Miss Judy Charters
Captain Judy Helmey
"Kicking Fish Tail Since 1956!"
124 Palmetto Drive
Savannah, Georgia 31410
912 897 4921 or 912 897 3460 fax
www.missjudycharters.com
July 8, 2007
Captain Judy's Saltwater Fishing Report
Which includes:
Inshore report, Offshore Report, Freshies Suggestions, and "Little Miss Judy's Believe It or Not!" (Story)
July Inshore Fishing Report From Captain "Wild" Bill Jarrell of Yellow Bluff
The spotted sea trout bite has been good, with large roe trout mixed in with medium and undersized trout. Presently, I'm catching them near the beaches, around the ICW and in the sounds. Working the beach towards the end of the month is not a bad idea, because the ocean water might be a shade cooler. Along, and near, the beach I'm also finding the tough fighting jack crevalle, the fast jumping ladyfish and the fine eating whiting.
I recommend trying to target early morning patterns for the sea trout. It's not uncommon during the heat of the summer for the trout bite to shut down during late morning when it starts to get hot outside. The water now is very warm (mid 80's) and sometimes during midday I'll find trout as deep as 12 to 25-feet this time of year.
If you know a drop that should hold trout, don't give up easily. Trout can bite different from one day to the next. This is their nature as they adjust constantly to an ever-changing tide and environment. When it appears as though the trout aren't there, try different presentations... drifting suspended baits, or on the bottom with Carolina rig or lead heads. Try live baits, artificials... and try next to the structure, try near and away from the structure, shallow and deep, because there is a good chance the trout are there, but are not responding to the exact location or presentation of your bait.
Sometimes you might feel trout pulling at your bait, but you can't hook them. When that happens, just slow your presentation, and try not setting the hook. This is the time to trick them into hooking themselves and keeping your line tight.
Reel Setting By Little Miss Judy!
This term surfaced when the old trout didn't really seem to want to take the bait. My father always told me, "Judy don't set, just reel, which is exactly what I did to get hooked up!" I truly believe that due to the fact that I had hit him so many times on the head when trying to set my hook that he probably came up with this way, which was later termed as "reel setting!"
Captain "Wild" Bill of Yellow Bluff also reports that the flounder bite is on! Live mud minnows and live finger mullet are the bait of choice. And, don't be surprised if you run into a huge trout or two while pitching live baitfish at flounder. He typically start finding the larger thicker flounder (4-pounders and up) towards the end of this month. Learning not to set the hook as-soon-as-possible when a flounder first picks up your live bait can really improve your bite/catch ratio. Try giving them 30-seconds, or wait for them to start moving off, before tightening up your line and setting a hook on them. Also, once they feel the hook, keep your line tight while working a steady retrieve, because they can shake a hook of a slack line in a second.
Small red drum are thick in numbers right now. For their size (under the 14-inch legal size limit), they pull nice, but please do your best at releasing them unharmed. They represent the future of our redfish populations. For the larger fish (slot size and larger), I'm still seeing tailing reds during high water. During low outgoing, I'm finding them in 10 to 15-foot of water.
Around docks you can find black drum. On some residential docks during summer nights, if you listen for them carefully, you might even hear them drumming.
I'm sighting migrating tripletail near the beach of St. Catherine's Island. They love a large shrimp suspended about a foot or two in the water.
Sharks of all sizes are at the near shore reefs. Some of them are large enough to spool an inshore reel.
The brown shrimp for the month of July have started out scarce and the white shrimp too small. This is typical, and typically the white shrimp grow fast and this bait will be abundant by the end of the month. Thanks Captain "wild" Bill for such as great report!