Fishing With Capt Thunderbolt (2006)
Back to Main  

 [2005 Fishing Report]  [2004 Fishing Report]

By: Capt Rick Reynolds

12/30/2006

Capt. Rick had a scouting trip with Capt. Jack Mcgowan of Miss Judy Charters. Capt Jack gave Rick a decent shot a nice striper. Fish hit a mud minnow and headed straight for a bridge. Capt Rick had a boat rod with 20 lb Power Pro and a 20 lb leader spooled on a light spinner.

This trip was a spur of the moment thing, so I didn't have my best equipment at all. This fish almost spooled the spinner but I did keep him out of the bridge structure. Got him to the top and estimated this fish in the 20 - 30 lb range. He popped the line at the weight. Even though this was not a great rod, the line was good. Capt Jack thinks there might have been a burr on the eye of the lead weight, but I think he just overpowered the line . I had to stop the fish from going thru the bridge or would have lost him for sure. So I overpowered the drag by stopping the spool with my hand, a techinque Capt Jack showed me during that incredible fight. We left that area and I showed Capt Jack a trout drop that I had not fished in 2 years. We caught and released several small trout on mud minnows and Capt Jack caught and released one on the fly. A great day on the water with one of the best.

12/28/2006

Capt. Rick had a charter for Miss Judy Charters today. Water temp was 55° and stained. Had to get out of the north east wind. The water was stained to dirty in the Back River. Was out of the wind, but only had 1 bite. This was a Father and Son charter. We tried live shrimp, and mud minnows. I also pitched some doa's under a popping cork as well as some gulp screw tails. Fish just were not biting. Tried 2 or 3 drops in the Back river before moving to the Wilmington River. There we had a couple of bites and Andrew, pictured below landed the only trout of the day. Moved to the Herb river and missed a couple on mud minnows. Tried a drop in Turners creek, but that did not produce either. It was a nice day on the water, just windy and cool. We were fishing under the influence of a high pressure that moved in midday.

12/24/2006

This is a quick report. I was checking the boat at the Marina, and decided to cast a live shrimp over by the grass. It was an 8.5 high tide, so I set my depth at about 10 foot. Water temp is 56° and stained. It stopped drifting but did not go under. I was fishing off a point. I Tightned up the line and felt something solid. A nice 16 inch flounder was on the other end. Decided to release him for another day.

12/18/2006

Capt. Rick and his friend Tom Carfrey ran out to Grays Reef today. Weather was excellent. Water was clear, and water temp was 58° . Started catching keeper Black Sea bass at the first drop. We fished from 9:30 am until 1:30 pm and kept 30 black sea bass, 1 vermillion snapper and 1 nice trigger fish. All fish caught on Squid, and live mullet and a few live shrimp. Back inshore by 3:30pm. A very nice day on the water with a good friend. Also saw quite a few portugeuse Man-of-War Jellyfish.

11/26/2006

Capt. Rick Scouted some new locations today. Found some clear water and used the live bait left over from yesterday. Water temp was clear and 53.5 °. Caught all trout today on live shrimp fished right up against the Grass at high tide. Kept 10 for a meal.

11/25/2006

Capt. Rick had a charter for Miss Judy Charters today. Water temp was 53 ° and clear. Had to get out of the north east wind. Found some clear water. They caught 15 trout on Doa's under a popping cork. Trout would not hit live bait today.

11/17/2006 and 11/18/2006

Capt. Rick fished the Savannah Redbone Tournament on these 2 days. I had a father son team. They did the best they could under the circumstances. Wind was high and the air temp was cold. We placed 9th overall.

11/15/2006

Capt. Rick had a charter for Miss Judy Charters today. This day was very windy, but we found a place that was sheltered and had clear water. Water temp was 61° and steady. I had 2 anglers so I fished with them as well. We were in the trout bite steady from 1:30 to 3:45 pm. We released 15 keeper trout and gave 10 away to a fellow that was fishing from the bank. All in all we had a very successful day considering the wind.

11/11/2006

Capt. Rick had a rare chance to scout for new locations alone today. Started by catching bait and had a couple quarts by 9:15 am. Got to first and only drop of the day. Water clarity was great, water temp was 61°. Wind was out of the southwest at about 5 knots.

Started catching immediatly and it was non stop until I stopped. Kept 15 trout and released quite a few keepers. Tried out some new terminal tackle and rigs. Caught 10 on traditional floats on my baitcaster and the remainder on a quantum Cabo Spinner. Beautiful day on the water.

