Georgia Saltwater Fishing Report June 2014

Saltwater: Inshore & Nearshore: Capt. David Newlin reports, “Everything seems to be on schedule for the end of May. The water temperature should be in low 80s by the first part of June. The trout bite should be wide open by the first weeks of June. A good number of big trout have been caught this month. The usual method of fishing with a slip-float rig and a live shrimp as always is working. Fish with 1/4-oz. weight and a 2-foot-long leader, and let it drift with the current. This rig will catch a few of everything. If you want to try something different for trout, try throwing topwater plugs right at daylight. I like MirrOLures, Bomber Badonk-A-Donks or any topwater with a lot of rattles in it. The topwater bite is usually over by 8 in the morning. You won’t catch a lot of trout on top, but what you catch is usually big fish. The redfish bite has been good. When you find the redfish, there has usually been a lot of them in a small area. A lot of slot-limit fish were caught the last few weeks. Look for them in the smaller creeks with a lot of structure, tree tops and oyster beds have been holding redfish. The whiting bite has been hot. They seem to be all over Ossabaw Sound. Last Saturday we caught more than 100 on a four-hour trip. Find a sandy bottom about 8 to 12 feet deep that is near deeper water. The first part of the incoming tide has been real good. This should continue into June. A small piece of shrimp on the bottom works great. The sharks seem to be everywhere. The big blacktips are all over the shrimp boats 3 miles off the beaches. Find a school of pogies in close, and they will have blacktips all under them. Fish a fresh piece of fish on the bottom or under a noisy popping cork. The small sharks are all over the rivers and sounds. In June, the tarpon should be on the beach fronts. The early tarpon are usually easy to catch when you can find them. A live mullet or pogy freelined, fished under a float or on the bottom will work. Offshore a little bit of everything is biting. Kings, cobia and Spanish mackerel have been all over most of the reefs. The cobia run should last into June, with all the other migrating fish getting better on into the summer months. The bottom-fishing bite has been good and should continue. A lot of huge sea bass around 3 to 4 pounds have been caught.”

Nearshore & Offshore: Capt. Judy reports, “This 2014 catching season so far has not let us down, with fishermen catching lots of cobia around buoys, artificial reefs and Savannah Snapper banks. The 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 time, 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, vermilion snapper 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 than one set of sabiki gold hook rigs, which work great when dropped over any sort of structure at the artificial reefs. It’s also 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 get hot and heavy. The best artificial baits are the ever-popular Drone spoon pulled at around 7 knots or live bait on rigs with stinger hooks in tow. The Savannah Snapper Banks is a great place for blue-water fish to wander to. Mahi look for anything floating that provides any sort of shade, which makes for a great place for small bait fish to school. While these fish are feeding near the surface, are picking up the leftovers. The large and mighty wahoo will also make way into the green zone. Normally a large wahoo is accompanied by a yellow bill tropical bird or some sort of fast seabird. If you happen to see a single bird diving fast and then making erratic air moves, it is most likely mimicking the movement down under of a large feeding wahoo. I have caught some nice 100-lb. wahoo while putting this knowledge to work. I always presented the bait ahead of what I thought was this fish’s intended direction. During this time of the year I normally keep larger baits such as red porgy and vermilion snapper in the live well. My favorite rig was a beefed-up king mackerel rig using a single extra-heavy-duty hook. Hook near the tail section, but you want to make sure the bait can still swim somewhat normally.”