capt judy aug 2008

August 25, 2008
Happy Fish Day!

Saltwater inshore, offshore, blue water fishing report, Freshies Suggestions, and “Little Miss Judy’s story! Thanks for reading! Captain Judy

Send your fishing questions directly to Captain Judy fishjudy2@aol.com

Captain Jack McGowan Inshore Report Straight from the Helm!

Aug 18, 2008
Last week there were several reports of large sea trout. The biggest fish were found around beachfront; although large fish were caught in rivers near the sounds as well! Ample amount of rain meant most of the larger trout were in deeper water (8 to 12 feet). An adjustable float rig with live shrimp or finger mullet was the prescribed method. Fish are deep during periods of heavy rain. Shrimp in a bait bucket hanging off a dock will often die if there is a lot rain in a short period of time. Freshwater is literally floating on the saltwater. The most favorable place for a large sea trout after a period of heavy rain is deep. Smaller male sea trout can be found be the shallow. Fishing deep is trickier. A rip or current line might be visible but it is just as likely there won’t be any visible indications. Fishing deep you’re still looking for structure. The structure could be submerged trees, a man made object, a ledge, or a hole to name a few. A favorite tide is low incoming.

Although you’ll find various drops work at various tides. Large sea trout are an exciting fish. Exciting to catch, fun to look at and good eat! With that said my strong encouragement is for most large sea trout to be released. These large fish are holding next year’s crop. Wendell Harper reputed as likely the best seat rout fisherman on the Georgia coast has said “these large fish should be released.” This is from a man who makes a good portion of his living catching sea trout. If Wendell believes releasing large sea trout can have a positive impact on the resource then it is likely so. A statement from other fishing guides is that whatever the limit is then as long they are within the limit everything is fine.

A few years the Georgia DNR had a program that would mean a slot limit, in other words releasing large fish (over 20 inches). The program never materialized due to a lack of funding. Staying with in the limits is like meeting the minimum requirement. What do you do when large seat rout are biting and your folks want to keep everyone. You try to encourage going light on the resource. When possible whether a recreational fisherman or charter fish for a variety of fish. Say you keep a couple of large sea trout, a redfish, some whiting; a couple of sharks and you have a mess of fish. Maybe in few years my outlook will be different but as of now it looks like we have plenty of sharks perhaps even too many. Keeping a shark one or two means you are saving a bunch of sea trout from either being caught by you or chopped by a shark.
Speaking of sharks. Sharks can be found along the sandbars off Warsaw. Fresh water has a tendency to drive fish out and deep. When the water in the sound is salty that usually when the shark is on. Big bait, large menhaden are in some weeks and out on others. Reports of large bait have been consistent off the sandbars off the north jetty. Bait will mean tarpon, kingfish, jack and large sharks. When bait is not present it’s possible to catch predator fish just not as likely as when large schools of bait are present. August is usually the peak month for tarpon! If storms do not kick up the tarpon bite should be good! If you’re struggling finding menhaden try catching some bait fish like pinfish with rod and reel. It’s pretty fun and should be easy to do. Just down size your hook to number 6 or so and fish dead bait on the bottom near a dock or grass line. You might first try chumming them up with some little bits of shrimps.
Tides for this week are definitely on the increase although the highest is only 7.8 feet on Sunday. Tides should be good for sea trout! Here is a report on the Burnside bopper that was a long time in coming. The float is an excellent float! Made well with several qualities that competitors do not have. It is locally made and definitely a superior product. I have no hesitation in recommending these two floats. The larger is made for conventional (8 to 9 foot) casting tackle. This is tackle that I don’t fish much these days. This is the reason for the delay in writing about this particular float design. I was using the larger float on a heavier 7 foot spinning tackle for large sharks, tarpon and jacks. The float did ok. When I fished the float, as it was intended it did a fine job! The idea is a popping float for a casting rod that could you fish along the beachfront for sea trout. This float does the job. Strengths of both the smaller and larger version: a unique design apt for casting, good sound, no additional weight needed and a more substantial main wire that is most resistant of any float on the market to bending. Sand Fly Tackle Shop is a supplier. Good float! If you fish casting rods you’ll want this float. The smaller is a winner as well. The larger one is a must!
Hope this report is of interest and help. Remember to practice catch and release when possible! Good Fishing! Capt. Jack McGowan

Tim Rudolphi Prefect Inshore Fish Catching Situation!