11/08/2006

Capt. Rick had a charter for Miss Judy Charters today. This day was again windy and we did experience the astronomical tides. 10.1 high tide in Thunderbolt. The water was starting out of the grass on the last hour of this charter and we ended the day with 6 keeper trout and 3 lost at the boat. This was part of a 4 boat charter. My boat and 1 other kept 6 trout each, and the 3 rd boat kept 2 . The forth boat caught some trout and 2 reds, but practiced catch and release. Not bad considering the 15 - 20 west wind and 10 foot tides. I would like to say we catch a lot of fish every trip but as you can see the last three were not that good. However Thunderboltcharters. reports the bad as well as the good.

11/04/2006

Capt. Rick had a charter for Miss Judy Charters today. This day was not quite as windy, but most of the previous days conditions remained. We did find some clear water and my 2 anglers today were prepared for the crummy weather and were more experienced anglers. They made the very best out of bad conditions and brought in 6 or 7 keeper trout.

11/03/2006

What a difference a day makes. A cold front moved in with winds gusting to 35 knots. Capt. Rick had a charter for Miss Judy Charters today. It was 4 young guys who showed up in short pants and short sleeve shirts. After bundling then up with all my extra on board assortment of gear we tried to find some clear water but was unsuccessful. They missed a few bites, but they had very few bites to miss. Bottom line is this was the first charter of the year that went fishless. Didn't catch a thing. Water was dirty and the temp was in the low 60's . Wind steady 25 out of the north west with building high tides. No fish and no pictures.

11/02/2006

Capt. Jeremy showed Capt Rick some new areas today. Capt Rick has 2 charters coming up and was looking for a different area. We proceeded to catch 40 trout but kept 15 nice ones. Water temp was 65.2° and clear. Air temp was in the low 80's. A beautiful day on the water spent with my son. He out caught me 3 to 1 today and we released quite a few keepers. Jeremy caught the bait, some which we saved to eat as they were prawn size. He showed his dad a couple great new spots.

10/31/2006

Capt. Jeremy did some scouting and found some new spots. Water temp was 64.4° and clear. Jeremy caught his own bait and kept 6 nice trout for supper.

10/27/2006 and 10/28/2006

Capt. Rick had a 2 charters cancelled due to foul weather. The weather was not the best but Rick scouted and released trout on 10.27.2006. Capt Rick fished with Capt. Jeremy all day on 10.28.2006.

Water temp was 64.4° and stained. Wind was out of the Southwest at 25 knots all day long. It did not rain as predicted and the Trout didn't know the weather was bad. Final tally for the day was around 40 fish caught and most released . We did keep 13 Seatrout for a couple meals. All in all a great day on the water and time well spent with my son. We fished with traditional rigs as well as popping corks. Bait of choice today was live shrimp and Mud Minnows

10/26/2006

Capt. Jeremy was part of a group charter for Capt. Matt Starling. This was a 3.5 hour charter and they caught and released Black Drum and Sea trout and Blue fish.

10/21/2006

Capt. Rick had a charter for Miss Judy Charters today. Tides were odl. This was an 4 hour 4 person charter. Water temp was in the low 69° and stained. My party caught and released everything today. This include 2 bonnet head sharks to 3 foot and 6 specks. I did not take any pictures today.

10/20/2006

Capt. Rick had a charter for Miss Judy Charters today. Tides were very beautiful. This was an 6 hour 4 person charter. Water temp was in the low 69° and clear but became stained. Tides were gentle but the wind was howling at 15 to 20 knots out of the north west. Still a very nice day on the water. We started at 7:45 am and fished the outgoing.

When I pulled up to the dock I was greeted with these fine anglers that I had taken earlier in the year. Below them is the final fish that we kept for the day, 1 flounder , 2 redfish and 7 nice size trout. Lost 3 or 4 good trout at the boat. A fine day on the water!

10/17/2006

Capt. Jeremy scouted for Miss Judy Charters today. The Water temp was 68°. Water was dirty, wind was blowing about 20 knots out in Wassaw Sound. Capt.Jeremy or Capt. Natural, was able to boat 13 keeper trout and 2 redfish for a couple meals. He released quite a few more. All in all a fun day of fishing and looking for Fall Trout.

