“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

August 22, 2011

Saltwater Inshore, Offshore, Blue Water fishing reports, Freshies Suggestions, and “Little Miss Judy’s Believe It or Not story! Thanks for Reading!

Table of contents

Sounds, Beachfronts, and near shore

It’s triple tail catching time of the year! Here are a few old time suggestions for catch one of these fish!

Red fish in the grass

Bottom fishing at the artificial reefs

Large Spanish mackerel have arrived

Jelly Fish Chaos 2011

Savannah Snapper Banks

Gulf Stream Suggestions

Blue water working conditions!!

Freshies Suggestions Striped bass SUMMER STRIPERS LOVE DEEP CRANKBAITS
by Bill Vanderford

“Little Miss Judy’s Believe It or Not!” Old school triple tail hook ups!

Sounds, beachfronts, and near shore

It’s triple tail catching time of the year! Here are a few old time suggestions for catch one of these fish!
Attachment 201899
Photo by Little eight year old Miss Judy

For the rest of this story to go to the end of this fishing report and read Little Miss Judy Believe it or not!

Please meet George Gorman. This picture was taken in August 1959 by a “Brownie” Kodak camera. I was eight years old at the time this photo was taken and I believe it was done so with my help. I became a whiz at holding the camera down and finding in the view finder the exact pose that I was looking for. George was our neighbor and he fished with my father a lot. When George was working, believe me it wasn’t good. He was “the go to guy” for the government. Any time there was a strange substance found George was the man that knew how to find out what it was and where is might have came from. At the ripe old age of 80 he was still on the “will call list” for instances such as this. He worked on the identifying all the white powder that was sent in the mail to the post offices and government buildings not so very long ago.

Here’s what I know about this picture. My father caught a lot of triple tail in his lifetime. Believe me I went with him a lot. I wish I had pictures of some of the fish that I caught. However, the memory of it all is still in my mind, which is a good thing. My father didn’t call them triple tails he called them sun fish. When wasn’t calling them sun fish he called them “Eddy fish!”

Red fish in the grass

For some reason the old red fish has started hanging more in the grass. This means in some areas as soon as there is enough water the red fish swims in. Some say it’s because there is plenty of food while other say it because they are trying to knock the parasites off. Whatever the case may be it time to fish in the grass for the bass!

Bottom fishing at the artificial reefs

With the water temperature on the “real hot side” the bottom fishing during this time in 50 foot or less of water can be a little tough. Now I am not saying you won’t catch anything I am a saying the fish caught might not be large enough to keep. With this in mind for those that want to practice catching all sizes of fish from black sea bass to shark now is the time to go into this mode!

Large Spanish mackerel have arrived

I know I have been talking about it, but now it has finally happened. Over the weekend while fishing the near shore artificial reefs we caught some really nice Spanish mackerel while pulling small Clark spoons. I never saw them on the surface I just became a bird watcher. Every time I saw birds diving I basically headed in that direction and caught fish when I got there! It sounds simple because it was…whatever you do don’t forget your dip net!

Jelly Fish Chaos 2011

Attachment 201892

Here’s a jelly fish on one of my bottom rigs. We did not put it there and it did not bite the hook. While the customer was bringing in to check the bait the hook passed through a jelly fish and got hooked up. Once I saw it I quickly put this hooked jelly fish in the live well and took this picture. While bottom fishing and retrieving bait as well as hooked fish back to the boat our line passed through the 1,000’s of jelly fish that have migrated to our area.

Here’s what I do know about this jelly fish which I think is called sea nettle or if you want the technical stuff “chrysaora quinquecirrha.” This jelly’s mucus once introduced to your skin does offer a pretty nasty sting, but it washes off easy enough. However, if the stringy tentacles get wrapped around finger, neck, arm, leg, and etc..it’s going to take more than just washing it off. Just remove anyway that you can as soon as possible…and then give the area a good spray with

Jellyfish “SQUISH”

Attachment 201894

Jelly fish Squish! It’s good and it works. One spray and the sting goes away!!

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These are called cannon ball jelly commonly known as jelly balls. As far as I am concerned this is one jelly fishing that doesn’t have any stinging power. However, here is what they do have. The mucus formed on the outside of the jelly fish once it touches your skin can sometimes cause a numbing affect. The dark skirt color around the bottom of the jelly fish will not come out of your clothes and burns if you get it in cuts on your hand. All and all let them alone taking pictures only!

Attachment 201895

Over the years I have discovered that most cannon ball jelly fish always have a rider on board. And it called a spider crab. (Or it looks like a spider crab.) Now after much observation the crab is not eating the jelly fish and the jelly fish is not eating the crab. So therefore I think it is a mutual migration affair. It seems the larger the jelly ball the large the crab. Here is a small cannon ball jelly fish that has it usual spider crab tucked inside. We dipped the jelly ball up, looked inside, and the closer we looked the more the crab moved towards it’s chosen friends interior. Leading to the fact that not only can a crab be a friend with others even thought they are different “they can also see too!”

Attachment 201898

Captain Frank Gibson holds up a hand full of black sea bass! This bite is still taking place from the artificial reefs to the snapper banks.

Savannah Snapper Banks

The bottom bite continuous to be very interesting with our customers really never knowing what might jump on their hooks. It’s a great fishing trip to this area and it doesn’t matter whether you use your boat or mine! I have a lot of customers calling and asking about fishing. And sometimes they want to know exactly what they are going to catch. My standard line is this ….I suggest picking the amount time that you and your group would like to spend on the water. Then I can offer what you might catch during that hour trip. However, the bottom line is this…It’s the ocean and you really never know what might be swimming in and biting your hook!

Gulf Stream Suggestions

Blue water working conditions!!

