Capt. Judy Helmey from Miss Judy Charters (http://www.missjudycharters.com/) in Savannah, GA shares the action Inshore and Offshore. Feel free to email her direct at fishjudy2@aol.com
Inshore June Fishing Action
Inshore fishermen get to go into the spotted sea trout, red fish, flounder, sheepshead, black drum, shark, Spanish mackerel and cobia “watch and catch mode!” This would be the month to bring out the cast net and catch your own bait.
Inshore fisherman can leave the dock without bait, because peanut menhaden, finger mullet, mud minnows and shrimp are plentiful. All of these baits will work under traditional adjustable floats or popping corks, Carolina style rigs, or fished “just plain naked!”
For fishermen who want to use artificial lures, pick up an assortment of different colors of Strike King soft jerk baits. One favorite is baby bass, which is 3XZT00-55. These bait work rigged weedless on a 3/0 worm hooks or threaded on to 1/8 ounce 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!”
Offshore June Fishing Action
The month of June is what 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 Savannah Snapper banks. Best baits for cobia are eels under beefed up adjustable floats or Carolina style rigs. Believe it or not, live prawn shrimp and menhaden (pogies) are other favorite baits.
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 vermilion snapper, I suggest the liveliest cigar minnows, Boston mackerel or Spanish sardines that you can catch. To catch bait your will need to bring along more that one set of Sabiki gold hook rigs, which works great dropped over wrecks located at the artificial reefs.
For topwater offshore fishing, 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 get hot and heavy. Best artificial baits are the ever-popular Drone spoon pulled at around seven knots or live bait on thin wire made stinger hook rigs.
This is also just about the time for catching blue water fish at the Savannah Snapper bank: tuna, dolphin, billfish and Wahoo!
