These fish can be fun to catch but should be treated delicately when unhooking and returning to the water. These fish will grow rapidly and by early fall can be fat keepers. Brown shrimp are becoming scare as white become more abundant. The white shrimp are still on the small size. Some fishermen prefer small baits. My theory is yes elephant might like peanuts but usually to get a quality fish you'll need a quality bait. When throwing a cast net sort through your bait before dumping it into your well. I discard soft baits that are likely to die quickly, small baits and black shrimp. Black shrimp might be fine. I've never done well with them. Always keep a hand full of bait fish like small finger mullet or pin fish. Small fish can be a great bait particularly for large trout. Fishing for the past week was good not great. Early in the week winds and tide were working opposition during morning hours making fishing difficult. Lots of small bass and trout caught. A good morning trout catch would have been six keeper trout. Tarpon activity has been inconsistent. Bumping conditions and small baits were sited as reasons why bite wasn't better. Small pogies pushing in while not drawing in many tarpon has pulled mackerel close to shore with best activity in the shipping channel and close to rips on incoming tides. Tides for this week are building. None of the highs are over 8 feet. These tide are definitely fishable. Be prepared for summer heat and typical afternoon pop up storms. Building tides and rain can mean muddy water. When the water is muddy pull anchor and fish somewhere else. You might find a new drop! Good Fishing! Capt. Jack McGowan OFFSHORE The fishing arena has finally widened with all of the fish groups being represented. Until this past week top water fishing around the artificial reefs has been to say the least, "a little unpredictable!" However now that the water temperature has reached the hot mid eighties the bite has picked up. We have started seeing more of the Allusive Spanish mackerel. My father always told me that Spanish mackerel really doesn't surface school until after the date of August 9. According to daddy Spanish mackerel don't usually spawn until after this time. Don't know if this is the true real time of not. However, my father did catch a lot of Spanish in his time. If this date is a good one and I believe it is due to the fact that I usually start catch them at this time, then the horizon looks good for this particular bite. At any rate, it won't be long until these fish stay on the surface so as to get their yearly tan. According to my father it was always good to target certain fish at certain times especially if you already know that it is their best time to feed. I call it the "Rocky Scenario," which basically means pick the bite battles that you can get the best results on. This situation seems to work in the charter boat business. For those of you who want to try fly fishing for little tunny now is the time. I have been seeing schools of these fish in the early morning as I head out for the Savannah Snapper Banks. The schools start from the W2 Sea buoy and usually extent about 2 miles. According to my records you have a couple of months to chase after this fish. The toothy barracuda is once again being the rulers of the artificial reef wrecks. They are out there and they are patrolling what they think is theirs, which is any fish hooked or that swims inside their "Bite Zone." So here are a few pointers for fishing in the "barracuda battle zone." Normally these fish will surface hang a little down current of the wreck, therefore keep you lines away from this area unless you want a cuda hookup. Any fish that is hooked in this zone will become part of the food chain. You might get the head in. You are not the only one that knows that the barracuda are holding in this area. Most of the fish such as the Spanish and king mackerel will hold and feed on the out skirts of this area. However, it best to try to hook going away from the wreck. This situation gives you a better chance of getting your whole fish in. Barracuda don't have a feeding time. They usually kill to eat and kill to just kill. They are very territorial and travel in packs. So therefore it's best to stay away from the highly concentrated holding schools of these fish. The king mackerel can be found from the near shore areas to the 150 feet of water. I don't that's a wide range to deal with. However, the good news is that a long boat ride isn't necessary to target and catch these fish. The bottom fishing at the Savannah Snapper banks has been really good even though the water temperature have reached the mid-eighties. Normally at this time the larger fish are very nostalgia, which means they basically means they "mouth the bait." However, we are on what I call the "50% bite ratio pattern," which is a simple one. Half of the big fish do while the others ones don't. The don'ts usually end up in the cooler. GULF STREAM None of my Captains ventured out to the stream this past week. However, if you were planning on going don't past up that 150 feet depth of water. My records show that the Wahoo bite was on around the ledges that were holding bait at this depth. You know the old saying, "if you catch them once in a certain area at a certain time, another school will usually stop there again." Now we do know that there is a possibility that fish might just communicate. Little Miss Judy's Believe It or Not! With all the hype that is going on about sharks' people could think that this is all new, but it's not. Back in the good old days my father was afraid of getting in the water, at least what he called the "big water." Big water was considered ocean water. He used to swim from our dock, which was located on Turner's Creek all the time, but that was different, at least according to him. My father knew from first hand experience that the big water had too many big hungry fish swimming around in it. He didn't want to become part of the ocean food chain. So therefore he started his quest of making not only himself, but also his customers safe in the event of his own sinking disaster at sea. The first thing I remember him purchasing was a ring buoy. It had a thin rope tied around the perimeter of the buoy so that when thrown to the overboard victim it would be easy to grab. However, to me at this point all you became while being pulled in was a big lure in the water. Then there was that big orange raft that was kept on the roof of the big wooden boat. However, you couldn't get in it you just held on the rope provided around the perimeter of the float. According to the United State Coast Guard this particular raft could hold up to 12 passengers. It shouldn't have been labeled for its capacity of passengers, but instead the amount of in-the-water passengers that could safely hang off of it without sinking it. Once again this was a floating object that you could only hold on too, not get into. Now that I think about it, all we would have been doing once is the water is to help the sharks locate us. I guess you could say our flapping arms and legs would have been the "shark calling devices!" Once again this situation was not for me, but there is more safety onboard the boat, Miss Jerry. The final and last thing that I remember was the "shark repellent" that daddy kept in the old broken refrigerator, which was located in the salon area of the boat. It was a copper colored canister that also had a rope tied to the ring located on the top of the can. On the front of the canister in big black letters were the words "SHARK REPELLENT!" Just reading those words made my skin crawl. According to Daddy all you had to do to use it was remove the cap. The cap supposedly had some sort of fiber attached to it that was soaked in so called "shark repellent solution." It was supposed to be the latest in shark technology. The directions stated to simply tie the cap off to the raft and supposedly the fiber as it was washed through the water would release the "SHARK REPELLENT!" This was in turn supposed to keep sharks away from the immediate area. All this seemed fine unless you were exactly the ones that were in the water. Thank goodness we never had an event that caused us to have to use any of the above safely devices. I was watching TV on one of those historical channels when I saw some footage that I couldn't take my eyes off of. The show was called, "How to prevent Shark Attack." This was a black and white show that clearly was filmed back in the good old days. I watched and finally they brought out an old canister that looked very similar to what I use to see in Daddy refrigerator. While in the water the film showed people demonstrating how to use the canister for best coverage. Then it happened a news flash across the screen showed a later updated statement, which had to do with the so-called shark repellent. It was a simple one. According to later studies, this particular "SHARK REPELLENT" in fact attracted sharks not repelled them! Here's My Line Now Bite My Hook! Captain Judy Miss Judy Charters 912-897-4921

Login
Username:
Password:	Lost Password?
	Remember me