August 16, 2008 10:00 AM till 2:00PM

Tim Rudolphi and inshore fishing group had a spectacular day of fish catching this past weekend. The catch for the was “18 Big Mega Spotted Sea Trout 20 inch plus.” While fishing inshore in the creek on the last two hours of the out going tide it happened. Their bait used was live shrimp, which was presented on old stand by traditional floats rigs. Although every thing was standard changes had to be made to get a solid hook up. According to the report their bait could have floated right over the fish without a hook up if Tim hadn’t figured out how to twitch it a bit to trigger the bite! The bottom line to this report is bait is not all you need when it comes to getting a fish’s attention!

Spotted sea trout especially the bite ones didn’t get that way being stupid. So therefore sometimes it takes a little push to get them to hit what your bait. I call this “triggering the bite.” The group was fishing in around 10 foot of water, rigged traditional float style, using live shrimp, and fishing just about on the bottom. They would cast situating the float so that the tide could take it right over the holding school of fish. The school was situated anywhere from 30 to 150 yards from the boat. They found out quick that just letting it float over the school of fish wasn’t working. So therefore they came up with now will be called “Rufoffie Twitch!” This is where you give your float “a little action” as it floats into and over the strike zone.

King Mackerel Catching Report!
Trolling Man is at it again!

Shelby Merrick IV while fishing the “Fishin Fool” has had some great catching days. He called the other day and offered up yet another trolling plan, which is now being called “Winning Plan!” Before I get down to “the plan” itself, here’s what Shelby’s fishing crew caught: “20 king mackerel, 21/2 parts of king mackerel, 7 barracuda, and 30 little tunny!” Now you know what they caught..here’s how they did it!

Captain Shelby started at the artificial reef CCA, also referred to as the bridge, with his trolling plan. His line up was about as simple as it can get. He pulled various sizes of Drone Spoons behind #3 planers, which were definitely a hit with most of the fish listed above. He leader lengths between the planer and the spoon ranged from 15 to 30 feet. Shelby changed up to what worked and made it happen!

On his out riggers he pulled lines of plastic squid with rigged naked ballyhoo in tow. This lure brings on the attention of just about any fish that might happen by. However, Shelby’s real interest while pulling these top water lure set ups was “Sail Fish!”

During this time of the surface temperature being the same from the shore to the stream, blue water fish wonder and wonder a lot into green waters. I have received at least two sailfish catch and release happenings per week from South Carolina to northern Florida. As the years go it seems that these reports get more numerous!

Captain Shelby’s “area trolled” was genius! He pulled the CCA artificial reefs for about an hour and then took a head of around 130 degrees. Once hitting about 75 to 80 feet of water he turn due south for a while and then headed straight to the artificial reef “J” buoys. He never made it to the “J” buoy, because his group was worn out and they made they’re home before getting to yet another “Hot Fishing Zone!”

According to this report they had a fish on or a hit just about every 10 minutes. This boils down to lots of deck activities such as reeling in, gaffing of fish, slinging of fish, re-baiting, and re setting of lines. From the bridge point there was a whole lot of “captain thinking about catching fish going on!” Since I am also a captain I know this drill and love it!

Captain Judy’s New Trolling Plan

When it comes to fishing there are always changes to be made in order to get more chances at catching a fish. In my world of fishing I have pretty much have used my father’s methods and my own “rule of thumb!” This basically means “the old ways” are mostly used!’ When you are such a driven fisherman as me “you know when “the old ways” are no longer the only working factor for catching fish!”

Just to offer up an example: Lets talk a little about trolling with planers for Spanish mackerel. I have always used #1, #2, and #3 planers. Behind these “no matter what size planers” I have always had about 15 to 20 feet of 20-pound test leader to which I tied the spoon directly on to the line. Basically all standard stuff when it came to catching Spanish mackerel. You lose a few spoons “here and there” as well as few larger fish. This size leader isn’t real tough and after a few fish landed it definitely develops weak spots. When I used this light leader I was always torn between getting the bite and then landing the fish. I thought that if I used heavier leader that the “fish bite chance” would narrow and just pass me by. Well, the other day I lost 6 spoons in less than and hour while trolling in about 50 feet of water. At first I thought it was barracuda cutting us off, but after a few minutes of observation I realized that it was exactly other large fish types!

