“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

November 21, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!

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

Recreational Fishing Alliance “JOIN NOW!”

2012 INSHORE and OFFSHORE FISHING CLINICS Dates have been set

Red Fish and their friends!

Suggestions for fishing inshore on Thanksgiving Day!!

Stripers and Wipers Season!

Inshore Flounder bite

Lots of action to be had at the Artificial Reefs

Savannah Snapper Banks Fishing with Steve Howell at the Savannah Snapper Banks

Savannah Snapper Banks Catching/keeping Dilemma

Blue Water Report Meet the X TA SEA blue water fishing team November 12, 2011

Freshies Report Corey holding a nice steel head!

“Little Miss Judy’s Believe It or Not!” A Thanksgiving story The child cheater!

If you want to keep doing this, JOIN NOW!!!!!

Recreational Fishing Alliance

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Captain Kathy Brown of Miss Judy Charters is holding up a nice gag grouper, which was caught at the Savannah Snapper Banks!!

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! Just Do It!

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

Red Fish and their friends!

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Red fish catching if good!

During this time inshore fishermen get the chance at finding a really good red fish bite. The secret is to approach your fishing area and anchor up quietly, look for red fish swirls, and then just wait for the fish to come to you. It can be somewhat of a waiting game, but once you get this sequence down hook ups, fights, and red fish bites can happen!

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Suggestions for fishing inshore on Thanksgiving Day!!

Captain Ray Crawley of Miss Judy Charters holding up a couple of nice spotted sea trout

Happy Thanksgiving Day and if you have time to fish…..

For those inshore fishermen that have time to “GO FISH” on Thanksgiving Day morning it would be a good time to take advantage of the out going tide stage and still be home in time for that traditional dinner. The trout bite has been pretty good with fishermen catching some nice fish while using traditional adjustable corks and live shrimp. It’s simple because it works.

Stripers and Wipers Season!

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Striped bass season is ON

When the water temperatures cool the striped bass also known as rock fish start making some real good feeding moves. The Savannah and Ogeechee Rivers have been known for holding the attentions of this fish. Live shrimp or peanut menhaden presented under traditional float rigs floated around structure is a very good way to get one of these big fish hooked up!

Inshore Flounder bite

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Captain Matt Williams of Miss Judy Charters is holding up two nice soon to be crispy scored flounder.

It’s that time of the year when fishing for red fish and spotted sea trout you get what is called “a flounder by-catch bite!” This just means the flounder are bulking up too while getting ready for the cold water times. The secret to hooking up a flounder is to give them time to eat before setting the hook…1,000, 1,001, 1,002 count comes to mind!

Lots of action to be had at the Artificial Reefs

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2011 Sheepshead season is upon us

The month of November has always been a maybe find a Sheepshead bite at the artificial reefs kind of month. I would like to report that some of the smaller Sheepshead has made way to these areas. However, until the water temperature get a little cooler the Sheepshead bite will be mixed in with black sea bass, flounder, blue fish, pig fish, and lots of other smaller hungry fish. However, these bites are still is a lot of fun when using light tackle!!

Savannah Snapper Banks

Fishing with Steve Howell at the Savannah Snapper Banks

Steve Howell, Captain De Dar, and Captain Judy

Tuesday November 15, 2011

Steve Howell is one of Miss Judy Charter’s long time friend and good customers. Steve knows how to catch fish even under the strangest conditions.

Secret Spot Number One

Black, white and brown ledge

This particular ledge holds a lot of black sea bass and gags. As you know the black sea bass season for keeping is closed until June 2012. And of course, to get pass the enormous amounts of black fish we had to use real big live baits, which we did. Now back to the situation of the fish day….

Tuesday November 15, 2011

Although seas were calm and the temperatures were mild we just couldn’t get the fish to come to grips with our hooks. Once arriving at secret fishing spot number one, “Black, white, and Brown Ledge,” we dropped in prefect size live baits looking for a big gag hit. Steve and I (Captain Judy) fished together keeping the baits right on the ledge. Since the tide was not raging it wasn’t hard to keep the baits in the strike zone. However, some times such as this one we couldn’t get a serious hit. We had a few pass bys, which did scale our bait, but we had no “big gag slams.” After about an hour of working up, down, around, and under this ledge it was time to throw in the towel in and make a move.