10/15/2006

Capt. Jeremy had a charter for Miss Judy Charters today. The Water temp was 68°. Water Clarity was clear. This was a 4 hour 3 person charter, however it changed to a 6 hr. charter due to the fact that they were catching a lot of trout.

Final catch for the day was 19 trout, 1 flounder, and 1 redfish. Multiple trout were missed and lost before getting to the boat. This was a very good charter. The day started at low tide and Jeremy put them on some nice flounder, however one was lost at the boat. Next came the Redfish, then the trout.

10/14/2006

Capt. Rick had a charter for Miss Judy Charters today. Tides were very beautiful. This was an 5 hour 3 person charter. Water temp was in the low 68° and stained. Tides were gentle but the wind was howling at 15 to 20 knots out of the north west. Still a very nice day on the water. We started at 8 am and fished the last 45 minutes of the outgoing and 5 hours of the incoming.

This was the same group I had for 8 hours yesterday . We caught some fish but not as many. Final tally was 2 flounder ( 4lb ) and (6lb) . Also 1 keeper slot Redfish and 1 keeper trout. Threw back some short fish and released a bonnet head shark as well as a frisky ladyfish and a keeper size blue fish.

10/13/2006

Capt. Rick had a charter for Miss Judy Charters today. Tides were very beautiful. This was an 8 hour 3 person charter. Water temp was in the low 70's and crystal clear. Tides were gentle and the wind was mild. Beautiful day on the water.

My 3 guys were excellent anglers and they were able to cooperate and coordinate very well among themselves. Final tally was 15 Keeper trout , 5 keeper redfish and 1 nice flounder. Several trout were borderline but were released as well as a couple redfish as well. We did catch and release a bluefish and a few yellowtails.

We had a huge manatee swim pretty close to the boat as well. I did have a redfish sling the hook through his mouth after being netted and embed the nbr 3 kahle hook in my calf past the barb. I successfully pushed it on thru an cut the barb off . Shank of hook easily slid on out. Back at the dock while I was cleaning fish, the cleaner next to me dropped his rather large filet knife off the table and it easily went thru my trusty croks and imbed itself in the top of my foot. I put trout slime on both wounds and the pain and blood ended quickly. All in all a very successful day on the water just before the cold front pushes in.

10/08/2006

Capt. Rick had a charter for Miss Judy Charters today. Tides were very high again. This was a 4 hour 4 person charter. The air temp was warmer than yesterday and the wind had layed down alot. Trout were biteing quit well , but not all were hooked and landed. We did manage 3 keeepers that we caught in the Salt Pond area of Wassaw Sound. Water temp was 73° and falling. The group caught and released a couple more trout and 4 or 5 blue fish. Below is a group picture holding 1 of the trout.

10/07/2006

Capt. Rick had a charter for Miss Judy Charters today. Tides were again astronomical! + 10.5 foot tides in Thunderbolt. We did not do so well as the wind was 20 - 25 knots out of the northeast. Water clarity was dirty. Water temp was 75° and falling. Air temp was a brisk 54 ° in the morning. This was another 8 hour 4 person charter. I did not bring the camera and it was not needed as we caught 1 keeper trout and 1 keeper croaker.

10/06/2006

Capt. Rick had a charter for Miss Judy Charters today. Tides were astronomical! + 10.5 foot tides in Thunderbolt. Anyway Rick was part of a group charter. Considering the high tides and building winds we did ok. Kept (5) Redfish, (4) seatrout (1) flounder and (1) whiting . Water temp was stained to dirty due to the high tides. Water temp continues to drop as we approach what looks like a record fall trout and redfish run. Below is a picture of some of the people in the charter and their Catch. This was an 8 hour, 4 person charter.

10/03/2006

Capt. Jeremy had a charter for Miss Judy Charters today. The Water temp was 75°. Water Clarity was stained. This was a 4 hour 3 person charter. Our group caught an assortment of fish with the largest being a 32 inch redfish. We caught bluefish and some short trout and a few redfish. All fish were released. Below is a picture of the largest redfish.

10/01/2006 and 10/02/2006

I had back to back charters for Miss Judy Charters . Water temp was 76°. Water Clarity was stained. Both days the wind was steep out of the North east. Water was dirty. Caught an assortment of needle fish, blowfish, stingrays and sharks with a couple smaller redfish and trout. Both these trips started out in Wassaw sound and ended up inshore. Noticed fish on the move , but could not get any quality bites.