ASago
09-28-05, 09:26 PM
brought to you by: http://www.missjudycharters.com/ (http://www.missjudycharters.com/)Saltwater Report!
Inshore Fishing Report
I love the first and the last of the fishing year. There is a reason and it’s a big one! It all boils down to “migration patterns!” Most all fish are always in some sort of movement mode. However, at these times of the year they are moving with a passion to get where they need to stage before the great winter temperature change. Fish feed with more intent for survival. Thus ends what I call my fish lesson for this week’s fishing report.
Spotted sea trout are “trouting” and the spot tail bass are “bassing.” All this means is that it’s not only the fish’s time of the year, but also the fisherman’s.
Trouting
Spotted sea trout also called weak fish or specks are one of the most popular targeted inshore species. Trout fall into what I call “predatory fish category.” It’s easy to come to the conclusion especially if you look at the mouth design of a trout. They have teeth that are positioned to hold, kill, and then eat. The one thing that a fishermen needs to remember is the fact that a trout has a thin walled mouth. Trout hit their target hard, because they need to kill it first before they eat it. When a hook is involved, hopefully your, and it becomes lodged it can become loosened easily. So therefore, you must keep your line tight or your trout can swim right off the hook. The reasons that limber long rods are so popular when trout fishing is the fact that it cushions the setting of the hook. Shorter rods can be used, but the fisherman in charge should have “good hook setting control.” This boils down to a solid set of the rod rather than a jerking one! Continuous reeling must follow a solid setting of the hook. Any slack in the line gives your fish a chance to basically swim off the hook. Jerking your rod causes your hook to make jagged openings in the trout’s mouth.
The eating habits of a trout are simple. They want to kill it before they eat it. I don’t think I could be any clearer while making that statement. So therefore live bait is the way to go in trout’s case. Fishermen should think outside the box when trying to pick the right kind of live bait. Live shrimp is the most popular and widely used bait for trout. However, it has been discovered by us over at Miss Judy Charters, that shrimp is good, but there are others that are much better. Small live bait such as yellow tail, croaker, finger mullet, large mud minnows, and peanut menhaden are also great baits to use. As the winter approaches you will find that some of these bait are going to be hard to obtain. While they are here, I suggest using them frequently. There are several ways to present your bait to a trout, but lets keep it simple. You can go with the traditional float style or naked alive method. The traditional float style is good, because you can easily control the holding depth of your bait. When presenting your bait with floats there are two ways that we use to hook them up. The first and most popular is through the lip hook up. All you have to do is to stick the hook through the backside bottom of the lip and up through the head area. Another way is to place bottom and mid ship of the bait. Both are good. However, the mid-ship hook up is the best one to use especially when you are having to cast great distances. Naked alive also works great!
Bassing
(Spot tail bass, red fish, channel bass, stag bass, etc)
Spot tail bass also known as red fish, channel bass, stag bass, rat’s, and bulls are lot of fun to catch, because they are a hearty fighting fish. There is more good news especially at this time of the year. They are big! This past week I caught a 40-pound plus big bull offshore. I happened up on a live rip that was holding more than just bait. It was in fact holding a school of large bull reds. During the month of October it’s not unusual to see these big fish offshore. In fact during the cooler months they migrate to the offshore waters. I have to admit that this catch was early, but I think the created water temperature drop by the hurricane might have prompted this pre-mature migration. I found this fish in about 50 feet of water. The fish was landed and properly released!
There is a good spot tail bass (red fish) bite inshore. However, seventy seven percent of the red fish caught are right under legal keeping length. (The slot size limit for red fish is 14 inches to 23 inches. And they carry a bag limit of 5.) The fish are mixing and growing at the same time. This is normal for this time of the year.
“There are lots of bites, but not lots of keeps!”
According to Captain Brian Woelber of Miss Judy Charters, “there are lots of bites, but not lots of keeps!” This boils down to the fact that we are probably going to have a great inshore red fish year. However, we might have to wait a bit to get to keep more than a few. Our area is in bad need of rain. We need those mud holding nutrients to be washed out of the marshes. These nutrients are also known as “fish growing vitamins.” They need this stuff to get the fall growth spurt. I suggest that we all start doing a “rain dance!”
Captain Brian reported that these fish aren’t staging enough to be able to say, “creeks, rivers, or sounds.” The fact of the matter is that the bait along with the fish is approaching a migration kind of mood. When the mood takes place they will stop and hold in areas for while, but until this point “searching is in your future!”
Red fish especially at this time of the year are in search of their “staging areas!” These areas could be where they find the best hold up of bait and shelter. These fish can be targeted in areas where the water has just covered the oyster beds or in the grass itself. They are so busy rooting for food that as the tide rises they basically follow it right into the grass. Food for thought!