Secret Spot Number Two

The Ditches

This is area seems to be completely flat at least when looking at it from surface to bottom with the old fish finder. When the fish that are hiding in this large ditch you can’t see them and it looks as though the bottom area is flat. However, when the larger fish are up and feeding you mark lots of fish. The bottom line to this area is if the fish are in the ditch, which means “not feeding” it can be a waiting game. As luck would have it or maybe it was planned about 30 minutes after arriving “we got fish!” I started marking single large fish up and swimming about. On our third drop Steve hooked up and caught a nice genuine red snapper, which fought all the way to the surface.

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Captain Deidra Jeffcoat and Steve Howell are showing off a large genuine snapper. This fish hit medium size ruby red lips while bottom fishing at the Savannah Snapper Banks.

After landing this big snapper I showed Steve the fish finder and we both put our thumbs up. It looked like a target rich environment to the both of us. On the fourth drift we didn’t have a hit. When into the fifth drift Steve got hit hard and he said, “Now that’s a gag for sure!” And as you can see it definitely was. We were all excited knowing that we might catch a few more nice fish. I set up for drift number six, we dropped our baits, and it wasn’t a second before we both got hooked up. As soon as we started to reel we looked at each other and said “shark.” If you have fished long enough and get the opportunity to catch different kinds of fish you can get where you can “Call the Ball!” No it’s not pool! It’s where you can identify the fish on the hook way before seeing it.

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Steve Howell and Captain Judy are holding up a nice gag grouper, which was caught while fishing the “Ditches!”

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Brown Shark, which was the last fish that Steve Howell landed before we my way home!!

Sharks invade the “Ditches!”

It was true; both of us had sharks and not small ones either. We caught some of the largest Atlantic Sharpnose Shark that I have seen in a while. Then it stared to rain. It rained pretty hard for about 20 minutes. So we drifted around waiting for the clouds to pass with hopes that the sharks would make a move away from the area. However, after a few more passes we both knew that the hand writing was on the wall. We had what is called a “shark feeding frenzy” going on down below. When this happens fish that were up and feeding are now being either fed upon or herded to the protection of the ditch.

Summary for the day “bait scenario!”

Fishing at the Savannah Snapper Banks especially when the black sea bass and vermillion snapper season is closed can be difficult especially if you want to keep some fish. The ledges that I did fish were either covered with large hump back black sea bass or foot ball size vermillion. With this situation I suggest that you use the largest live baits that you can catch. Here’s a list of what is best to use: Large rock bass, sand perch, scup, blue fish, ruby red lips, vermilion, pin fish, and blue runners. These bait need to be on the large size. The nervous bait such as cigar minnows, Spanish sardines, horse eye jacks, and others that don’t have air bladders will work. However, getting these baits pass the hungry mouths of the large black sea bass and foot size vermilion “nines times out of ten” is not going to happen!

Savannah Snapper Banks Catching/keeping Dilemma

I am not going to lie, but planning a trip to this area might be a mistake. With all black sea bass season, vermilion season, and red snapper closed leaving grouper and a few others open you could find yourself coming home with only a few keeper fish. Grouper season closes January through end of April. The bottom line is this: if you want to catch and keep I suggest waiting to make a Savannah Snapper Banks trip any time after May 1, 2012. Black sea bass will or should open on June 1, 2012.

Here’s the thing about my job now! It used to be all about fishing and catching fish. Now it’s more about when you can go to be able to keep what you catch. Now for those that like to “catch and release” big bottom fish, now is the time to make your plans to do this kind of trip. The genuine red snapper populations are busting at the seams!!! The vermilion and black sea bass bite is awesome making almost any drop to the bottom a guaranteed hook up!! Grouper season is open until the last day of December. While doing all this catching and releasing you just might catch a nice grouper that you can keep!!!

Blue Water Report

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Meet the X TA SEA blue water fishing team

November 12, 2011

You know the old saying, “A picture can be worth over a 1,000 words!” In the case of these pictures sent to me by one of Savannah’s favorite blue water teams “X TA SEA” would be more about pounds than words.

