July 9, 2023 Captain Judy Inshore offshore Fishing report and my father taught me about sharks
Green was the color that got this fish’s attention. Now I must say this fish had to swim up approximately 100 feet up to get to my rig, which was being fished 18 feet under down under!
This beautiful genuine still swimming red snapper gladly hit my light tackle king mackerel rig. It was rigged with a split nose ballyhoo sporting a stinger treble hook in tow!
This is me and my customers getting ready for our 2 days open season for genuine red snapper! Practice makes perfect! And believe me you that we have had plenty of practice!
What are the open genuine snapper keeping days in our area?
One snapper per person any size!
For North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and East Coast of Florida …Friday July 14, 2023 and Saturday July 15, 2023
Captain Jim Price of Miss Judy Charters is offering a up to four ppl red snapper catching rate for both day..10 hours up to 4 ppl, $1920.00 (tip included for first mate)
Captain Ken Kennickell and Captain Dan DeYoung are offering 10 hours up to 6 ppl $2160.00 (tip included for first mate)
Please give us a call 912 897 4921 so that we can better explain you fishing options!
Give them time to eat!
July 3 2023 Captain Jim Price Miss Judy Charters Tim Clemens Brooklyn, MI (black tank) and Steve Settles Springboro, OH (White) Oh, by the way Captain Jim is known as our Miss Judy Charters FLOUNDER MAN! I don’t have to ask, “What’s for dinner?”
Captain Jim Price of Miss Judy Charters offers up some great flounder catching tips! And of course, Captain Jim is holding up a nice one for sure, which gladly took him up on his flounder catching techniques.
Now is a great time to go out and target flounder. We have been finding them on flats around structure in areas close to the ocean. You need to be on or near the bottom. Our favorite rigs are: Carolina rig pulling a mud minnow or finger mullet, small jig head with artificial shrimp or grubs, and live bait under corks close to the bottom.
A key with flounder is patience. They do not always hit the bait and run. More often a flounder will take its time to get the bait in. So, when you feel a strong thump give it some time, come tight and give a set.
When floating corks often you will simply notice the cork stopping or moving a bit unusually rather than going straight down. Again, give it a few seconds then come tight.
Captain Justin Rahn of Miss Judy Charters took Marissa on a fact finding catching mission! As you can see this is basically a job well done! Hello Marissa! Nice Jack Crevalle!
Hooking Up the Old Mud Minnow
I had a question from one of my reader this past week, which went like this: What is the proper way to hook up a mud minnow? My first answer is going to be the way that works the best! However, here are some suggestions that have worked for me.
The first thing you must consider when using any sort of live bait is that your picked hook doesn’t over power your bait used. This means, “Your hook used must allow the bait to swim somewhat.” Using too big of a hook is the worst thing that you can do. The beauty of live bait in the first place is that it’s alive giving you the best chance for a feeding fish’s attention. You can place the hook through their lips or the top of the eye sockets, behind the dorsal fin, or in the tail section. All hook placements will work. Through the lips or eye sockets are my first two choices. The reason being is that when the line is moved the bait still looks alive. When hooking your bait behind the dorsal fin it allows it to dive more readily, but when used under a floating cork this could be a problem. When free lining your bait I suggest hooking your bait up behind the dorsal fin. This allows your bait freedom to move more naturally. When using some sort of popping or floating cork I suggest placing your hook under and through the bottom lip up through the top of the head. When using this style your bait is going to hang there and wiggle. It’s not going to do much swimming away.
Some fishermen suggest placing the hook in the tail section. I’m not going to say, “it won’t work, because it might!” However, placing the hook in the fish’s tail section limits your bait natural movement. This brings to light another fish biting scenario: Does a hungry fish prefer to attack the head or the tail first? The answer to this question at least from my point of view is “depends on how hungry the fish was in the first place?”
