Georgia Saltwater Fishing Reports – July 2021

Saltwater: Inshore: Capt. Judy Helmey reports, “For those inshore fishermen who just want to catch fish, purchase or catch live shrimp. Last month live shrimp was hard to come by. Brown shrimp in the Turner Creek and Wilmington River areas just didn’t grow big enough fast enough to be caught in a net or used on a hook. Hopefully the month of July will be better. If you can’t get shrimp, the creeks are full of peanut menhaden. They can stay pretty healthy if you don’t try to keep too many alive in your bait tank at once. In the backs of creeks, there are schools of finger mullet. The mud minnows have really saved us during lean shrimp times. On these baits, you will catch seatrout, flounder and redfish. Fish the above bait on an adjustable float, a popping cork or naked. The shark fishing has been great! Lots of sharks are being landed while fishing in the sounds, off the beach fronts, around surfacing schooling baits and while fishing all points east. I have caught them on shrimp, cut fish, whole live, whole dead fish and fish steaks. Fishing from the bottom to the surface are great areas to present your preferred bait.

Capt. David Newlin reports, “Water temperature was 84 degrees on June 27. Everything is right on summer patterns. Trout are in good numbers all over the sound. The biggest factor has been finding clear water on most days. Usual live-shrimp rigs has been working. Some days small live mullet or poly-wog minnows have worked better than shrimp. A lot of small trout have been mixed in with the bigger fish. I caught a couple of big trout this morning on a topwater MirrOlure. The next few weeks should be good trout fishing. The outgoing tide has been really good for flounder this week. All the usual flounder spots have held a few fish. This should be really good during July. Redfish are doing their usual summer things with a few big fish and a lot of small fish. Caught a 32- and 34-inch fish today along with 20 small fish. Whiting have been really thick on the beach. Saturday morning we caught 97 in three hours. Try about 10 feet deep in small channels on the beaches. A good number of black drum and some large croaker have been in the mix most days. Big sharks have shown up all over. Six- to 10-foot sharks have been easy to find. Yesterday afternoon I couldn’t keep a line in the water. I released six big sharks in three hours. It was hook a fish, turn it loose, 10 minutes later fish on for 30 minutes again. Fresh fish on the bottom and hang on. Tarpon should be here next month. We will catch them when they arrive. July fishing should be good for big and small fish.”

Offshore: Capt. Judy Helmey reports, “Our beachfronts and artificial reefs are holding Spanish and king mackerel, barracuda, little tunny, jack crevalle and cobia. All fish will hit anything from a small trolled lure to a spoon being pulled slowly behind your boat. Also cast right into the school of fish. The best thing I can suggest is to match the size of bait to the fish’s mouth that you are targeting. For the Spanish mackerel, little tunny and jack crevalle, their favorite meals are glass minnows and juvenile squid. Small silver spoons sizes 0 and 00 made by Clark are the best to use. When targeting king mackerel and barracuda, use a larger spoon. The best spoon for this job is a 3 1/2-inch Drone. And if you really want to get a barracuda’s attention, try using a dead or live Spanish mackerel. The secret when using a fresh dead Spanish mackerel is to pick the fish that looks the shiniest. Always having a cuda tube on board. When targeting cobia, use a 6- to 8-inch diving plug or a hair jig tipped with plastic eel/worm type. If you happen to have some live bait in your well, anything from shrimp to small fish works like a charm on cobia. At the Savannah Snapper Banks, you could catch billfish, wahoo, tuna and mahi mahi. Genuine red snapper is closed at this time.”

Blue Water: Capt. Judy Helmey reports, “During July, I suggest high-speed trolling starting in 50 feet of water and pulling lures until you pull the throttles back. The best high speed lures are  https://ballyhood.com. If dragging doesn’t work, giving bottom fishing a try. The fish that feed deep down under are bigger and better than you think during this time. I suggest menhaden, sand perch, ruby red lips, vermilion snapper, pinfish or blue runners. Actually any hardy live bait will work. As far as great bottom bait, I suggest cutting a belly strip from one of those just caught topwater fish in your cooler. If you don’t want to use bait, there is always deep-water jigging. Try a 5-oz. Benthos jig on braided line. I like using 80-lb. test braided line. I suggest adding a leader of about 4 feet of 60- to 80-lb. monofilament or fluorocarbon.  This jig is made for high-speed vertical jigging.  Drop the jig to the bottom, and if you are not hooked up, reel your jig about 10 feet up off the bottom and work it vertically at that depth. If you don’t have any luck, drop back to the bottom and repeat but change the depth worked.”