What I did next was totally against my fish catching reasoning!

I changed all leaders to 50-pound test monofilament. I kept the same leader length as before. I loaded each size planer with 15 to 20 feet of 50-pound test line. As I tied my small 2 or 21/2 Clark and Drone spoons directly on I just couldn’t think too much about it. It flew all over me the fact that I was using such large leader and small spoons. The bottom line to this change was a big one! We then went from loosing spoons to hooking up fish, being able to fight them without the too much fear of breaking them off, and landing them. It clearly was the thing to do!

The moral of this story is, “It’s hard to teach an old fisherman new tricks! That is unless they figure it out on their own!”

Blue and Green Water
A Few Need To Know Tips About “Mahi Mahi” AKA Dolphin fish

The first thing that I would like to mention is the fact that this probably can be listed as one of those most colorful fish. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a small one or the biggest bull ever they still “light up” when they are just about to eat! They sport beautiful colors of green, yellow, and blue! Once you have seen this fish’s attitude un-fold just a distance glance makes you completely aware of its presents.

My long time first mate Captain Ali Young use to play this game with any potential dolphin that might be in the area. She called it the “Hansel and Grettle plan. As she cleaned and cut bait she would throw out those bits and pieces that would semi-float. I’m not talking about filleted discarded carcasses, but small pieces of internals and skin. Heck, if you threw out lots of large pieces you would definitely get the attentions of the toothy monsters referred as sharks. Believe me if there was a school of dolphin down current this trail of food would get their attention.
Captain Ali’s bait board was always so neat. She really kept it clean and each bait type had its own pile. So therefore she always had an array of different types of bait. Now comes the question, “how much different kinds of bait are there? Well, here’s the answer to this bait question..
Squid
Squid sounds as simple as it can get. However, depending on its size you can use it whole, chunked up, or cut in strips. The head is always interesting to most fish. It offers up its own tantalizing appeal. Squid heads tastes good. And those flowing tentacles while in the current always get a fish’s attention. At this point a dead squid head could be called “acting just like live bait.” I can’t say that I eaten squid head raw, but I have battered it and fried it. It was very good! The good thing about large squid is that when cleaning it for cutting up you get a lot of stuff to cast a float. These parts send out a great scent that fish such as dolphin pick up from far distances.
Fillet fish/stomach walls
Filled fish parts are another good bait source. You can fillet a fish, chunk it up, steak it, strip it, or just cut it into small pieces. Whatever the case maybe it’s always suggested to leave the skin on. Some master of the baiting universe might scale their fish before filleting it up for cut bait. It’s really up to the one cutting up. Hap-hazard-ly scaling a fish first before filleting for bait is a good idea, because those loosen scales is definitely going to send out a dealing smelling card. The falling off of loose scales in the scheme of things is good. Whatever you come up with I’m sure will become a winning plan.
Before filleting and after scaling it’s suggested to cut the belly wall out. This is the fish’s part that covers the stomach, which holds the internals. The good news about this piece is that the outside does well in water and so does the backside of this piece. This section is not like the backside of a fillet, because there is no open meat value. The stomach wall, when stripped offers some great aerodynamics when being pulled through the water or allowed to just freely flow in the currents. Tunas, dolphins, swordfish, king mackerel, Spanish mackerel, Wahoo, little tunny and shark are just a few fish that don’t have many scales. These fish mostly have a skin covering and their stomach walls make for some great long lasting bait.
Loose Eyeballs
Although I’m sure you might think I am totally crazy or mentioning this as a potential bait source. However, they do make a great bait, float a bit, and definitely gets the attention of schooling dolphin. To get the eye out all you need is a scoop like tool. We used small cream spoon. The sharp end of your fillet knife doesn’t work too well. Get yourself an eye-scooping tool! You don’t have talk about this at all…. The bigger the eye balls the better!

Things already eaten!