Attachment 201897

Sargasso weed pushed together into a rip, which was sporting one heck of a temperature break.

This is what would be called a great line to work with. When trolling the line or when pitching to those down under or it’s a perfect set up to do a little triple tail scooping. Boy, I bet I got your attention with that last line. Well, here’s the thing I wish I had taken pictures of just some of the triple tails that we picked up that were basically laying the Sargasso weed. Believe it or not but triple tails also known as sun fish or eddy fish are known to do a little sunning in the weeds. However, now that I think about it I had much whether just taken pictures of the event instead of removing the fish from the would be safe haven!

Freshies Suggestions
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Photo by Bill Vanderford

Striped bass

SUMMER STRIPERS LOVE DEEP CRANKBAITS
by Bill Vanderford

"Fish on!" was heard by everyone in the boat as first one of the big rods and then the other bent almost double! More than a hundred feet back and about 25 feet below the surface of the water, two big stripers had just engulfed the long, deep-running crankbaits, and these were just two of nearly thirty striped bass that had been encountered during a five-hour guide trip.

When surface temperatures surpass the 80 degree mark, the thermocline in deep, clear lakes starts to take a definite form. This change in the chemical and thermal makeup of a lake has a profound impact on the striped bass population, and deepwater trolling becomes an extremely productive method to catch great numbers of concentrated stripers.

Normally, the ideal trolling depth during hot weather seems to be 20 to 40 feet, but the exact depth is always decided by where fish are seen on a quality graph recorder. In the past, the best method for reaching this perfect level that lies between the hot surface water and the top of the colder thermocline was to use leadcore line and a one-ounce bucktail jig with a 4-inch plastic trailer. Downriggers were also an option, but they posed another problem. One could easily attach the line to the release mechanism and put it at the desired depth, but the weight of the larger bucktail jigs that we ued had an uncertain effect on the true trolling depth. Also, both the leadcore and the downrigger have built-in encumbrances that have an adverse effect on the purity of fighting a fish.

Therefore, a few years ago, knowledgeable anglers began experimenting with larger, diving crankbaits to catch congregated striped bass during the hot days of summer. What we learned has extremely simplified the fishing and has increased the fun factor tremendously! For information please go to http://fishinglanier.com/a_summer_tr…_stripers.html

Those fishermen that want to “GO FISH LAKE LANIER”

Bill Vanderford is “Lake Lanier’s Legend!”

For more about my long time friend Bill Vanderford as well as his accomplishments, his freshwater charter trips or wildlife tours, books written and his special line up of tackle offered, please visit his site http://www.fishinglanier.com/contact.html for all the details! For more details go http://stores.ebay.com/Fishy-Racer http://www.youtube.com/fishyracer www.cafepress.com/grapefruitshop

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

Old school triple tail hook ups!

Attachment 201893

This is my father and believe this or not but this is the boat that we went offshore and fished for triple tail also known as sun fish or eddy fish. My father would pull the row boat behind the big boat “Miss Jerry” and once we got close to the fishing spot he would anchor up. Then we would load up in the small boat and go fishing for triple tail. I remember all of this as if it was only yesterday. Here’s what I did know about fishing for triple tail..

Although this fish looks like it should swim and maneuver up right it does not. It kind of lays in the current and turn basically like a rudder when it wants to make a direction change. I have watched this time and time again. My father always pointed it out to me. According to him by using a small boat we were right at the level of the fish meaning we could basically sneak up on them. We fish around the beach front off Tybee Island, the range marker’s pilings, and then there was this one special place in South Carolina.

Tybee Island, Georgia

The buoys that lined the shipping channel were great spots to target this fish. Most all buoys had bells or whistles, which helped the ships navigating during foggy conditions. My father used to always say, “When cobia fishing it’s always best to work the buoys with the most noise!” However, when it came to triple tail fishing he said, “Fish the buoys with the broken bells and whistles!” According to my father the triple tail especially when lying close or right on the surface was very noise sensitive!”

South Carolina Waters

The ranges between the Calibogue Sound and the Savannah River Channel used to really hold the attentions of the triple tail. Now please keep in mind this was long before a lot to Savannah River dredging has taken place. It’s just my opinion during this time the currents weren’t as swift as they are at this time. We normally fished with beef up traditional float rig while using live shrimp as bait. Live shrimp is always a good triple tail getter. However, fresh dead shrimp laced onto a hook also worked.

Daufuskie Island

Another good area to look for triple tail is around the front of Daufuskie Island on the northern, which is called Bloody Point. For some reason these fish love to make a feeding appearance or should I say, “A floating appearance.” While on the subject of Bloody Point, which is the beach at Daufuskie Island, South Carolina. Now here’s the story that my father told me in regards to how this beach got its name. According to my father when sailing vessels were making way up the river where the Savannah was being settled quite often some of the passengers got very sick. Instead bring them into the settlement where they might bring disease or whatever these most unfortunate persons were tossed over board. Now according to my father they weren’t shot or put in a boat they were basically throw into the ocean at the mouth of the Savannah River. Current took the unfortunate victims right to what is now call Daufuskie Island. Before some of the misfortunate got to the beach sharks would sometime attack coloring the water and this area became known as “Bloody Point!” There is good news those that did make it whole or not survived and thrived on the island for many years!

Triple Tail

A few triple tails have been spotted in this area around the buoys and also just sunning off the beachfronts. Over the years this fish especially in this area could be called “the allusive fish!” The reason I say this is due to the fact there is a lot said about them but not much catching going on. Back in the old days there were quite a few almost 50 pounders caught.

Thanks for reading! Captain Judy

Captain Judy Helmey
missjudycharters.com
912 897 4921