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
June 25, 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)
Our inshore captains struggled to keep the bite going this past week. There were some catches, but not the norm. The good news is that this is all behind us. Extreme tides along with blustery winds made fishing tough! Most charter captains have at least 200 fishing spots in which to choose from. However, when you have to delete those areas that are most effected by extreme high tides and winds the opium stops are lessened. With that being said, "there were a lot of spots that didn't get fished last week!" This boils down to the fact that fishing should be better this week!
Getting out the old cast net is a good idea, especially at this time of the year. There are shrimp, menhaden, finger mullet, and other small baitfish holding in the backs of creeks. Menhaden as well as finger mullet can be caught at sight. In other words, you could see them schooling on the surface in the middle of anywhere!
Some sort of bait is almost always needed when it comes to fishing. It doesn't really matter which one you use as long as it works. It's my opinion that there is going to be a lot more artificial baits introduced to fish during this year (2007) than in 2006. The reason being is that bait is not as plentiful as it has been in the past years. I'm not saying, "this is the future, I'm saying it just this year's bait pattern I hope!" When it comes to bait inshore or offshore the problems are the same. All bait inventories are low at least as far as I am concerned.
Smart Spotted Sea Trout
Clear and moving water is what you need to look for when targeting the sight feeding spotted sea trout. As I watched flow out of a slough the other day it was brought to my attention the scheme of things taking place. I had a "bird eye view" of the situation. Believe me, looking from above can put an whole new prospective on things. As I watched it came to my attention that as the water flowed out it took with it some mud and other marshes things. When this out going water from the slough met the main body of water the cloudy water basically got in step with the meeting movement. Small baits went the opposite way staging closing to the mouth of the slough. These small bait (mud minnows) held tight in real shallow water. I as assuming it was because they were less of a feeding target for a large fish. Heck, a larger fish didn't have enough water to get to them anyway! (Point made)
The cloudy water line was very distinctive meaning when it met the clearer water "an edge was formed." So therefore you had cloudy/muddy and clear water with what seemed like an imaginary line drawn between them. I am going somewhere with this! As I watched from above I watched as larger fish (spotted sea trout) staged on the out skirts (in the clear water) looking for a quick meal. They worked the cloudy/muddy line popping in when it was to their feeding advantage.
Now that you have read my opinion on this occurrence here's how I suggest taking advantage of this situation. Firstly all and any slough is going to offer such opportunity. Where you have water flowing out patterns are developed. Now, not all sloughs are going to be areas to fish. However, the most unlikely are the ones that I would check first.
I haven't talked about bouncing your artificial bait on the bank first in a long time, but this is one of those times that it would probably work to your advantage. Since it has been proven that fish stage outside the cloudy/muddy areas it would seems that they are looking for any sort of action within. Bouncing your lure first on the bank and then into the water is going to give it the most realistic action possible! This is another one of those suggestions that you don't have to tell anyone about!