I can’t tell you how many times I have picked regurgitated things up off the deck and put them directly on the bait board.. Fish no matter where they feed eat the strangest things. Things that come up that haven’t been overly exposed to stomach acids work just fine. Here’s a list of things to look for…eels in tact or parts and pieces, octopus or squid parts and pieces, small shells such as clams and conchs, sea cucumbers, sea horses, and any other small whole fish intact, parts, and pieces types. I have to add that we have found in the stomach content everything from chewing gum to chicken bones.

All or some of these things you can find on Captain Ali bait board at any given time. These select baits are good for chumming as well as bottom fishing. With all this being said, “its only just bait” at least until it’s introduced to a fish, then it becomes a grade “A” ticket to a “solid hook up!”

What’s all of the bait for?

The bottom line to all of bait gathering is so that you will be ready in the event that you have any dolphin visitors. When a single or a school of dolpin comes to your boat there was a reason. They come for the shade made by the boat, which could mean a possible food source. The one thing that you must know when dealing with this fish is that their attention span is limited. The food source will keep them around, because is their main goal. Food source or something else has to reel them in. Having a bait board full of different kinds of baits helps in the scheme of things.

Dolphins don’t have a very long attention span. So therefore when a school or single fish comes to your boat I suggest throwing some bait right at them. If it appeals to them it will be eaten. However, if it’s sucked in and immediately spit out it’s best to sparely throw another few pieces of something else. The secret to keeping their attention is keeping their attention. Now I know that doesn’t make any sense, but it’s true. If the dolphin spits out your tossed bait offering you had best throw something that taste entirely different or has a different texture. You only have a few seconds to do all of this, because if you don’t do it right your dolphin fish catching opportunity will swim away.
Dolphin’s Eating Attitude
Dolphin whether large or small in a school or not are the most finicky eaters in the ocean. They will eat just about anything, but the fish itself decides when this takes place. The rule of thumb in the dolphin-feeding world is the fact that they might eat anything you throw but they have a short attention span. I have seen dolphin come to the boat eat anything that you throw out in one second and then spit it out the next. As a fisherman you always think that you are quick enough to set that hook before they spit it out. However, they are very quick for sure!
Captain Ali and I always say, “this is fish has the most attentive mouth we have ever seen. The reason being is that in a split second they can determine whether or not to eat something as well as detect any hidden metal AKA “your hook” quickly. Another thing about dolphin is that you wouldn’t expect at least by looking at them is that you can almost hand feed them. They aren’t real nervous like other fish such as those in the mackerel family. You can actually watch them as they make their moves on food as well as your hook.
If a school of dolphin comes to the boat it certainly can be an interesting catching event for sure. The most dolphins I have ever caught out of one school counted out to be around 60. I wish I had a video camera for this “Chinese fish catching fire drill!”

Big dolphin “Wake Makers’

When we trolled the blue waters I could most of the time “call the ball!” This is my term for screaming, “fish just about on” before it actually takes the bait. When a large dolphin, 20 pounds plus, charges your surface pulled bait it basically “makes it’s own personal wake.” With a trained eye you can see the fish coming from a distance. When a fish such as this decides on being in the attack/eating mode they turn the lights on and go into the charging mode. From my boat’s bridge I use to see this all of time as we fished the blue waters of the Gulf Stream.

On a usually calm day it was easy to pick out a charging dolphin. However, when there were wind ripples or lots of wave turbulence the charging mode was harder to pick out. Once you get it, you get it for sure. Most large bull dolphins are accompanied by one of two cows. I had best explain: The bulls are the male dolphins, which sport the blunt head. The cows are the females that aren’t usually as large and have a more rounder head design.

Over they years of fishing Captain Ali and I came to a few conclusion when it came to be visited by a “Bull accompanied by a cow!”

Big Bulls

When this fish charges what you are pulling, it’s probably going to eat!” Once focused on certain bait or potential food source “tunnel vision occurs” in this fish’s mind. With that being said, “bulls charge hard and basically crash the bait at hand!” Since this fish doesn’t have a big set of teeth like a king mackerel or Wahoo, they basically suck it in and let the “pull downs” in their mouth direct it to the throat! Big bulls look for bait that’s easy to swallow sending the signal that real large ones might be a turn off. This is a fish that is very feeding size oriented! With that being said, if you feel all you have are large bulls in the area, “pull the larger rigged baits!” However, if you want what’s there, don’t want a lot of mashed baits I suggest pulling rigged baits that are less than 8 inches in length. .

