“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

December 19, 2011

Happy Holidays to All!!

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

Table of Contents

Call 888-JOIN-RFA or visit http://www.joinrfa.org/ “JUST DO IT!”

2012 INSHORE and OFFSHORE FISHING CLINICS Dates have been set

Surf Fishing Report

Captain Alan Collins of Miss Judy Charters offers Tips on how to keep them catching once you find them!

Inshore report It’s all about water temperatures!!

Fiddler Crab Tasting Taste Please don’t try this

Artificial Reefs According to the fisheries…there are no black sea bass….

Water temperatures are below 60 degrees!

Savannah Snapper Banks Grouper season will be closed January until May 1, 2012

Gulf Stream Yes it’s time to go! Arran Bibby and crew caught lots of fish! Providing FREE On-Line Sea Surface Temperature Charts Since 1999

Freshies Report! Corey’s real big striped bass!!

“Little Miss Judy’s Believe it Or Not” Merry Christmas!

JUST DO IT!”

If you want to keep catching these ..join the Recreational Fishing Alliance NOW!!
Attachment 209991

Captain Kathy Brown of Miss Judy Charters is holding up a nice size amberjack, which was caught at the Savannah Snapper banks. The amberjack sometimes referred to as the “reef donkeys” are very strong fighters. The fight starts at the first run and it doesn’t stop until the fish is landed. The term “reef donkeys” came about when it was decided that if you found a ledge with amberjack schooling in the upper water column you chances for getting to bottom without hooking up is very slim. In most cases this is a very good thing!!

Recreational Fishing Alliance

POB 98263

Washington, DC 20077-7581

Call 888-JOIN-RFA or visit http://www.joinrfa.org/

I am willing to fight for my right to fish….Here’s what I like about this organization….their stated mission is “To safeguard the rights of Saltwater anglers, protect marine, boat, and tackle industry jobs, and ensure the long-term sustainability of our nation’s saltwater fisheries!”

Please join the RFA today! A one year membership is only $ 35.00!

http://www.joinrfa.org/About_Us.htm

2012 INSHORE and OFFSHORE FISHING CLINICS

Dates have been set

Our newly revised inshore handout material is going to be considered “priceless!” We are going to give you the best times to fish for what, when, and where for the entire year of 2012.

Any inshore fisherman that is considering going offshore they need to attend my offshore class. For more details scroll down …

One Inshore School
Saturday February 4, 2012

One Offshore School

Saturday February 11, 2012

Time: 8:00AM – 2:00 PM

Place: Tubby’s Tank House 2909 River Drive, Thunderbolt, Georgia 31404

Cost: $ 90.00 (included one day class, breakfast, and lunch)

Please call 912 897 4921 now for reservations

Please sign up as soon as possible! There is limited entry!

Capt Judy’s email fishjudy2@aol.com

Capt Judy’s Cell 912 429 7671

For more detailed information go to

www.missjudycharters.com OR GIVE US A CALL 912 897 4921

To sign up just give us a call or email fishjudy2@aol.com and we will put you on the list. After the first of the year we will contact to check the status! Thanks and hope to hear from you soon! Captain Judy

Surf Fishing Report

I don’t have anything to report. The water temperatures have dropped below 60 degrees. Most likely fish have moved into deep holes in the creeks, rivers, and sounds. I am not saying they things could quickly change on a sunny day, because they could!! However, the key temperature for surf fishing is “when it’s 65 everything is alive!” (65 degrees water temperature) With that being said, March just might be the month to start giving this a try!

Captain Alan Collins of Miss Judy Charters offers Tips on how to keep them catching once you find them!

Dr. Toothy Wonder is showing us what he hooked up and the rig he used to catch these find looking spotted sea trout
Attachment 209992

Dr. Toothy Wonder also known as Brad Durham took Captain Alan as his guest to do some inshore fishing. It was decided before the trip that Dr. Toothy Wonder would supply the boat and Captain Alan would supply the bait along with some hopefully good fishing spots. As reported in last week’s report they did well on this fishing day. They caught lots of spotted sea trout, red fish, and flounder. Here’s what I didn’t report in last week’s report…

For rigs they were using 4 inch adjustable Billy Boy corks with 15 inch leaders and 1/0 Kahle hooks. When picking out a hook I suggest making sure that your hook isn’t too big for the bait used. For smaller baits such as mud minnows and certain time of month small shrimp I suggest using #4 or #6 Kahle hook. I like the bronze, because it doesn’t seem to rust as quickly as the gold or nickel plated hooks.