As you can see from the pictures in this report the team had a very busy day catching tunas and Wahoo. I am always saying, “If you don’t go you won’t know!” Well, now you know it’s time to go, thanks to this blue water team.

Attachment 208558

Attachment 208559

Check out the stripes on this just caught YAHOO WAHOO!!!

The end! Now it’s time to go catch fish!!!

Freshies report

Attachment 208560

Corey holding a nice steel head!

For 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!”

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Captain Sherman I. Helmey and his sister Mrs. Hattie Zipperer

A Thanksgiving story “The child cheater!

My Aunt Hattie, which was my father’s older sister always cooked the best Thanksgiving dinner! Her cooking abilities were unbelievable. She would cook along with the help of Bertha doing almost everything from scratch. Aunt Hattie’s Thanksgiving dinners took days to prepare. In fact during my younger years, if I’m not mistaken, all ingredients including the bird was raised or grown on her big farm. However, the fruit that she used to make that unbelievable ambrosia was probably purchased from a stand right out there on Highway 17. I know that the pecans that went into this particular dish were picked from the farm, because quite often I helped with the gathering.

Bertha always worked with my Aunt for a long as I can remember. She was always there to help with the Thanksgiving Day cooking bonanza. I was always interested in how they made everything look and taste so good. Her personally grown vegetables were always the “prefect vegetable color.” They baked a coconut cake that was 6 tears high. It never leaned or anything. The bad news is I wasn’t always around for the mixing of the cake, because this is one bowl I would have loved to lick. However, my aunt had this kitchen utensil that I later called a “child cheater.” This reason was a simple one. Whenever I happened to be around when baking she used this utensil and it would remove almost all of the tasty ingredients from the walls of the mixing bowl. There was always a little left, which was just enough to get a little taste.

The turkey was always browned to perfection. Her secret was certainly a one of a kind in my book. She cooked the turkey in a brown grocery bag. The bird was put in the bag much like you would have put one in a state of the art “plastic browning in bag.” The drums always stuck out a little, but not enough to let them be exposed to direct heat. There was another weird cooking method that I had seen when I was even younger. The turkey was wrapped in a sort of gauze that pretty much look like first aid bandage material. When cooked the bird also came out golden brown with skin and everything. However, when it was first put in the oven it looked like a real bona-fide “turkey mummy.”

The food wasn’t the only highlight of the Thanksgiving Day. My Aunt Hattie always set the prettiest dinner table I had ever seen. She would always use her best china and silverware for this special occasion. The Table was huge. It would seat at least 10 guests. There were high back chairs with big arms rests. When you sat in them you knew for a fact that you had to be someone special just to be invited. The good news about my Aunt Hattie was that my father and I were always invited. It was a family tradition to spend Thanksgiving Day at her house. This particular dinner was always served at 2:00PM sharp. You could tell when dinnertime was approaching, because everyone would start showing up. My father and I always arrived early so that we could all watch the Thanksgiving Parade. It was as I said part of a family tradition.

When it came time to eat everyone was gathered for a prayer. As a small child, I am sorry to admit, I always opened my eyes just to watch what everyone was doing. Most of adults were standing very still with their eyes closed. However, all of us kids basically did the same thing watched and semi-listened at what seemed to be the longest prayer ever said in the world. At least it seemed long to us 7 year olds. At the end of the prayer all adults reached for their chair and proceeded to sit down. The children were all escorted to the kitchen where a special table waited for us, which fit our size perfectly. However, we would always talk about the day when we all would be sitting at the grand dinner table.

However, now that I think about it when I finally graduated from the kitchen to the main dinning room it wasn’t all that I thought it would be. I had to fix my own plate as well as wait for others to start eating. Our tea glasses were sitting in crystal holders, which were supposed to keep any sort of wet stains off the starched white tablecloth. Trying to eat and drink at the same time could be tricky especially if you missed putting your glass back in the holder. The food sure didn’t taste any different. Don’t get me wrong it was still delicious, but somehow it wasn’t the same.

This goes to show you that it takes a lifetime to realize that in some instances change and all that implies certain isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be! However, “family traditions” are what Thanksgiving Day is all about! Although in my case, moving from one room to another didn’t seem like a big step, but it certainly was!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Captain Judy

Captain Judy Helmey
missjudycharters.com
912 897 4921