CAPT JUDY APRIL 2008

April 7, 2008
Happy Fish Day!

Saltwater inshore, offshore, blue water fishing report, Freshies Suggestions, and “Little Miss Judy’s story! Thanks for reading! Captain Judy

Send your fishing questions directly to Captain Judy fishjudy2@aol.com

Calling all fishermen…for those wanting fishing questions answered, please email Captain Judy fishjudy2@aol.com. I will try to reply and publish on fishing report! Instead of Dear Abby, “Hey Captain Judy, here’s my fishing situation, can you offer any suggestions?” I’m not saying, “I can answer all the questions!” However, if I can’t I do know those that probably can!
Tybee Island Tackle Store located on Lazaretto Creek by water and Highway 80 by land!

As you all know, I am a “true fisherman!” I love to fish, catch fish, and talk about fish. I also like to look at and touch tackle. Believe me this is what fishing is all about. This tackle store has a wall of working artificial baits and also lots of great tackle set-ups from rigs to rods to reels! This all boils down to what Captain Ray “sells works!” He also carries live bait such a shrimp, mud minnows, and fiddler crabs. Captain Ray also keeps in tune with what’s biting what, when and where! I call Tybee Tackle “one stop shopping before catching fish! Give him a call 912 786 7472 or take a ride down highway eighty east, cross over the Lazaretto Creek Bridge, and take the first right turn you come too! Follow the signs to “Tybee Island Tackle!” Tell Captain Ray that Captain Judy sent you!

Fishing tackle recipes!

Giving You A Heads up!

I am going to change the way that I am writing some of the fishing reports. When a specific tackle is used I am going to try and give you it in “recipe form.” This way you will have a list of tackle needed when trying out certain fishing technique for a specific suggestions. Some recipes/lists will seem at first like I am suggesting the same tackle over and over. However, technique, rigging, and style might all be different as well as suggestions on how to put the rigs together. I am also going to try and give you the exact date the fishing report took place. This way you can make notes in your logbook. For instance, in this weeks report Captain Matt Williams fished on Saturday March 29, 2008 and caught quite a few real nice spotted sea trout. The information offered in this report is definitely “log book entry material!” All reports whether you are specifically an inshore or offshore captain should be entered into your logbook.

Inshore Mega Spotted Sea Trout

Captain Matt Williams Fishing Techniques for the last week of March

Saturday March 29, 2008
Descriptions of tackle needed: spinning rods and reels loaded with 20 pound test Power Pro (braided) main line, popping cork with 3/8 to ¼ ounce “dog eared sinker” on shaft, 4 foot of 15 pound test standard monofilament leader, DOA’s shrimp pattern (clear with red specks) #4 or #6 Kale hooks, and live mud minnows

Captain Matt William along with his fishing crew departed the dock around 8:00 AM on Saturday, March 29, 2008.

Captain Matt has four fishermen and his plan was to target spotted sea trout. He already knew in his mind due to many past years of fishing that this was the bite that could keep everyone busy and it did! Captain Matt focused on the creeks and river. As he watched the trees it was quickly ascertained that he had a light southwest wind, which is good especially for where he was headed. Some fishermen might not realize this, but those that fish all of the time pick different location while taking the wind direction in consideration. Since the wind was light out of the southwest, Captain Matt’s plan came to light. As he made his way in the creek and the rivers his first stop was where “a fish bite has been had before!” Captain Matt has been fishing for many years leaning to fact that he knows almost before the fish knows where they are going to be staging at certain times of the year. In this case the creeks and rivers was where they were going to fish as well as catch their fish. The first stop made produced a lot of action, but it only lasted a few minutes. Having four baits in the water at one time along with noise made “takes the edge off any fishing spot!” This means, “too many lines in the water at one time could scatter the holding pattern of the fish!” In the case of the spotted sea trout I believe that when they are feeding especially when a school of these fish are involved they develop sort of a stance. Trout in most cases are only occupying a space about the size of the opening of a five-gallon bucket. So therefore every time you float bait into this area you will most likely get a hit. Too much infiltration in to the area splits up the developed pattern that the fish have taken time to form. This all boils down to a simple thing. The bait that they have successfully hemmed up and concentration devoted to this particular feeding pattern is broken. When this happens it’s time to move on to another spot.

As they fished specific areas he had his crew fish from 6 to 8 feet of water. While using popping corks with four-foot leaders he was able to successfully deliver bait to this depth of water. When water is clear, which is what you need to look for when targeting spotted sea trout, this fish can see about two feet. This boils down to the fact that on this particular day the trout were holding the bait on the bottom and up as far a two feet. This was the fish’s strike zone, which Captain Matt had figured out early in the fishing game.

