Capt. Richie Lott
Senior Member
Detailed Coastal Georgia Inshore Fishing Report - Fall 2010 with a "personal twist"
Re-Cap and Report for Coastal Georgia Inshore Fishing
(With sort of a personal twist)
Note: I will be adding more photos as I get them off the cameras, so I aplogize if there are duplicates below.
"A short story about my personal inshore fishing history, then... the report"
This March will start my 22nd year of Coastal Georgia Charter Fishing around St. Simons, Jekyll, Sea Island, Little St. Simons, Cumberland and Amelia. After the past few years of of ignoring inshore fishing, I have put my mind back into full swing on it yet again. This is a short story of my “return� to inshore charter fishing after a three year break.
People that know me on a personal level remember when there was a time when my passion was inshore fishing. During those years, it’s all I wanted to do. Many people don't know that I grew up inshore fishing with my father 30+ years ago. My father didn't like “big water" fishing, so we fished only inshore for trout and redfish every time we went. So many people that follow my reports, videos and writing really don't know that side of my fishing story, but that is the ONLY fishing I did for over 10 years as I grew up and into my first few years of charter fishing as well in the early 1990’s.
That went on for over a decade and then Redfish Tournaments came about back in 2004 that were being held in my neighborhood, so we started fishing in some of them as Team Redfish One. It was then, right then, I focused my full attention to Tournament Redfishing. No more Trout fishing. In a Redfish Tournament, Trout are just pests in your way as you work across a mudflat or a flooded grass area, so they are forgotten about and put in the history books for many, many fishermen during their personal Redfish Tournament era.
Finally, in 2005 a very good friend of mine to this day (Ricky Raleigh) signed our crew up to fish one of the first IFA Redfish Tournaments ever held in our area. The boat count was not good at a total of about 28 boats, so we knew our chances were high and I had been on some good numbers of upper limit slot Reds.
Ricky and I weeded through several short Reds and by 2 PM, we only had one Red that would qualify and we were beginning to worry and the tide was nearly high, but not yet on the grass. One of the guys with us was working a tree stump bottom pretty hard with a DOA Shrimp and finally... The rod bent over triple.
I thought he was hung on that stump for sure, but it ended up being a nice 26 inch Redfish that took the win along with a 23 inch fish to total our two largest reds for the day at around 11 pounds... Which is a low weight, but the pro guys that showed up didn't know the area. 90% of the field didn't weigh a fish, so we were hooked on it then! I could go on and on about Tournament stories, but we cashed a few checks, won lots of neat trophies and lost a few bucks too, but most of all... it was fun!
THE REPORT "What a great season of Inshore Fishing in Coastal Georgia!"
So back on point with the inshore fishing around Jekyll Island Georgia this season... It's incredible! I picked a great year for a return to inshore fishing. I now remember why I loved it so much.
I like to catch numbers of trout like everyone else, but I always liked having a 16 inch average, and that is still a chore no matter who you are. We probably have a 15 inch average if I had to guess. I have most of the fish from each trip written down from my inshore days and I have started to log it again, so when I put the pencil to it next month, I would like to see a 16 inch average, but we're not quite there yet... but hopefully we’ll get there.
The water is cooling quickly now. Today, my Garmin was reading 61 degrees on the surface. In previous years, we caught our bigger fish on bucktails and in deep water in the high 50's.
My dad didn't use plastic very often. He made his own bucktail jigs with glitter, lead and deer hair. He would tune several different jig weights colors according to the depth of water he was fishing as well as the clarity of the water.
So, the short of that story is I have gone to my father’s house and talked him out of a few of his old bucktail trout jigs, and tomorrow I plan on using them. A side note on this, the best way to make the transition to artificial is to leave your live bait at the dock. You will have no choice but to use your artificial jigs, bucktails, lures, etc.
Moving forward, this season has been one to put in the books for me on a personal numbers level. The worst day we had this year I remember distinctly. The wind was blowing 25 knots from the North West and the tides were nearly 9 feet in height that day and we were fishing on a new moon. God help us... We prayed and he did.