For live bait they were using mud minnows and shrimp, which worked very well on the particular fish day. Believe me, if you want your best chances at catching fish I always suggest starting with live shrimp. It seems to get the bite going. I asked if they used any artificial shrimp patterns and the answer I got was NO. According to the report that had quite a few shrimp and mud minnows so they kept using what was working. I am always suggesting that once you get a strong bite going if you are getting low of bait that you make a switch from the real deal to some sort of artificial shrimp pattern. The secret to getting results when using artificial bait and adjustable floats is to hook it up just like you do the real thing. Believe me I have done it many times.

According to the report from Captain Alan the duo would catch 6 to 8 spotted sea trout and then the bite would stop. When the bite stalled they just started fishing 360 degrees around the perimeter of the boat until they found them. As you know when it comes to a fish that is in the ‘feeding mode” it’s necessary to get your bait inside the strike zone. When moving from close to the bank to the “other side of the boat” don’t forget to adjust your cork so that your bait will be a little deeper. Once Dr. Toothy Wonder and Captain Alan found the school again it was “FISH ON A LOT!”

The bottom line to this fishing report is they found a solid fish bite and caught some really nice trout. They kept a few of the smaller trout and released the larger ones. Please know that the larger trout are the ones that will lay the most eggs. With that being said, “Please release the larger spotted sea trout, because it will make a big difference from year to year!”

Inshore report

It’s all about water temperatures!!

When the water temperature gets below 60 degrees, which it is, things in the biting department change. Inshore fish move slower, which means their feeding habits are as easily to figure out. Here are a few tips that will help you get a few more bites than not…

If you can pick your inshore fish days I suggest going with a low tide mid day along with sunny conditions. The reason being is sun warms the mud and the water covers it somewhat of a warming trend takes place. For those fish such as red fish, flounder, or spotted sea trout that want to eat this would be the time to have a snack!!

Fiddler Crab Tasting Taste

Please don’t try this ..
Attachment 209993

I am always suggesting when it comes to bait for sheepshead that these fish prefer purple backs over the back backs because they taste sweeter….how do I know that? I did a test…I took a purple back in one hand and a black back in the other mashed them and tasted the juice. It’s true the purple backs are sweeter tasting! I did this test so you wouldn’t have too!!

Artificial Reefs

According to the fisheries…there are no black sea bass….

Attachment 209994

Now here’s a nice picture that was taken April 2, 2010 of some really big black sea bass. This of course is when fishermen could keep black sea bass. Once again and I know I will be saying this over and over …the fisheries management certainly did call this ball wrong!! And the only ones suffering are us fishermen certainly not those that governor them!!! The bottom line to all of this if those that govern the fisheries actually fished they would already know “no over fishing is occurring” especially when it comes to black sea bass!!!

Water temperatures are below 60 degrees!

The water temperature has dropped to below 60 degrees, which means the black sea bass should have moved to deeper water. However, even thought the water temperature is right the black sea bass continue to rule the roost at the artificial reefs. If you happen to get on a Sheepshead bite believe me it won’t be long before schools and schools of black sea bass move in on this feeding frenzy. There is one way to semi-combat this so called problem, which is to merely quit fishing for a few minutes. This will slow the black fish feeding frenzy down allowing a few Sheepsheads to bite your hook. The upside to this bite is if you want to catch, release, catch, and release as many fish as you want this is the time to do so. Please remember the black sea bass season is closed until June 1, 2012. The reason being is those that govern our fisheries think that black sea bass are being over fished. HA HA!!

Attachment 209995

Captain Deidra Jeffcoat of Miss Judy Charters holding up Sharon Chamber’s just caught and just about to be release black sea bass

These artificial reefs continue to hold the attentions of all kinds of fish. We caught some nice black sea bass, trigger fish, flounder, blue fish, summer trout, and Sheepshead. The catching action was great while using just plain old cut squid and fish. To get the most rod bending action I suggest using light tackle for getting the most fight out of these fish!! Whatever you do don’t forget you dip net and camera!

Savannah Snapper Banks

I hate to keep sounding like a broken record, but not much has changed in regards to this report!

Grouper season will be closed January until May 1, 2012

I haven’t been in a while, but just so you will know…2011 grouper season will close on January 1, 2012 and will reopen on May 1 2012. It truly is an interesting trip to take especially for those of you that want to see some nice genuine red snapper “up close and personal!” I wish I could say when the red snapper fishery will open. We don’t have a season for this fish. It was closed due to over fishing!!!

