It’s hard to believe winter officially begins in a couple weeks. Nonetheless as fall winds down reports of good catches redfish and seatrout continue! Some fishermen who were catching limits a couple of weeks ago are nice fish but generally not as many . Fishermen lucky enough to report large catches are fishing in dynamic energy areas: on or near beach fronts. Reporting a large catch is impressive. What’s more impressive is staying within your limit or better yet releasing all or most of your catch. Last week weather and tide conditions were favorable for fishing resulting in good catches. Tides started building over the weekend and will remain over 8 foot range till Thursday. When high tides , wind, muddy water, cold water temperatures combine fishing can be difficult. Surface water temperature is around 56 degrees. That’s pretty cold. A warming trend could trigger fish to bite. Several cloudy cold days could drive water temperature even lower. Fish wont feed much when the water is cold. Sometimes in cold water a seatrout bite can be confused with a yellow tail because the trout is just bumping the bait. Trick is not to set hook too quickly wait for the fish to commit. Small seatrout, those just legal size or little larger(legal size in Ga. is 13 inches) might uncharacteristically bite from tail up instead of hitting the head. What’s happening is that small seatrout doesn’t want to contend with a large frisky shrimp. Chomping from the tail up might be a safe way for a small seatrout to tangle with a larger bait. These fish can be fun to catch are present in most creeks where there is a supply of bait. Capt. “Wild Bill” Jarrell just called from Yellow Bluff. He the sheepshead are biting! He said he caught 11 and left them biting. On days with lots of currents best chances of success for sheepshead is at either the top or bottom of the tide.. Not many bait shops have fiddlers on hand. Bill said he got his from Bandy’s at the foot of the bridge going onto Skidaway Island. Your best bet for finding bait at a bait shop this time of the year is to call ahead.
In the coming weeks as temperatures drop this is an excellent time only to your gear in shape but also to make room on your schedule to attend some fishing seminars! These events can be fun and informative! It doesn’t matter if the fisherman is a skilled old salt or new to fishing , there’s always something to learn! Dates for Miss Judy’s Inshore School are January 13th and 27th. For more information contact Miss Judy at 912-897-2478.
Hope this of help!
Good Fishing!
Capt. Jack McGowan