Cows Southern Bells for sure!
The song comes to mind “She’s a Lady,” by singer Tom Jones when I try to put the erratic attack patterns of cow dolphin’s music. There is quite a bit of difference from a bull and cow bite. Firstly, bulls once focused will charge and eat what’s on hand. However, the ladies aren’t like that at all. Here’s what they do..

I have seen the ladies cruise through my spread damaging all surfaced pulled bait while not even touching a hook. Their specialty is mashing and threshing the bait and leaving it to the side. To this day I still wonder why they don’t just eat it instead of mashing it. Once the lady makes a run through my baits those retrieved looked as though someone has basically stepped solidly on them. In other words “bait made flat as a pancake!”
Dolphin Deal
Next week I will write about what to do with all of this bait that you have so carefully collected, how to keep those dolphins around the boat, what to do when you hook one up, and much more!

Freshies Suggestion
When is it the best time to fish?
Here’s just a few suggestion that I think you will like, but most likely are already aware of. However, being a fisherman I always like to hear them over and over again.
Dawn and dusk are classic “good” times. It’s also good fishing after a rain that has raised and stained, but not flooded and muddied the water. Cloudy breezy days are better than still, clear days. Fishing at night especially in areas that receive a lot of traffic during the daylight hours. You can also experience a good bite during the calm right before the so-called “storm.” However, it not suggested fishing in stormy conditions.

Little Miss Judy Believe It or Not!

Wreck Grouper

The first time I ever met a wreck grouper was in a crate, which was packed with ice. There were dozens of what was called in the commercial fisherman’s world “100 pound boxes.” I had stopped by to see Frank Mathews and he said, “come look at these big fish!” This was during the early eighties. At this time not many people myself included were familiar with this grouper looking fish. I knew I had never caught one before. I also knew that even if I had hooked one up I probably couldn’t have landed it. The reason being is these fish preferred structure in 300 feet plus water. So therefore since I didn’t fish these depths my chances weren’t very good for a hook up in the first place.

However, I will admit that while fishing in around 210 feet of water we hooked something on the bottom that was the strongest pull I have ever seen offered up from a hooked up bottom fish. So therefore I just might have hooked one up, but the when the freight train left the station it do so on the “wide open!” Our nickname for a grouper was “freight train pulling fish!”

The wreck grouper have the biggest set of eyes I have ever seen on a fish. Their eye size doesn’t match their body. A hundred pound fish had the saucer size eyes. As I looked at all of these stacked up boxes in the back of the truck I couldn’t believe my eyes. Hundred pound boxes hold 100 pounds of fish. With that being said, “most boxes have only one fish and others only had two!” Frank said, “Some of the single fish weight more than 100 pounds!”

The other day (August 2008) I had a retired commercial fisherman on my boat. I never really got his name I just called him “Commercial Man!” It was nice having someone on board that knew so much about fishing. On this particular day we caught about six large amberjack, which all weighted in at over 30 pound each. We also landed some nice grouper and an assortment of bottom fish. I watched “Commercial Man” as he fish and I could tell he was “In the knowing about fish!”

At any rate, we started talking about his favorite bottom fish to catch and out of his mouth came “wreck grouper.” He offered up a little of his knowledge and he had my complete attention. The best bait was squid. I had to ask, “whole or cut up?” Commercial Man replied, “all I did was load my 10/0 hooks up with the most bait I could and dropped it down to the bottom!” The fish did the rest of the work, which was inhaling and trying to get back to the ledge. He wasn’t using a rod and reel set up. According to “Commercial Man” they were using hydraulic reel set up, which was attached directly to the boat. These large fish even pulled drag on this wrench set up!

As we talked he shared one of a “commercial fisherman’s secrets.” They would take about 50 pounds of squid out at a time to start the thawing process. As they thawed liquid lined the bottom of the bait tub. They threw socks in the tub, which absorbed the squid’s liquid. Now the socks smelled and even looked like big pieces of squid. Before “Commercial Man” could speak I already knew what he was going in to say. He said, “The socks were used as bait and they were less expensive than the real stuff!” Now you know the rest of the story!

Thanks for reading!

Captain Judy