With every odd in the book stacked against me, there were still a handful of fish that were cooperative. I couldn’t believe it. The crew insisted they go fishing and didn’t care if they caught a single fish. I like that attitude, but at the end of the day, everyone actually does care…. Especially me. I didn’t want to run that trip for any amount of money, but they were adamant about going, and we still managed to not get skunked. I hit my knees every morning and pray for many things, that inlcuded. "Please Lord, allow us to have the fortune of good fishing again today as you have blessed us with so many times before".
Now, the best days looked more like dream days this season. I am not the only one with good fortune with trout and reds. Many other guides and fishermen are catching just as many or more fish than me this season. However, many of them will tell you it’s just as good as any other year, but it just doesn’t seem that way. Even though I wasn’t trout fishing very much last season, I saw the numbers and sizes. I was at that marina every weekend and I saw what came in and I know who caught it. A few good number days were had, but not like this season.
Catching limits of trout with two and three anglers on board has become a benchmark to achieve. A day of a hundred trout total is not a far out obstacle to reach this season. Batting average on keeper size fish is around 60-70% I would guess.
Honestly, this is about as good as I have seen it since the late 1990’s. We can only hope and pray that the trout keep biting like this and to be blessed with another few weeks of big numbers of fish and maybe a great spring season for 2011. If it gets any better, I don’t think I could stand it! It’s really that good.
The fish are biting on anything you throw at them. We fish a lot of Bayou Bucks Popping Floats because of their spring loaded action and loud action and they have proven to be excellent on large trout. It’s not my first choice for Reds if you’re trying to be quiet, but cock your pistol if you’re trout fishing with them. Fish live shrimp, minnows or Jigs under the floats and hang on.
These reports for the GA coast have been ringing from here to Savannah and all points in between. It’s just one of those years where you can’t do much wrong if you can find some structure and current. Not a hard chore on the GA coast, for sure.
I can also attest to the fact of fishing the Jetties at Fernandina/St. Marys right now is insane. Wendy, Addison and I went yesterday. It is still as good as ever down south. There were Trout on the beach as well as inside the Jetty that were willing to bite jigs. In years past, some of my bigger trout came from there as well as spots in the Cumberland river. My largest trout to date was 27 inches long caught on a mud-minnow free lined in the dead of winter. My personal favorite inshore fishing is about to be here... I am definitely not an authority and do not claim to be on catching huge trout every time I go fishing and my biggest trout is still not really that big, but I really do enjoy it. I will leave those bragging rights to someone else.
"Our Inshore Fishing Tackle Setups"
We fish light but I wouldn’t consider it ultra light on our spinning gear. We fish Ugly Stik Custom Graphite Inshore Rods (7 ft. light-medium action 8-12 class) and our reels are mostly Penn Sargus 2000 series loaded to the lip with 20 pound code Red Sonic braid. I would go lighter if I could, but on charters it can be too risky so I found a happy medium that works for me as an all around tackle setup.
Our leaders are Berkley Fluorocarbon 12 pound test and we add an extra ¼ ounce of weight for extra noise and quick up-righting of the popping corks. If we’re fishing a jig head, we’ll Albright on a 7-8 ft. section of the leader mentioned above for a tippet and for oyster abrasion. The extra weight is added on in a couple of ways. To prevent the hated and dreaded "piggyback", we carolina rig a 1/4 or 3/8 egg weight on a "hanging" leader about 8 inches long below the float. This leader is normally 30 pound mono. That egg sinker being able to "slide" that little bit keeps the lasso effect to a minimum as opposed to a fixed weight.
The only fixed weight we are Finesse weights I make personally but I cannot mention the company name here. They're 1/4. 3/8 and 1/2 ounce. They have barrel swivels made into the weight on both ends. They work prettyy well too for an avid fisherman. I would suggest the sliding weight rig above for most applications. We ALWAYS add weight and it's not for distance. Its for quick uprights as mentioned and for lots of extra noise.
Take your weekends, get your kids and take them trout fishing before this is over. It won’t last all winter, so now is the time. You will be surprised if you haven’t been yet this season.