Fetish Fish
Fetish fish also known as your “serious live bait dismantlers” are those fish that can’t get the whole bait in their mouths. So therefore they attack the legs, tail, and head sections, because these parts will fit in their mouth. This leaves you with bait that doesn’t work for trout. However, fetish fish make great bait on your small circle hook rig. Try to catch a few and put them in your live well. Hopefully they will only eat the dead parts in your tank.
Guess what? The Jack Crevalle are here! So if you want a big long strong fight I suggest seeing Captain Garrett Ross, Captain Phil Ross, or Captain Jake Ross! (One father and two sons at Miss Judy Charters!) What did this fish eat? Well, you see……
Savannah Snapper Bank
Green was the color that got this fish’s attention. Now I must say this fish had to swim up approximately 100 feet up to get to my rig, which was being fished 18 feet under down under!
This beautiful genuine still swimming red snapper gladly hit my light tackle king mackerel rig. It was rigged with a split nose ballyhoo sporting a stinger treble hook in tow!
This is me and my customers getting ready for our 2 days open season for genuine red snapper! Practice makes perfect! And believe me you that we have had plenty of practice!
What are the open genuine snapper keeping days in our area?
One snapper per person any size!
For North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and East Coast of Florida …Friday July 14, 2023 and Saturday July 15, 2023
Captain Jim Price of Miss Judy Charters is offering a up to four ppl red snapper catching rate for both day..10 hours up to 4 ppl, $1920.00 (tip included for first mate)
Captain Ken Kennickell and Captain Dan DeYoung are offering 10 hours up to 6 ppl $2160.00 (tip included for first mate)
This is me and my customers getting ready for our 2 days open season for genuine red snapper!
PRACTICE MAKES PREFECT!
This is me and my customers getting ready for our 2 days open season for genuine red snapper!
Imagine this…while fishing for grouper, but catching genuine red snapper we finally caught this nice gag! How? I was using a serious knocker rig, which helps get your live bait closer to the bottom and out of the mid water column.
Offshore Style Knocker Rig
So simple to tie, but please remember with targeting fish in the snapper and grouper complex you use a non stainless non offset circle hook! The best news is this rig is so simple, but does so much. With the sinker sitting on the hook’s eye once dropped it falls straight to the bottom. Now, other rigs like the Carolina rig once dropped the sinker dives, pulling the bait in tow. Quite often fish in the mid to upper water column (genuine red snapper) find this an alluring bait. The new but old way is the only way!
PRACTICE MAKES PREFECT!
This is me and my customers getting ready for our 2 days open season for genuine red snapper!
Rock Boy and Captain Kathy Brown of Miss Judy Charters are completely showing off! Nice genuine red snapper still swimming and ready for catching!
I see a few grouper! How about you!
What are you looking at? This is showing the prefect underwater thriving heavily populated fish city. What fish controls most of the lower, mid, and upper water column? Well, that would be assorted sizes of very hungry genuine red snapper!
Christopher Miller and Captain Kathy Brown are sporting genuine red snapper catching smiles. Now, what can I truly say about this beautiful picture? Look at the color of the water and the fish that just came out of it!
Captain Judy Helmey is assisting David Miller with his just caught soon to be released genuine red snapper! Now this fish is still swimming, growing, and ready to eat again!
What are the open genuine snapper keeping days in our area?
One snapper per person any size!
For North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and East Coast of Florida …Friday July 14, 2023 and Saturday July 15, 2023
Captain Jim Price of Miss Judy Charters is offering a up to four ppl red snapper catching rate for both day..10 hours up to 4 ppl, $1920.00 (tip included for first mate)
Captain Ken Kennickell and Captain Dan DeYoung are offering 10 hours up to 6 ppl $2160.00 (tip included for first mate)
Please give us a call 912 897 4921 so that we can better explain you fishing options!
Black nose shark! You don’t see them a lot in this area, but when you they are so fascinating! Why? They are beefy small composite sharks that are very compact, in proportion looks much like their bigger counterparts! All that need is sizing up! They are also sporting an extraordinary tough outer skin and they are very strong meaning very too hard to hold! And of course they have all the things that other sharks have, which is lots of teeth as well as the ability to burn your skin with one swipe of their strong tail! Last, but certainly not least they are sporting a black spot on their nose! And that is where they get their name black nose shark!
