We just thought evening pop-up thunderstorms could blow out a river. And they can!
But, a tropical storm that spins and rains for three days isn’t even in the same ballpark as scattered thunderstorms.
The gages on the lower end of all the coastal plain rivers in southeast Georgia were record high flows for the date Thursday (August 8).
The rains making their way down the southeast Georgia rivers will blow them out for weeks.
Ponds and lakes and saltwater (where there is not a huge freshwater inflow) will be the places to fish this week.
River gauges Thursday, August 8 were:
• Clyo on the Savannah River – 13.3 feet and rising
• Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 8.1 feet and falling
• Doctortown on the Altamaha – 12.6 feet and rising
• Waycross on the Satilla – 17.9 feet and rising
• Atkinson on the Satilla – 16.2 feet and rising
• Statenville on the Alapaha – 24.3 feet and rising
• Macclenny on the St Marys – 19.1 feet and falling
• Fargo on the Suwannee – 13.1 feet and rising
Altamaha/Ocmulgee River – This river system might actually be in decent shape once the local rains work their way downstream after the this week.
Once this happens, the lesser flows from upcountry (where they did not get significant rains) will be the main flow. For this week don’t bother unless you want to catch catfish.
Okefenokee Swamp – The bite was good until last week. Expect it to all shut down as the fish are spread out into the newlyflooded prairies.
The most recent water level (Folkston side) was 121.97 feet (the water is up over the docks in the boat basin at the refuge).
Local Ponds – A couple of anglers reported fishing a pond after church. They caught 10 bass on topwater plastics. Most were 1-1 1/2 pounds, but they had a sixpounder – the biggest I heard of caught in our area last week.
Joshua Barber fished several ponds and had some good trips. He fished one pond and fooled three bass up to 3 1/4 pounds on bubblegum floating worms. A day later he fooled three bass and a crappie with live minnows in a local pond.
Jimmy Zinker fished some midwest U.S. lakes last week and caught 14 bass up to 6-lb., 14-oz. while getting over 50 bites on topwaters at night.
Since he returned home he’s been fishing local lakes and has been catching a lot of small fish – most with a Jitterbug. The big fish were not eating his baits this week.
Saltwater (Ga. Coast) – The tarpon bite was really good before the storm all along our coast, but the slugs of water and bait moving around will reset the nomadic fish.
Expect the fresh water to push them out closer to the sounds, if not into the ocean again.
To monitor all the Georgia river levels, visit the USGS website (waterdata. usgs.gov/ga/nwis/rt) . For the latest marine forecast, check out www.weather.gov/jax/.
Capt. Bert Deener guides fishing trips in the Okefenokee Swamp and other southeast Georgia systems and makes a variety of both fresh and saltwater fishing lures. Check his lures out at Bert’s Jigs and Things on Facebook. For a copy of his latest catalog, you can download it from his website at bertsjigsandthings. com or e-mail him (bertdeener@ yahoo.com).