Here’s the description of bait used: Captain Matt used popping corks, which he attached a 3/8 “dog ear sinker” to the shaft. This extra weight allows a fisherman to be able to cast further. Not only that but it gives the one holding the rod more “controlled cast landings!” When fishing for trout there is normally a lot of casts that has to be made. Having this added weight helps to direct your cast to intended area so that you don’t have to make as many re-cast. Please remember the more noise made lessen the time that you are going to fish any certain area. To the popping cork he is attaching a four foot 15 pound test monofilament leader. Now here’s where you optional for bait used comes into play. If you are planning on using live bait, which in this case was mud minnows, then tie on a #4 to #6 Kale hook. This style hook as well as suggested size doesn’t over power your bait. These hooks are what I consider “thin tinned hooks!” To hook your bait up place the hook’s point under the mud minnow’s head behind the lip and push the hook up out the topside.

When going with the DOA’s shrimp patterns artificial baits all you have to do is to attach to leader. The shrimp pattern color preferred on this fish day was clear with red specks. Whether using live or artificial bait this set up can be used to let your bait float while developing a popping sequence. Another way to work this tackle set up is to retrieve it, pause, and pop it. This float design works floating as well as in the retrieving mode.

As the day progressed the bite lessen with Captain Matt having to move a lot more towards the end of the fishing trip. The wind has shifted from southwest to a northeast changing the flow of water in the areas fish. This change caused a bit of muddy conditions, which slowed the fish bite a bit. Captain Matt still caught fish, but more looking for clear water was a definite priority.

The end results of this fish day were to say the least “unbelievable.” And this is not one of those fish stories; it’s a catching one! They caught quite a few nice spotted sea trout with the customers once having enough released the rest.

Captain Alan Collins’s Savannah River Tour
March 27 and 31, 2008 Inshore Fish day

Tackle Recipe
Captain Alan tackle used: rods and spinning reels loaded with two different pound test line, some with 8 to 10 pound test and 20-pound test Power Pro braided line, popping corks with ¼ to 3/8 added “dog-eared” weight on the shaft, leader used were two to three feet long made from standard 30-pound test monofilament line, which he added two “BB” size spilt shots to the leader, hook used was #2 Kale hook, and live shrimp as bait.

Captain Alan Collins has been inshore fishing for a long time in the creeks, rivers, and sounds. He joined Miss Judy’s Inshore fishing team in 2006. Captain Alan has definitely proven that he is a “looker” especially when it comes to finding fish. Even when he doesn’t have a charter he goes looking for fish!

On these particular fish day Captain Alan picked the Savannah River as his fishing grounds. A lot of fishermen don’t think that this area holds fish, because of it strong currents and somewhat prevailing muddy water conditions. Believe me this area is what I call the “sleeping giant” especially when it comes to holding fish. You know the old saying “ A fish is a fish is a fish?” Well this area brings to light some specific reasoning when it comes to the old fish. It’s simple for sure. This area is probably the one place that fish have adapted to the almost permanent conditions of this river. This boils down to the fact that the fish most likely can see better, because they look harder. Even thought the river currents are strong fish have figured out how to feed around structure and use it as their staging points. I guess I should say “ambush points!” In the case of the Savannah River I believe that the fishermen are more affected than the fish!

According to Captain Alan the best place to fish is around some sort of structure such as rocks, docks, broken pilings and wrecks. Not all structure will hold fish. I thought I would throw that in there! I suggest looking for areas that have what I call “breaks” in the structure. Long stretches of pilings can work, but it’s best to target areas that have some non-conforming structure. Broken pilings scattered make for great ambush spots for large fish. Not only that, but if a bait happens to try to get through an areas like this it going to be nervous. This brings to light another reason a big fish is going to be waiting as well as listening. It’s hard for fish to stage in lots of structure, because they lose a lot of their freedom in regards to “fast attack movement.”

On these fish days Captain Alan had a 7:00 AM low tide stage. It was his plan to fish the incoming, which turn out to be a very good idea. He caught and released 15 red fish (15 to 18 inches long) as well as several large spotted sea trout. He fished the structure as the tide made it’s way in. After about three hours into the flood tide the current was really running. Captain Alan then focused on the fish such as the spotted sea trout that hover close to the bottom especially when the current is moving fast. Until this time they had been catching red fish and striped bass while fishing around the structure. He then started fishing “out, away, and in front” of the structure.

