“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

September 26, 2011 fishing report and story

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

2012 INSHORE and OFFSHORE FISHING CLINICS

Fishing once again Robin and Paul Dembkowski Dacula, Georgia

Black nose shark

Red Fish Time of the Year!

Big Bull Reds

Fun shrimping in now taking place

Captain Uncle Bob, Indians, canoes, and Kayaks!!

Captain Alan Collins talks about his catching flounder methods..

Artificial Reefs Report

Savannah Snapper Banks Report

Gulf Stream Report Sword fish off of Georgia’s Coast!!

Freshies Report Plastic worms for summer bass! Grape-al Worms

Little Miss Judy’s Believe It or Not! 1930’s Era How the liquor got where!

And the Ample Bosom Era!

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

Fishing once again

Robin and Paul Dembkowski Dacula, Georgia

Friday September 16, 2011

Incoming Tide Fishing 7:00 AM departure

Strong northeast to north winds blew on this day

Captain Ray Crawley of Miss Judy Charters

And fishing once again

Robin and Paul Dembkowski Dacula, Georgia

Attachment 205443

Robin and Paul Dembkowski go inshore with Captain Ray again. This wife and husband fishing team visiting from Dacula, Georgia love to fish. In last week’s fishing report dated September 19, 2011 the duo fished on Monday, September 12, 2011 and had a very good line stretching day. Robin on the first fishing date caught the biggest and I have to say, “Not much as changed, because she did the same thing on the second fish day!” Bring to light some things really never change!!

Robin Dembkowski and Captain Ray Crawley of Miss Judy Charters are holding up a nice 30 inch trophy red fish. Robin caught, fought, landed, released, and ended up catching the biggest fish for the day! According to the report since by Paul they caught some nice spotted sea trout and flounder while looking for the big boys. All this even though the winds howled like crazy! A Big thanks again goes out to the Robin and Paul for a catching job well! We hope to see you again next year!

Black nose shark

Attachment 205444

This is a black nose shark, which is normally caught in our water. (Found in Georgia sounds, beach fronts, and in the ocean) The black nose shark falls under the large sharks having a 54 inch fork length to keep. According to what I have read about these sharks they don’t get much larger than that. My suggestion is to take a picture and release as soon as possible!

Red Fish Time of Year!

Attachment 205445

Photo by Captain Kevin Rose of Miss Judy Charters

Big Bull Reds

It’s that time of the year where you could find yourself among the big boys “the bull reds!” that is! These fish are big making them strong fighters for sure. They will hit just about anything that you care to throw at them. You could find them from docks to rivers to sounds to beachfronts to rips in the ocean to artificial reefs to the Savannah Snapper banks and further offshore. I guess that about covers it!!

Fun shrimping in now taking place

Throwing the old cast net before the water gets to the edge of the grass is a good thing. Once the water gets into the grass the shrimp and those that follow find their hiding and feeding places. For those that like casting in the deeps holes for shrimp now is the time of this sport. It’s best to use a 12 foot net, which is modified with addition of duct tape or other materials to enhance performance. Please always check to make sure what you can use and have correct licenses from Georgia DNR. Go to http://www.gofishgeorgia.com/ or/and pick up a copy of the current 2011 Georgia regulations for sport fishing. Most marina’s and tackle stores have them available!

Attachment 205446

Captain Uncle Bob, Indians, canoes, and Kayaks!!

My good looking Captain Uncle Bob Morrissey and his nephew Robbie Shea, which is holding up a nice mess of spotted sea trout, did a little fishing Indian style. After all according to my Uncle Bob the Indians dug out a tree trunk and called it a canoe. In his case he just by passed up the entire process of “time consuming chipping” and went straight to the Kayak store!

The duo while using live shrimps (plural for shrimp according to my Captain Uncle Bob!) caught some really nice spotted sea trout while fishing the Skidaway Narrows area. According to my Captain Uncle Bob these Kayaks are fishing machines, because you can stand in them while poling for red fish and they float perfectly in way less than 8 inches of water. However, the most important thing according to my Captain Uncle Bob is that they sit just like his easy chair at the house!

Captain Alan Collins talks about his catching flounder methods..
Attachment 205447

Nice flounder!

Captain Alan Collins talks about his catching flounder methods..