Little Miss Judy’s Believe It or Not!
More Than A Few interesting things that my father taught me about sharks:
Please read all the way through before attempting any of these grand old school suggestions!
A shark’s skin feels smooth when you run your hand from head to tail direction and rough when going the other way. My father always told me that when you rubbed a live shark you were just giving it a chance to taste you. According to my father sharks can taste and urinate through their skin. That must be why they rub first up against you, before they attack!
If you plan on keeping your shark I suggest asking the cleaner to save the head for you. The head has a fine set of jaws, which once properly removed will make an interesting conversation piece. The best way to remove the jaw is not by boiling the head of the shark as they did in the movie “Jaws.” However, boiling the head does get the meat soft making it easy to remove, but it also loosens the teeth. A set of jaws with no teeth isn’t very impressive. You best bet is to take a piece of rope that is “gnawable free” or wire and feed it though your jaws. (I would also try to take a tin can or some sort of prop to hold the jaw in wide open mode!) Take your shark’s head to the nearest biggest ant bed, drive a stake, and attach the rope or wire to it. Anchoring the shark’s head helps detour wild animals from carrying it off. The bad news is the animals are still going to try to pick it up and carry it off! Staking your prize will keep other low to the ground roaming creatures from making it theirs!
Ants do a great job of carefully removing all meat leaving you with a great open jaw with teeth exposed. Now you have a great conversation piece along with a mouth full of beautiful white shark’s teeth! By the way, sharks teeth especially rows of them are very sharp. Be careful when handling that you don’t cut yourself, but if you do well, now you have a shark bite to talk about! And it is all about the way you embellish your words! Believe you me it can be done! Everyone likes a great story! As you read this I think you already know that the last statement is true!
I hope that you read all of this before you head out to take the shark’s head to the old ant bed, because I almost forgot to tell you something. You aren’t a real shark fisherman until you get yourself your own pair of “shark eyes!” At least that’s what my father always told me. It’s a little messy, but well worth the trouble. You need to remove the both eyes from the shark’s head. I suggest asking your first mate to do this for you. Hopefully they will have a plastic zip lock bag to put them in for you. (Speaking from experience, whatever you do, don’t wrap those freshly removed eyes in that Kleenex and put them back in your pocket. Or another problem will arise in the form of serious stink!) After the removal, please put your eyes on ice or else “The stink will rise!” To get your “shark’s eyes” you need to boil the raw eyes until the meat comes off. (Please do this outdoors in a well-ventilated place!) I could suggest just pulling the meat off, which will work, but boiling is a process that also helps cure the stink of the eyeballs! At any rate, after the eye covering is removed along with many minutes of hot boiling in water, you will find yourself with a fine set of “shark eyes!” All eyes are different and can always support many different stories, in which you as the fisherman certainly do have control of! I suggest making this story a good one!
Shark Fins
Another suggestion is to have your fish cleaner cut off all the shark’s fins. As a small child, daddy and I will take the fins, salt them down on both sides, and just basically sundry them. This would leave me with a fine set of shriveled shark fins in which I could parade around to all of my friends. The drying process almost, I said, “almost!” removes almost most of the shark stink! Who am I kidding?
A Shark’s Upside Down Eyelids! Shark the Ripper!
A shark’s eyelids come from the bottom not the top like us humans. My father shared with me his opinion of why the sharks have what he called “upside down eyes lids.” According to his theory most of the thrashing that a shark does when eating causes a lot of parts and pieces. The shark’s style of thrashing movement causes a lot of upward current bringing with it many parts and pieces. The shark only has to cover the parts of the eyes that might get hit, which is mostly likely will be the bottom half of the eye. This allows the shark to still observe what it’s eating or should I say, “Ripping at”!
