Freezing
cold weather and 6 ft. tides mean a lot to me. The highlight
of it all is fishing for big black sea bass as they stack
up thick on the offshore reefs in coastal georgia. Let
me re-assure you, if you go, the fish are there. With
a little effort in fishing your targeted structure properly,
you will find a lot of hungry "green heads"
on nearly any piece of structure on the map.
We
spent the first day of the new year loading our cooler
with some very large sea bass. In fact, we boated some
sea bass over 4 pounds on Berkely Power Baits. I normally
have an ebb tide preference for bottom fishing offshore.
In fact, the last 3 hours of the ebb is normally my favorite
time to bottom fish.That day, we had the opposite and
the incoming tide proved absolutely brutal for sea bass
fishing. When all was said and done that morning, we boated
117 bass total, and we kept 50 that were 2 pounds +. Three
of us landed all these fish by 12 PM that day and we were
back on the dock by 1 PM. The bite was on!
Each
angler has their own opinion about using bait vs. artificial
lures and jigs. Truth be known, I would say that jigs/plastics
are the way to go when the water temp drops below 60 degrees.
Bait gets scarce and swimmimg plastic minnows will catch
the eye of a hungry fish. With all the new baits made
by Berkley, these babys look great! Whether you are fishing
the creeks for Trout or jigging offshore structure for
Snapper and Sea Bass, the right jig can be absolutely
deadly if presented and rigged properly.
I
started jigging offshore several years back. Capt. Ed
Stelle and I discovered it’s deadly ability after
losing all of our cut bait to trash fish one morning.
I searched through the console of my 26 C-Hawk for anything
we could send to the bottom that would possibly catch
a fish. I stumbled across some jig heads and Ed had his
trout box on the boat for some odd reason and we began
to devise rigs with what we had on board.
The
rig consists of 3 feet of 50-pound monofilament with a
3-ounce egg sinker sliding free above the 65-pound snap
swivel. A 4/0 long shank lazer sharp hook is tied to the
leader. This rig is effective when fishing less than 60
ft. of water. If you jig the 40 mile bottom or any other
deep water, you want to rig your weight differently, but
some choose this classic "fish-finder" rig for
all occasions.
I
have found certain colors work better than others by switching
colors while there is a good bite going on with the color
I am using. For instance, I have switched to a green while
using a motor oil jig and watched my catch ratio get cut
in half. Simply bring along several different colors to
create accuracy. If you are marking fish on your bottom
machine this time of year, it will be mostly sea bass,
so be prepared to catch the bigger fish on the jig. The
smaller fish will hit the jig, but they tend to "spit
it out" and the larger fish seem to hold on and simply
inhale it. The fish caught on the jig are almost always
bigger.
In
addition to sea bass, Red Snapper can be caught the same
way. We have jigged Georgia's 40-mile bottom for large
sea bass and catch genuine Red Snapper while stalking
the bass. I don’t make it a habit to go all the way
to the Brunswick Georgia Snapper Banks to charter fish
for sea bass, but there are some large ones there, so
when you catch your limit of snapper, you can go to work
on the sea bass, too.
This
time of year is as good as it gets for sea bass in Georgia.
If you are looking for a great fishing charter or wish
to fish your own boat, it's a great time. Almost any of
the nearshore and offshore reefs will be holding large
amounts of these fish if the weather will permit a safe
exit into the Atlantic. Also, keep in mind that the times
to fish are normally not on the full or new Moon. The
tide runs far too fast to position your boat above the
structure and fish every point of it. If you get caught
on the moon and must fish, shoot for the last of the ebb
and first of the flood.
The
ebb tide is preferred for sea bass fishing, but if you
don’t have it, fish anyhow. The numbers of fish won’t
be quite as high in some cases, but you’ll have yourself
a good fishing trip regardless of tidal stage. Remember
that anytime you are fishing in 30 ft. of water or more,
the snapper could be there, too.
This
is simply glorified trout fishing in deeper water with
a heavier weight. The fish will normally hit the jig the
instant your boat begins a drift and the jig starts to
swim a bit. You can jig up and down, but honestly, there
is no need to. The drift of the boat will do most of the
work for you. You should position your jig just a touch
off the bottom while fishing structure. It will prevent
losing loads of tackle and those bass will come a long
way for that swimming jig, even in cold water.
Give
this a try if you haven’t already. It really produces
some nice fish.