I have a couple of different ways I fish for flounder. When I’m using a cork and I know that there are flounder in the area I keep adjusting my depth until my bait is just off the bottom. Your typical flounder bite goes like this, when the flounder grabs your bait the cork just stops and starts going under slowly. I like to wait until the cork is completely under before I reel up the slack and set the hook. Now if I’m using mud minnows or finger mullet I give them more time because as you know a flounder will grab the fish and turn it so it can swallow it head first. So if fishing with anything but shrimp please remember to give them time to eat. I also use a rig that I call my flounder finder, not the ones you buy at the tackle shop with the little float on it. I have yet to catch a flounder on one of those rigs. I tie on a 18 to 24 inches of fluorocarbon with either a jig head or 1 to 2/0 Kahle hook with a split shot 12 to 14 inches above the hook. I only use this when I have mud minnows or finger mullet. I only use the split shot with the hook not the jig head. I throw the bait to the area that I suspect might hold flounder and let it sit for a minute or so, If nothing happens I will lift the rod tip slowly and pull it towards me 5 to 10 yards. If you get the flounders attention you will feel a thump. When you feel this do your best not to set the hook give the fish time to eat at least 10 to 15 seconds. Then reel up your slack and set the hook. The best way I can describe this style of fishing is like fishing for large mouth bass with a rubber worm, remember your fishing mostly around some type of structure so you may get hung up a few times, but once you get the feel of it you can catch a lot of fish using my technique.

Artificial Reefs Report

With water temperature falling fishing should be moving about more. The reason being is so are the baits that they eat! With that being said, “Pick an artificial reef to fish and stick with it until you find the bite!”

Savannah Snapper Banks Report

The bottom fishing continues to get better as the water temperature falls a few degrees. Believe me even if it goes back up a bit, it’s not going to matter, because “fall is in the air and the fish are aware!”

I have had a few reports that there were a few king mackerel caught while trolling and live lining around the naval towers. Just the fact that I am hearing about “king mackerel” at all is a good thing. The reason being is that our 2011 mackerel season including both kings and Spanish has not taken place, but there is always hope.

I always used to say, “When you start seeing the yellow butterflies, it’s time to fish for king mackerel.” It’s true and it has been confirmed that the yellow butterflies and the king mackerel do have something in common, which is that migrate at the same time. Well, the yellow butterflies did migrate, but as of yet the kings have not at least through this area!

Gulf Stream Report

Sword fish off of Georgia’s Coast!! It’s time and it doesn’t matter whether it’s day or night! The bite is right!

Attachment 205448

Captain Little Tommy Williams is holding a sword fish, which hit a rigged squid.

Freshies Report
Attachment 205449

Photo by Bill Vanderford

Plastic worms for summer bass!

Grape-al Worms

Tim Maghan and friends chartered one of my inshore boats to do a little fishing.
Since they arrived early we got some time to talk a little about fishing. Tim’s has a lake right at his back door and he fish’s it a lot. And he has a lot to say about “Them large mouth bass that live in the lakes located on the islands!”

Now I know grape-al is not a word much less a color. However, in my book “grape-al” is the darkest blue that you can get without having to call it black. According to Tim a 71/2 inch Culprit rigged Texas (with cone weight and rigged weed less) style is the way to get a bass’s attention. How do you work the old grape-al worm…cast into place, let it fall to the bottom, and work it slow just like a worm!

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!

1930’s Era How the liquor got where! And the Ample Bosom Era!

Attachment 205450

Although this picture was taken at low tide and in the mid eighties, you can see where once the tide floods how easily a loaded small wooden row boat would be able to navigate through this area. (In our area we have a 6 to 8 foot tide every 6 hours.) This is actually the spot where the small boats made way so as to get to Greens to unload! My father always told me that timing and tide was always a problem. So here’s what those that picked the liquor up in the larger boats did with this so called “contraband” until tides were right.

When the bigger boat or boats arrived to the coast smaller boats would head out and pick up the liquor. The larger boats would make way as close to shore as they could, way anchor, and wait to unload. Once again as I think about all this I have to wonder about sea conditions and small boats. This area is known for its rough conditions even at the calmest times. Since there was hardly any sort of navigation aids during this time those captains handling the boat were all navigating by the seat of their pants. And of course I am sure if they didn’t get job done they would have to deal with something far worst. According to my father there was this code and he called it “no excuses!” The big guys with the fancy suits and $ 100.00 shoes didn’t care how the job got done much less ever considered sea conditions into the delivery factor. They wanted the liquor delivered at any cost and that was the bottom line.

So here how it was explained to me..

The larger boats would pick up the liquor from the ship, which was anchored offshore. These boats would then navigate as far as they could and unload their contents. Now here’s where it gets real interesting. I always loved this part of the story. According to my father platforms were built in the creek, which the larger boats off loaded the cases of liquor on to. Every time I ride through any of the small creeks on the back of Wilmington Island I always look for old broken off pilings. It would seem that these pilings were left over from a dock that was build to go ashore. However, these pilings weren’t placed near any land. They were place in an area where the larger boats could get to no matter what the tide might be. This is where they would off load the liquor on to the platforms and head to parts unknown.

Here’s yet another twist….