I am always suggesting that once you locate fish and they stop biting in one certain spot in the scheme of things “it’s time change up!” This is the time for you to trying fishing all around the boat. I suggest even that direction that you feel is the worst area to fish, because that’s normally where the fish will be. Captain Alan focused fishing toward the edge of the river in about 4 to 6 feet of water. In some cases when you make a change to fish deeper water you might have to lengthen you leader a bit. However, before making a changes give what you have been using a try. He found the large trout in about 7 feet of water while using the same set up tackle. Here’s the strange thing that we talked about. Normally at this time the large spotted sea trout are found staging closer to the sound areas. In this case, they were found schooling basically up the river. He also caught these trout while they were staging up off the bottom. As I said earlier he was fishing in 7 foot of water with 2 to 3 foot leader length. This meant, no matter how you measure the trout had to come up from the bottom at least two feet plus to get at the dangled bait under the popping corks. This definitely is a case of the right noise makes all the difference in the world. Once they placed their corks the came up with a popping sequence that worked! It basically called the fish up, brought them to the bait supposedly making the noise, and an attack was made. Now you know the rest of the fish catching story!

Offshore
Butter Fly jigging or Not!
Capt Steve Schmelter, “Slammer II” emailed me with this information. I wanted to include his email along with my suggestions. Thanks Captain Steve
Captain Steve’s report and questions….. Capt. Judy, Last fall while bottom fishing in the snapper bank area in around 90 to 105 ft, we had several strange hits as we reeled smaller bottom fish to the boat. I suspected king fish, so I pulled out one of the butterfly jigs from my tackle bag. After a couple drops to the bottom, I hooked up, only to have my 40# fluorocarbon leader cut off. I was excited that I got a hit, but then remembered that I just lost about $25.00 worth of tackle, (jig and hook set-up). I tied on my second and last jig and dropped it to the bottom. Hooked up right away with a teenage kingfish. This was great, I figured we would wear them out and was having a great time on this new jig system, because you could really feel the fish on this tackle that was much lighter than catching them on drone spoons with a #3 planners. All went good, till I got cut off again. Now, I have lost $50 worth of tackle for 2 Kings, I was disappointed.
What type of leader material do you recommend for jigging with the Butterfly set-up for normal bottom feeder, and do you ever use wire leaders on this system? Have you ever dropped these butterfly jigs on the ledge at the Deli, Triple or South ledge area?
Captain Judy’s Answer, Good Morning Captain Steve,
Thanks for your email…. Yes, it’s true that the king make a mess out of our tackle especially under these circumstances. I had the same thing happen to me. There were so many kings trying to get at the lure at the same time that all was loss. So therefore now what I don’t do is to cast my “$25.00 lure” at them. I haven’t tried wire with the butter fly jigs so I can’t say whether it would work or not. However, I believe that the tangles received from jigging with a wire leader would certainly be severe.
It’s my opinion that when juvenile kings are schooling and feeding there is a lot going on! When I find myself in this type of feeding frenzy and if my customers want to use light tackle instead of trolling #3 planners and Drone spoons I do this. I go back to old school with light wire leaders, live bait hooks, trebles, and live bait. The live bait being whatever I have that looks like it would comfortably fit in a juvenile king’s mouth. Fresh dead, sometimes-good frozen cigars, as well as the live ones normally work. I am able under these conditions hook up at least three juvenile kings at a time. When the fish are feeding fast I have to add small bullet weight or egg sinker to the leader to get the bait deeper quicker. I have noticed that when juvenile kings are hitting light tackle that for a more solid hook up, it’s best not to set your hook real hard. Once the fish has your bait just raise your rod and start reeling. If the fish drops the bait, free spool back, and the fish in question or one of them on the outskirt will take over!
We have used butter fly jigs in deep water at a lot of the Gulf Stream ledges as well as live bottom areas. It a great catching machine for sure! The customers can’t believe that you can catch such large fish on a single piece of painted shinny metal. As far as a leader we are using fluorocarbon 60 to 80 pound test line when bottom jigging. It was though at first that you needed to use at least a 20 to 25 foot fluorocarbon leader with the system. However, now that I have been able to use and experiment we are now using 4 to 6 feet of fluorocarbon with great success. The whole idea when it comes to extra long leaders is that you want the fish to look only at the lure not where it’s coming from. If you fish ever takes its eye off your lure even for one second it seems that the temptation to attack and eat is lessen.
Hope this helps and I will talk to you soon! Please send any fish questions that you have to Captain Judy fishjudy2@aol.com