Gulf Stream

Yes, it’s time to go!

Attachment 209996

Bull dolphin also known as a MAHI MAHI! Look at those colors its sporting!

Arran Bibby and crew caught lots of fish!

December 15, 2011

Arran Bibby and crew go to the stream!

While fishing in the blue waters of the stream the temperature was 76 degrees. The cream caught 1 Wahoo, 3 Mahi Mahi, 15 black fin tuna, and 3 king fish. According to the report every time they trolled passed an anchored commercial fishing boat the fishermen on board held up really large grouper. With the report comes “an old adage” which is where you have fish you definitely have fish!!

I will try to get some more details on this blue water fishing trip for my next weeks blue water report!

To know you have to go!

Normally during this time warmer water patterns are pushed every further offshore. Before departing on such a long run as this I suggest always checking the weather and getting a sea surface chart read out from http://sstcharts.com/

Providing
FREE On-Line Sea Surface Temperature Charts
Since 1999

Freshies Report!

Corey’s real big striped bass!!

Attachment 209997

Photo from my new fishing friend, Corey

This striper was 42 inches long and it weighted in at 33 pounds. It was caught on the Chesapeake, east of Annapolis and South of the Bay Bridge near Bloody Point on Saturday December 3, 2011.

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”

Attachment 209998

Merry Christmas!

Here I am early Christmas morning with doll in hand, eyes closed half a sleep, and just happy as can be that daddy didn’t catch Santa Clause! That flash that you see in the background was made by a Brownie Kodak Camera!

“Christmas in the Fifties with Dear old Captain Dad!”

As a child, like most, I loved Christmas. I knew that Santa Clause was the real thing and that hopefully he was going to visit my house. Every year my father would tell all of us children that he was going to set a trap so as to catch old Saint Nick. In this department I wasn’t too popular with the neighborhood kids. This was due to the fact that Daddy was a great hunter and could possibly set a trap that just might work. So as you can see we were all in a dilemma at Christmas time.

We would talk about it among ourselves and came up with some pretty convincing reasons why we shouldn’t worry too much about Daddy’s old trap. The number one reason was that we knew for a fact that Santa was very smart. So therefore he would see right through any trap. The other and best reason was that we knew for a fact was that if Santa could get into houses without chimneys he could easily escape. After a few minutes us six year olds would get tried of worrying about this and basically forgot about it. At least until Daddy brought it up again, which was quite often on Christmas Eve!

As an only child I was very fortunate to get a lot things during the year. So therefore when Christmas arrived I needed more. After all a child needs lot of things to survive. Back in the old days we received only a few catalogs. Not like today where your mailbox is packed full everyday for months before the big event. I would always be anxiously waiting for the “Levy’s” catalog to arrive. This was my Christmas list in picture form. My father would tell me that I could circle what I wanted and he would pass it on to Santa. Now this is the funny thing. He always told me not to spend anymore than $ 25.00 on all of my gifts. So the process began. Picking the presents, then adding their costs up with the hopes that what I wanted wasn’t over the designated amount.

Until I got older I didn’t understand what money and Santa Clause had in common. After doing all of this work and making my final decision I would hand over my picture Christmas list to Daddy. He would hopefully as he promised, pass it on to Santa Clause. However, I never forgot for one moment that he might catch the rascal before he got to our house. I wasn’t the only child worried about this.

Most people leave cookies and milk. However, my father and I decided to make a few changes. Over the years we left sardines and saltines, Vienna sausage and Ritz’s, and one time we left sea rations of can cookies and jelly. As far as something to drink we left what we had on hand at the time, which could have been anything from water straight out the faucet to something that came in a bottle. It seemed that now matter what we left Santa seemed eat it all.

When Christmas morning finally arrived I jumped out of bed, ran into the living room, and got a big let down. There wasn’t any presents or toys to be found. I couldn’t believe it Daddy had actually caught Santa Clause. I ran to daddy’s bedroom almost in tears and woke him up. He rose up half a sleep and asked, “What’s wrong?” I replied, “Santa didn’t come!” He quickly replied, “Oh Santa and I got to talking about fishing, eating snacks, and he left all of your presents in my closet!”

Once again my father saved the day with just a few words putting Christmas morning back into motion!

Hope you have a wonderful Merry Christmas!

And I hope that Santa brings you all the tackle that you asked for!

Thanks for reading!

Captain Judy

Captain Judy Helmey
missjudycharters.com
912 897 4921