Good Fishing to all of you and tight lines!
Re-Cap and Report for Coastal Georgia Inshore Fishing
(With sort of a personal twist)
Note: I will be adding more photos as I get them off the cameras, so I aplogize if there are duplicates below.
"A short story about my personal inshore fishing history, then... the report"
This March will start my 22nd year of Coastal Georgia Charter Fishing around St. Simons, Jekyll, Sea Island, Little St. Simons, Cumberland and Amelia. After the past few years of of ignoring inshore fishing, I have put my mind back into full swing on it yet again. This is a short story of my “return� to inshore charter fishing after a three year break.
People that know me on a personal level remember when there was a time when my passion was inshore fishing. During those years, it’s all I wanted to do. Many people don't know that I grew up inshore fishing with my father 30+ years ago. My father didn't like “big water" fishing, so we fished only inshore for trout and redfish every time we went. So many people that follow my reports, videos and writing really don't know that side of my fishing story, but that is the ONLY fishing I did for over 10 years as I grew up and into my first few years of charter fishing as well in the early 1990’s.
That went on for over a decade and then Redfish Tournaments came about back in 2004 that were being held in my neighborhood, so we started fishing in some of them as Team Redfish One. It was then, right then, I focused my full attention to Tournament Redfishing. No more Trout fishing. In a Redfish Tournament, Trout are just pests in your way as you work across a mudflat or a flooded grass area, so they are forgotten about and put in the history books for many, many fishermen during their personal Redfish Tournament era.
Finally, in 2005 a very good friend of mine to this day (Ricky Raleigh) signed our crew up to fish one of the first IFA Redfish Tournaments ever held in our area. The boat count was not good at a total of about 28 boats, so we knew our chances were high and I had been on some good numbers of upper limit slot Reds.
Ricky and I weeded through several short Reds and by 2 PM, we only had one Red that would qualify and we were beginning to worry and the tide was nearly high, but not yet on the grass. One of the guys with us was working a tree stump bottom pretty hard with a DOA Shrimp and finally... The rod bent over triple.
I thought he was hung on that stump for sure, but it ended up being a nice 26 inch Redfish that took the win along with a 23 inch fish to total our two largest reds for the day at around 11 pounds... Which is a low weight, but the pro guys that showed up didn't know the area. 90% of the field didn't weigh a fish, so we were hooked on it then! I could go on and on about Tournament stories, but we cashed a few checks, won lots of neat trophies and lost a few bucks too, but most of all... it was fun!
THE REPORT "What a great season of Inshore Fishing in Coastal Georgia!"
So back on point with the inshore fishing around Jekyll Island Georgia this season... It's incredible! I picked a great year for a return to inshore fishing. I now remember why I loved it so much.
I like to catch numbers of trout like everyone else, but I always liked having a 16 inch average, and that is still a chore no matter who you are. We probably have a 15 inch average if I had to guess. I have most of the fish from each trip written down from my inshore days and I have started to log it again, so when I put the pencil to it next month, I would like to see a 16 inch average, but we're not quite there yet... but hopefully we’ll get there.
The water is cooling quickly now. Today, my Garmin was reading 61 degrees on the surface. In previous years, we caught our bigger fish on bucktails and in deep water in the high 50's.
My dad didn't use plastic very often. He made his own bucktail jigs with glitter, lead and deer hair. He would tune several different jig weights colors according to the depth of water he was fishing as well as the clarity of the water.
So, the short of that story is I have gone to my father’s house and talked him out of a few of his old bucktail trout jigs, and tomorrow I plan on using them. A side note on this, the best way to make the transition to artificial is to leave your live bait at the dock. You will have no choice but to use your artificial jigs, bucktails, lures, etc.
Moving forward, this season has been one to put in the books for me on a personal numbers level. The worst day we had this year I remember distinctly. The wind was blowing 25 knots from the North West and the tides were nearly 9 feet in height that day and we were fishing on a new moon. God help us... We prayed and he did.
