Georgia Saltwater Fishing Report June 2013

Saltwater: Inshore: Capt. Judy Helmey reports, “It’s time to go fishing for the spotted seatrout, redfish, flounder, sheepshead, black drum, shark, Spanish mackerel and cobia. This would be the month to bring out the castnet and catch your own bait to go fishing with. Inshore fishermen can leave the dock without bait, because peanut menhaden, finger mullet, mud minnows and shrimp are available and plentiful. All of these baits will work under traditional adjustable floats or popping corks, Carolina-style rigs, or fish just plain naked. For those fishermen who want to use artificial lures, pick up an assortment of different colors of Strike King soft jerkbaits. One favorite is baby bass, which is 3XZT00-55. These baits work rigged weedless on a 3/0 worm hook or threaded on to 1/8-oz. red, black or white jig heads. Cast them out, let them fall, and normally these lures never make it to the bottom before strikes happen.” Capt. David Newlin reports, “The trout bite is very hot right now with some real big fish. I saw a trout caught Saturday that was right at 7 pounds, the biggest I’ve seen in a long time. Live shrimp or clear DOA under a popping cork/float. Look in 4 to 8 feet of water. It seems to be a lot deeper than normal for this time of year. Look for big redfish in real thick grass early and late in the day. Just look for the fish. I’ve been catching them on shrimp, topwater plugs, like a Bomber Badonk-A-Donk , a real noisy topwater lure. Sharks are here thick and seem to be everywhere. Some big ones are behind the shrimp boats. I caught some big blacktips last week behind the shrimp boats.” Capt. TJ Cheek reports, “The tripletail showed up at the end of April, and we have been able to regularly get some great fish. The pressure has been a little bit above normal as word has gotten out more and more each year about our awesome tripletail fishing. The trout fishing has been touch and go with some great days here and there. However, the week of May 20 the bite on Cumberland beach fired off, and limits of trout have been fairly easy to come by. What I’m most excited about right now is the cobia fishing. The annual migration has made its way to the Georgia coast, and we have been able to at least have a few shots every time we make it out to fish the wrecks and buoys. Shark fishing has been excellent with a lot of 100-lb.-plus sharks behind the shrimp boats. If huge fish are what you are after, then shark fishing will certainly fill your request.”

Nearshore: Black sea bass opens June 1, and they are everywhere.

Offshore: Capt. Judy reports, “The month of June is what most all offshore fishermen have been waiting for. Just about all fish that you can catch in the ocean will have arrived. This 2013 catching season so far has not let us down with fishermen catching lots of cobia around buoys, artificial reefs and the Savannah Snapper banks. Best baits for cobia are eels under beefed-up adjustable floats or Carolina-style rigs. Believe it or not but live prawn shrimp is another favorite. To add to this already good catching season, grouper, vermilion and black bass catching seasons are open. As far as baits for grouper, I suggest live fish on the bottom such as cigar minnow, Spanish sardines or sand perch. When targeting the larger species of vermilion snapper, I suggest the liveliest cigar minnows, Boston mackerel or Spanish sardines that you can catch. To catch bait, you will need to bring along more that one set of Sabiki gold-hook rigs, which works great with dropping over wrecks located at the artificial reefs. It’s Spanish mackerel time. All you need is a small 0 or 00 Clark spoon to get this catching job done. The king mackerel bite will also get hot and heavy. Best artificial baits are the ever-popular Drone spoon pulled at around 7 knots. You can fish live bait on thin-wire-made stinger hook rigs. As far as blue-water fishing, June is the month to make it happen. This is also a great time for catching those blue-water fish at the Savannah Snapper banks—tuna, dolphin, wahoo and bill fish.”