Fishing with Miss Judy

By Ron Brooks

The Georgia coast line only touches the Atlantic Ocean for a small stretch of about 100 miles.  Compared to other coastal states on the Atlantic, there's not much to offer in the way of ports and harbors.  From Darien, Brunswick and Jeykl Island to Savannah there aren't many charter boats to be found.

I was a little apprehensive about fishing out of Savannah, because I had not heard a lot of good things.  The fact is, I had not heard anything good or bad.  It was as if they just didn't fish offshore a lot off the Georgia Coast.

There were ten of us fishing on this particular Monday, six high school boys on spring break and four men.  Most were die hard freshwater anglers and they looked forward with great anticipation to a trip into the Atlantic.

We were fishing with Miss Judy Charters in Savannah on the Wilmington River.  Captain Judy Helmey set us up with two boats, along with her own "Miss Judy Too" and we headed out to the Snapper Banks some 40 miles southeast and offshore from Savannah.

I found Captain Judy through some mutual friends.  Her reputation for being one of the best Captains on the coast is well deserved.  Seems like every charter that fished that day called her on the radio to find out where the bite was on.

We fished live bottom areas around the several Navy offshore radio beacon towers.  We trolled a flatlined ballyhoo and two downrigged spoons that attracted some bonito or little tunnies.  But that bite didn't last very long and we began searching for fish on the bottom.

It was a typical bottom fishing foray.  Double hook rigs with 8 to 12 ounces of weight to get us to the bottom some 80 to 100 feet down.  The strong current, coupled with three to five foot seas and some huge ground swells  virtually eliminated any possibility to anchor.  So, we located a pod of fish on the graph, marked a memory on the GPS and drifted through them.  Once through the fish, we pulled up, idled back upcurrent and drifted again. 

The standard bottom fishing baits of squid and frozen cigar minnows produced numbers of black sea bass and vermillion snapper.  

The Sabiki rig on a smaller spinning outfit served to provide some live baits, but the heavy current and frequent reel-ins to move prevented them from staying alive long enough to attract bigger fish.

Cut bait did attract an undersized red snapper on one boat.  After placing a small puncture hole in the fish's extruded air bladder he swam back to the bottom none the worse for wear.

Take that as a lesson.  Lots of fish coming up from deep water end up with their air bladder protruding out of their mouth.  It's caused by the pressure differential at the surface compared to 100 feet down.  Simply take a hook and poke a small hole in the bladder and it will equalize.  Lots of anglers simply release these fish and they float away on the surface and die.  A little help can preserve the resource!

It was a tough, uncomfortable day of fishing, but Captain Judy and her borrowed Captains on the two other boats worked hard to give us a full day of fishing.  The seas had been running 3 to 5 and 4 to 6 for the previous four days, and the weather just did not cooperate.  They began rough and then laid off in the middle of the day.  But by three in the afternoon, we had whitecaps and a following 25 knot wind taking us home.  We were thankful for that following sea in a wind like that. 

We ended up with a scamp grouper about 15 pounds, one legal red snapper, about 22 inches and 8 pounds, some trigger fish, and a box full of black sea bass and vermillion snapper.  Not a bad day at all considering the condition of the seas.

I'll be back to fish with Captain Judy again on a better day this summer.  I am a believer now that she does indeed deserve the respect that all the other captains give her.  As her motto says, she has been "Kicking fish tail since 1946"  You can reach Captain Judy Helmey at 912-897-4921.  She will go out of her way to make your trip enjoyable, and she can prove to you that fishing off the Georgia coast is actually pretty good!

Captain Judy - thanks for a great day on the water!