With every odd in the book stacked against me, there were still a handful of fish that were cooperative. I couldn’t believe it. The crew insisted they go fishing and didn’t care if they caught a single fish. I like that attitude, but at the end of the day, everyone actually does care…. Especially me. I didn’t want to run that trip for any amount of money, but they were adamant about going, and we still managed to not get skunked. I hit my knees every morning and pray for many things, that inlcuded. "Please Lord, allow us to have the fortune of good fishing again today as you have blessed us with so many times before".
Now, the best days looked more like dream days this season. I am not the only one with good fortune with trout and reds. Many other guides and fishermen are catching just as many or more fish than me this season. However, many of them will tell you it’s just as good as any other year, but it just doesn’t seem that way. Even though I wasn’t trout fishing very much last season, I saw the numbers and sizes. I was at that marina every weekend and I saw what came in and I know who caught it. A few good number days were had, but not like this season.
Catching limits of trout with two and three anglers on board has become a benchmark to achieve. A day of a hundred trout total is not a far out obstacle to reach this season. Batting average on keeper size fish is around 60-70% I would guess.
Honestly, this is about as good as I have seen it since the late 1990’s. We can only hope and pray that the trout keep biting like this and to be blessed with another few weeks of big numbers of fish and maybe a great spring season for 2011. If it gets any better, I don’t think I could stand it! It’s really that good.
The fish are biting on anything you throw at them. We fish a lot of Bayou Bucks Popping Floats because of their spring loaded action and loud action and they have proven to be excellent on large trout. It’s not my first choice for Reds if you’re trying to be quiet, but cock your pistol if you’re trout fishing with them. Fish live shrimp, minnows or Jigs under the floats and hang on.
These reports for the GA coast have been ringing from here to Savannah and all points in between. It’s just one of those years where you can’t do much wrong if you can find some structure and current. Not a hard chore on the GA coast, for sure.
I can also attest to the fact of fishing the Jetties at Fernandina/St. Marys right now is insane. Wendy, Addison and I went yesterday. It is still as good as ever down south. There were Trout on the beach as well as inside the Jetty that were willing to bite jigs. In years past, some of my bigger trout came from there as well as spots in the Cumberland river. My largest trout to date was 27 inches long caught on a mud-minnow free lined in the dead of winter. My personal favorite inshore fishing is about to be here... I am definitely not an authority and do not claim to be on catching huge trout every time I go fishing and my biggest trout is still not really that big, but I really do enjoy it. I will leave those bragging rights to someone else.
"Our Inshore Fishing Tackle Setups"
We fish light but I wouldn’t consider it ultra light on our spinning gear. We fish Ugly Stik Custom Graphite Inshore Rods (7 ft. light-medium action 8-12 class) and our reels are mostly Penn Sargus 2000 series loaded to the lip with 20 pound code Red Sonic braid. I would go lighter if I could, but on charters it can be too risky so I found a happy medium that works for me as an all around tackle setup.
Our leaders are Berkley Fluorocarbon 12 pound test and we add an extra ¼ ounce of weight for extra noise and quick up-righting of the popping corks. If we’re fishing a jig head, we’ll Albright on a 7-8 ft. section of the leader mentioned above for a tippet and for oyster abrasion. The extra weight is added on in a couple of ways. To prevent the hated and dreaded "piggyback", we carolina rig a 1/4 or 3/8 egg weight on a "hanging" leader about 8 inches long below the float. This leader is normally 30 pound mono. That egg sinker being able to "slide" that little bit keeps the lasso effect to a minimum as opposed to a fixed weight.
The only fixed weight we are Finesse weights I make personally but I cannot mention the company name here. They're 1/4. 3/8 and 1/2 ounce. They have barrel swivels made into the weight on both ends. They work prettyy well too for an avid fisherman. I would suggest the sliding weight rig above for most applications. We ALWAYS add weight and it's not for distance. Its for quick uprights as mentioned and for lots of extra noise.
Take your weekends, get your kids and take them trout fishing before this is over. It won’t last all winter, so now is the time. You will be surprised if you haven’t been yet this season.
Good Fishing to all of you and tight lines!
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