The captains on the boats were always taking what they called “their share.” Even though they got paid for doing this job there was always some stealing going on. According to my father there was always a certain amount of taking that was allowed, but if you got caught…boy oh boy! Before the boats delivered the liquor to the platforms they would meet others in the sound to do a little horse trading. My father always said, “This is when a lot of heads turned so as to not see anything taking place.” As you can see from this part of the story told there wasn’t any tally sheets of laden. And from what my father told me I am sure if there were they would have been tampered with too! So as I listened then and now after thinking about it I guess this was just the way it was.

Attachment 205451

This may or may not be the left over remnants of a liquor holding platform. However, this is just what you would see as the leftovers after years and years of deterioration. While navigating the back waterways as a small child I noticed that some platforms were larger than others. My father always said, “Each platform was built with the materials that they had on hand at the time.” So therefore I guess this is why some platforms were bigger than others! Just to give you an idea of how much tide rises and falls this is a low tide picture. The dark line up in the marsh grass is about how high the water level gets to on flood tide.

After all the secret meetings took place the boats would lay besides the platforms and stack on the cases of liquor. As soon as the tides were right the small wooden row boats would make way to the platforms to pick up the cases of liquor. Now for yet another twist to this tale…My father told me that the row boat operators would then push off X number amount of cases of liquor right into the mud. After this, their plan would be to take the loaded cases of liquor to Greens and get unloaded through the secret trap door. As soon as their job was done they would then row back out and pick up their cases of liquor out of the mud. In some cases where the mud was extra soft some of the liquor was never found. As a child I have to tell you ever time I ride by a broken off piling located in the back river I think about stopping and digging to see what I might come up with.

This is a picture of me (Captain Judy) standing over the trap door, which was located inconspicuously in the floor of “Greens!” The “Speak Easy” called Greens was located on the back of Wilmington Island. It was built on the bank and its foundation extended out over the water. This room that had the trap door was located at the end of the building. It had it own entrance, which allowed the trucks to be able to back right up to it. This made loading procedures a lot easier and it could be done without a lot of audience. My father told me that when there were bringing a big load of liquor to the back of the Island a big party was always planned.

Small wooden row boats could paddle right up under the building. Once underneath the contents of the vessels were unloaded and then loaded in the line of waiting cars or trucks. While all of this was going on there was a big party going on in the main part of the building.

As a child I visited a friend that I went to elementary school with. She lived with her parents that owned the property that Greens was built on. At this time I can’t say whether not her family had anything to do with the 1930’2 movement. All I know is that in the fifties we played around, under, and inside of Greens. People would come to purchase drinks, tackle, and there were even small cabins that the family rented outside of Greens. All I remember as a child is that there were a lot of wooden boats, parts of sunken wooden boats, and a room off to the end of the place that we loved to play in. After all it had it own door, it was isolated, and it was a great place to play “hide and seek!” All this time as a child I didn’t know about the trap door being located where it was. Little did I know it had been nailed shut so that it couldn’t be opened. However, in the eighty when I was notified by a dear friend that Greens was just about to be torn down I ran over and took some pictures. It was at this time that we discovered where the trap door had been nailed shut. (And this is the area that I am kneeling over.)

There were other things that I remember as a child about Greens. It had a screen porch that went all the away across the back of the building. It was a lot of fun to play on and a great place to get away from those big biting mosquitoes. In the main room was a large wooden bar, which had a cash register on top of it. The kind with large buttons and a side handle. Of course even though we were not supposed to mess with it we did and boy was it a lot of fun. Then there was this painting of a lady, which hung over the bar. According to some adults this painting was what made this a place for “men’s eyes only!” The fact of the matter is had someone not mentioned it I would have most likely never noticed it. In the day time it was semi covered and at night it was unveiled for all, at least those that were allowed, to see.

So therefore being a kid and as most kids do when told not to do something we did do it. While no one was watching we pulled away the loose covering to see what was underneath. To all of our amazements it really didn’t show much or at least to a kid to whom didn’t know much anyways. So we looked at the painting trying to decide what the fuss was all about. Since it had been at least 50 years and I am all grown up I do believe the first though that ran through my head was “she is fat!” And remembering what I still remember along with keeping up with the times this women in this painting was a little on the heavy side having what I would have called ample bosoms. (If only, I would have known to say that!) As a child I had seen paintings like this, but couldn’t know exactly where from. If I had to think about it now I might have seen something like this in a museum. So therefore since I think you have the “just of this matter” I will call this era “The ample bosom times!” The reason being is that, that’s exactly what I saw and remembered now as an adult!!

Coming up next week….

The planning that took place before, after, and during the time the liquor was loaded into the trucks

Thanks for reading! Captain Judy

Captain Judy Helmey
missjudycharters.com
912 897 4921