Sharks even after many hours can still make certain noticeable moves!
The shark’s meat, at least on most occasions, moves whether it is cut into chunks, steaks, or fillets. The first time this happened to me the sounds that came from the cooler was a little haunting. While fishing at one of the near shore artificial reefs we had landed two real nice sand sharks. We kept one and let the other one go for seed. Once we got it home we started the process of cleaning it. We did all of the usual things of gutting; washing, de-fining, de-heading, eye removal, and etc…then the process of cutting the meat took place. Some shark cleaners prefer to cut their meat into steaks while leaving the skin intact. Other cleaner’s fully remove the skin and all you get is meat. Don’t worry whether you keep the skin or not the meat will still stay together when grilling. We decided to be the “removers!” After removing all of the gray colored skin off the steaks we simply chunked them into the color and covered them with ice. As we cleaned the next thirty or so steaks the movement as it laid in the cooler had our ear pulled away from the general conversation. We all at the same time looked at the 40-quart cooler that was making a crackling sound inside. It sounded like ice moving with pieces hitting each other. Then the cooler rattled so much that it looked like it was moving. Not much, but just enough to get our attention. With all shark-cleaning eyes on the cooler, the bravest one decided to open it. The cracking noise coming from the cooler definitely had us curious and puzzled at the same time. After opening the cooler we watched as the pieces of shark meat move around and under the ice. There was a whole lot of “shark shaking going on!” An undeliverable site to say the least!
What is the next step that shark’s meat takes once it is cooked? Don’t get me wrong it very good to eat, but it repaginates!
My father and I always fried our shark meat. We would flour, drop in grease, then we would watch it cook, dip it out, and serve it up. It was really good! However, my father always had the last word when it came to “cooked shark leftovers!” According to my father you have to eat all you cooked or throw it away. As all good children do, they listen to their elders, especially back in the old days where parents actually ruled. As I got older, I started wonder about daddy’s theory of not keeping leftover cooked shark meat pieces. So therefore on my own I decided to keep a few pieces. I wrapped them up in a paper towel, put them on a plate, and put them towards the back of the refrigerator. The next morning as I was getting a glass of milk I bumped the plate. Half a sleep, I grabbed the tilted plate while watching blood dripping from it. It was early and I had shark blood on my hand and in the refrigerator. At this moment I wondered why I didn’t just listen to the “Captain Wise One!” At any rate the moral of this story is a simple one. After cooking your shark, eat what you want, and definitely throw the rest away! The reason being is that it might have been cooked the night before, but when you wake it’s raw again. This all boils down to a meat design that is capable of “repaginating itself.” So therefore it’s best to hide the shark’s head and fins, because at this time I can’t say, “What might happen!” I feel a serious nightmare in the making!
This is something that you can do with your shark, but only if you are planning on eating it. It was brought to my attention by my father many years ago that sharks even when they seem to be dead really aren’t. The fact of the matter is that even after 6 hours plus the heart is actually still beating and seemly pumping blood. The shark heart has its own special cavity, which is located under the regular life support system or should I say “the insides area!” My father would gut the shark so as to remove all of the internals. According to my father, quick removal of them helped lighten the wild taste of the shark meat. In other words, “meat from the man eater needed a bit of taming!” As a child it’s no wonder I didn’t have nightmares from all of the stories that my father told me. Boy, I am certainly “shark rambling.” At any rate, after the gut removal process, it was time to go-on-a-heart-still-a-beating-fact-finding-mission.” All you have to do is to place you hand inside the shark’s cavity and you can still feel the beat of the heart. Now remember, we are dealing with a shark that hasn’t any insides, but still has its heart beating. The bottom line to this situation is the fact that had daddy not taken the time to tell me how I could have known? So therefore, consider this information “Paid forward!”
I’m sure that there are lots more information and as soon as these memories come forward so will the writing!
Give us a call 912 897 4921 or e-mail fishjudy2@aol.com
Thanks for reading!
Captain Judy