Freshies and Salty Fishing Report

This is a “two in one fishing report.” Normally I only report in this section fresh water tips. However, after reading you will understand why I have labeled it “Freshies and Salty Report!”
In the mid sixties, one of the top freshwater bass fishermen was “Tom Mann.” He introduced into the fishing world the “jelly worm.” This plain old black worm has taken many fish as well as fishermen by surprise. A simple 8 to 9 inch black worm rigged weed-less will turn just about any fish’s head. With that being said, I suggest getting some and trying them. There have been some nice catches while fishing freshwater as well as saltwater with this old stand by bait. Captain Ray Crawley of Miss Judy Charters told me that many years ago he used to soak all of his plastic worms in oil of Anise, because it really got the bite going! According to Captain Ray this is the techniques he used for getting real large, “large mouth bass” to take notice. On my desk as I am writing this I am looking at a bottle of Anise Oil, which Captain Ray ordered for me from his local pharmacy. It’s not expensive. According to the label on the bottle it only cost $5.57. This amount certainly isn’t much of an investment especially when talking about this kind of “real secret sauce and not snake oil!”

These suggestions are definitely what I call “old school.” The reason being is that they really never stop working fishermen just forgot to use them!

“Little Miss Judy’s Believe It or Not!”

Mr. Helmey in the forties!
Part One

I had an interesting conversation with A T Smith (age 81 years young) the other day. During the forties Mr. Smith worked for my father in the car repair, radiator service, big truck, and body shop business. As if that wasn’t enough my father also ran a big truck dealership out of the same shop. My father never told me any of these stories! According to Mr. Smith, my father had the “Auto Car and Diamond T” big truck dealer ship. This is some “mind boggling” information. Since I thought I knew most everything about my father’s “before me” business information. Boy, was I wrong and as I listen the information got even more interesting.

As Mr. Smith talked he had that same smile that my father had when he talked about his so called wonderful past. As he talked, his memory was coming back full force. He had already mentioned that daddy had a body shop. However, now he was remembering what exactly went on this shop. According to Mr. Smith my father had the finest equipment for repairing cars and trucks for hundreds of miles. He then said, “If you broke or wrecked it Mr. Helmey could fix it!” When Mr. Smith worked for daddy he wasn’t known as Captain Helmey. He was called “Mr. Helmey!”

According to the story he did have a boat, which for all that worked for daddy was just called “the boat!” He either lived on “the boat or the apartment” above the office. Mr. Smith has been on the boat when it needed repairs. However, he had never “set foot” in Mr. Helmey apartment.

Mr. Smith worked for daddy from 1945 to 1946. Although he only worked a year for my father he said “he certainly did learn a lot!” The first thing that he was told about my father was even though he didn’t actually work on the cars; didn’t mean he didn’t know how too! According to Mr. Smith this statement was made so that if there was going to be any funny stuff like trying to pass off something that hasn’t been fixed properly to “forget it!” In the forties it seems that my father was a man of few words.

Mr. Smith said, “your daddy was a whiz when it came to putting cars and trucks back together. The fact of the matter is he could fix anything!” One of the most interesting things that daddy came up with was cutting the good end off of wreck cars and putting them together making one un wrecked car. According to Mr. Smith this “conversion of sorts” could lead into the fact that once the car was fixed and on the sales lot that it really hadn’t ever been wrecked. At least, “not the ends that were welding together.” According to Mr. Smith it was all in how you worded it!

In the thirty’s my father allegedly worked for “Big Al Capone,” which I have mentioned on several occasions. Once on my web site www.missjudycharters.com you can click on the history button and get the full details. However, this information about my father wasn’t brought to my attention till now. As I talked with Mr. Smith it sounded like my father still had some sort of ties with those in the $400.00 suits and $200.00 pair of shoes wearing types. He was always talking about the suits that came around daddy’s place. According to Mr. Smith it wasn’t unusual for wrecked or sometimes “shot up Cadillac’s and Lincoln’s” to be parked out front of the shop when he came in for work. At first there were excuses, but after a while you didn’t ask any more questions about the wrecks or how all of these hunting accidents occurred. After all when you are hunting sometimes you do shoot your car by mistake! At least it seemed to happen a lot in the forties!

Mr. Smith continued on with these stories of my father and his abilities to make things happen in the car, big truck, and wrecker world. When the word wrecker came to light another story was remember., which brings me to a closing now….stay tune for next week’s story in regards to “Mr. Helmey’s Wreckers in the Forties!”

Here’s all the line I have for this week! Hope you enjoy!

Captain Judy
“Kicking Fish Tail Since 1956!”