Near Shore Artificial Reefs
Our artificial reefs have it all. I am always talking about a short boat ride to the fish especially when it comes to this area. Now I am going to talk about the fish bite. It’s good, but it’s going to get a whole lot better. Black fish also known as sea bass are starting to show up in great numbers. However, the march to the reefs has just started. We caught quite a few while fishing the SAV, KC, and DUA artificial reefs this pasted week. As with all fish there is a catch. Black fish especially at this time of year do what I call “bunch up!” I could call it “school up,” but I don’t. When doing their bunching up thing the schools of blacks all seem to be holding in the same place. In other words, you might have to look a bit before finding the large bunched up ones. They are normally found in the most isolated spots on the reef. Don’t forget to do you homework before you leave the dock. Have the coordinates down so that you can easily visit all points of the reef area so as to find the “Hotspots!”
We checked the stomach contents of the black fish that we caught this pasted week. They were full of crabs. I guess I should say, “packed with whole crabs and crab parts. During this time of the year a black fish’s content stinks real bad to the point of making you want to throw up. They are so full of crabs that the first thing that they do when grabbing them is that they regurgitate their stomach contents up. If you are the fish remover you had best point all open ends away from you. The smell of this stuff is very bad! You certainly don’t want it on you. Crabs certainly don’t smell very good once mixed with stomach contents! This smell doesn’t affect the meat of the fish. I am always telling my customers this because who would want to eat a fish that has this type of odor? Stay away from the discharged contents!
300-Pound Tiger Shark
I know that this title got your attention. I talked with Captain David Newlin this pasted week and he shared some pretty interesting information with me. While fishing about 3 miles offshore this pasted week he as well as his customers had a real interesting catch. The catch came in the form of a 300-pound tiger shark. That alone is an interesting and great catch. However, there is more to the story. Upon bring the shark onboard all on board noticed a visible bulge in the shark’s stomach. All fishermen including myself want to know what exactly fish like to eat. The only way to ascertain this information is to open them up. In this case there would be lots of stuff to look at. Well, they opened up the tiger shark’s stomach, to their amazement a whole pelican popped out. From the looks of the bird it hadn’t been long since it was flying. In fact according to Captain David most parts were still intact with the acceptation one foot and half of the bill. For those that are letting you mind wonder. Captain Newlin did not catch the shark with a bird, but rather a large piece of barracuda!
Now I must make this point. All of those feathers that you have been seeing floating on the surface are not from birds shedding, but rather leftovers from a “Shark Attack!” I have seen several attacks by sharks on surface sitting birds. Here’s the funny thing. If the shark misses, the birds don’t fly off, but rather just move over. I don’t get it and never have!
Inshore Fishing Report
I love the first and the last of the fishing year. There is a reason and it’s a big one! It all boils down to “migration patterns!” Most all fish are always in some sort of movement mode. However, at these times of the year they are moving with a passion to get where they need to stage before the great winter temperature change. Fish feed with more intent for survival. Thus ends what I call my fish lesson for this week’s fishing report.
Spotted sea trout are “trouting” and the spot tail bass are “bassing.” All this means is that it’s not only the fish’s time of the year, but also the fisherman’s.
Trouting
Spotted sea trout also called weak fish or specks are one of the most popular targeted inshore species. Trout fall into what I call “predatory fish category.” It’s easy to come to the conclusion especially if you look at the mouth design of a trout. They have teeth that are positioned to hold, kill, and then eat. The one thing that a fishermen needs to remember is the fact that a trout has a thin walled mouth. Trout hit their target hard, because they need to kill it first before they eat it. When a hook is involved, hopefully your, and it becomes lodged it can become loosened easily. So therefore, you must keep your line tight or your trout can swim right off the hook. The reasons that limber long rods are so popular when trout fishing is the fact that it cushions the setting of the hook. Shorter rods can be used, but the fisherman in charge should have “good hook setting control.” This boils down to a solid set of the rod rather than a jerking one! Continuous reeling must follow a solid setting of the hook. Any slack in the line gives your fish a chance to basically swim off the hook. Jerking your rod causes your hook to make jagged openings in the trout’s mouth.
The eating habits of a trout are simple. They want to kill it before they eat it. I don’t think I could be any clearer while making that statement. So therefore live bait is the way to go in trout’s case. Fishermen should think outside the box when trying to pick the right kind of live bait. Live shrimp is the most popular and widely used bait for trout. However, it has been discovered by us over at Miss Judy Charters, that shrimp is good, but there are others that are much better. Small live bait such as yellow tail, croaker, finger mullet, large mud minnows, and peanut menhaden are also great baits to use. As the winter approaches you will find that some of these bait are going to be hard to obtain. While they are here, I suggest using them frequently. There are several ways to present your bait to a trout, but lets keep it simple. You can go with the traditional float style or naked alive method. The traditional float style is good, because you can easily control the holding depth of your bait. When presenting your bait with floats there are two ways that we use to hook them up. The first and most popular is through the lip hook up. All you have to do is to stick the hook through the backside bottom of the lip and up through the head area. Another way is to place bottom and mid ship of the bait. Both are good. However, the mid-ship hook up is the best one to use especially when you are having to cast great distances. Naked alive also works great!
Bassing
(Spot tail bass, red fish, channel bass, stag bass, etc)
Spot tail bass also known as red fish, channel bass, stag bass, rat’s, and bulls are lot of fun to catch, because they are a hearty fighting fish. There is more good news especially at this time of the year. They are big! This past week I caught a 40-pound plus big bull offshore. I happened up on a live rip that was holding more than just bait. It was in fact holding a school of large bull reds. During the month of October it’s not unusual to see these big fish offshore. In fact during the cooler months they migrate to the offshore waters. I have to admit that this catch was early, but I think the created water temperature drop by the hurricane might have prompted this pre-mature migration. I found this fish in about 50 feet of water. The fish was landed and properly released!
There is a good spot tail bass (red fish) bite inshore. However, seventy seven percent of the red fish caught are right under legal keeping length. (The slot size limit for red fish is 14 inches to 23 inches. And they carry a bag limit of 5.) The fish are mixing and growing at the same time. This is normal for this time of the year.
“There are lots of bites, but not lots of keeps!”
According to Captain Brian Woelber of Miss Judy Charters, “there are lots of bites, but not lots of keeps!” This boils down to the fact that we are probably going to have a great inshore red fish year. However, we might have to wait a bit to get to keep more than a few. Our area is in bad need of rain. We need those mud holding nutrients to be washed out of the marshes. These nutrients are also known as “fish growing vitamins.” They need this stuff to get the fall growth spurt. I suggest that we all start doing a “rain dance!”
Captain Brian reported that these fish aren’t staging enough to be able to say, “creeks, rivers, or sounds.” The fact of the matter is that the bait along with the fish is approaching a migration kind of mood. When the mood takes place they will stop and hold in areas for while, but until this point “searching is in your future!”
Red fish especially at this time of the year are in search of their “staging areas!” These areas could be where they find the best hold up of bait and shelter. These fish can be targeted in areas where the water has just covered the oyster beds or in the grass itself. They are so busy rooting for food that as the tide rises they basically follow it right into the grass. Food for thought!
Near Shore Artificial Reefs
Our artificial reefs have it all. I am always talking about a short boat ride to the fish especially when it comes to this area. Now I am going to talk about the fish bite. It’s good, but it’s going to get a whole lot better. Black fish also known as sea bass are starting to show up in great numbers. However, the march to the reefs has just started. We caught quite a few while fishing the SAV, KC, and DUA artificial reefs this pasted week. As with all fish there is a catch. Black fish especially at this time of year do what I call “bunch up!” I could call it “school up,” but I don’t. When doing their bunching up thing the schools of blacks all seem to be holding in the same place. In other words, you might have to look a bit before finding the large bunched up ones. They are normally found in the most isolated spots on the reef. Don’t forget to do you homework before you leave the dock. Have the coordinates down so that you can easily visit all points of the reef area so as to find the “Hotspots!”
We checked the stomach contents of the black fish that we caught this pasted week. They were full of crabs. I guess I should say, “packed with whole crabs and crab parts. During this time of the year a black fish’s content stinks real bad to the point of making you want to throw up. They are so full of crabs that the first thing that they do when grabbing them is that they regurgitate their stomach contents up. If you are the fish remover you had best point all open ends away from you. The smell of this stuff is very bad! You certainly don’t want it on you. Crabs certainly don’t smell very good once mixed with stomach contents! This smell doesn’t affect the meat of the fish. I am always telling my customers this because who would want to eat a fish that has this type of odor? Stay away from the discharged contents!
300-Pound Tiger Shark
I know that this title got your attention. I talked with Captain David Newlin this pasted week and he shared some pretty interesting information with me. While fishing about 3 miles offshore this pasted week he as well as his customers had a real interesting catch. The catch came in the form of a 300-pound tiger shark. That alone is an interesting and great catch. However, there is more to the story. Upon bring the shark onboard all on board noticed a visible bulge in the shark’s stomach. All fishermen including myself want to know what exactly fish like to eat. The only way to ascertain this information is to open them up. In this case there would be lots of stuff to look at. Well, they opened up the tiger shark’s stomach, to their amazement a whole pelican popped out. From the looks of the bird it hadn’t been long since it was flying. In fact according to Captain David most parts were still intact with the acceptation one foot and half of the bill. For those that are letting you mind wonder. Captain Newlin did not catch the shark with a bird, but rather a large piece of barracuda!
Now I must make this point. All of those feathers that you have been seeing floating on the surface are not from birds shedding, but rather leftovers from a “Shark Attack!” I have seen several attacks by sharks on surface sitting birds. Here’s the funny thing. If the shark misses, the birds don’t fly off, but rather just move over. I don’t get it and never have!