Fishing Report

The number of reports was way down with the heat and school starting back everywhere.

River gauges Thursday, August 22 were:

• Clyo on the Savannah River – 5.1 feet and falling

• Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 1.4 feet and rising

• Doctortown on the Altamaha – reading not available

• Waycross on the Satilla – 10.0 feet and falling

• Atkinson on the Satilla – 12.6 feet and falling

• Statenville on the Alapaha – 5.7 feet and falling

• Macclenny on the St Marys – 9.1 feet and rising

• Fargo on the Suwannee – 12.7 feet and falling

Okefenokee Swamp – The fish are still spread out into the prairies with the high water. You might luck out into a few fish, especially in the boat basins on either side, but I’m not fishing there this week.

The most recent water level (Folkston side) was 121.73 feet.

Local Ponds – Chad Lee fooled two bass (about two pounds apiece) during his lunch break by flinging Senkos along the shoreline.

Jimmy Zinker had a slow week of trophy bass fishing. He flung Jitterbugs and buzzbaits at night and hooked two big fish, but lost them both on the way to the boat. That is trophy fishing – he would have had some awesome photos if he would have landed either of those fish.

In trophy fishing, you don’t get many opportunities, but when it comes together you have something special at the end of the trip.

Altamaha/Ocmulgee River – These are the rivers to spend your time this week if you want to fish a river.

I saw the upper Altamaha and it was in good shape and just a little stained. Expect to weave around sandbars on both rivers. Rocks will be plentiful in the Ocmulgee.

The bass and panfishing should be good as the extreme heat moderates somewhat this week.

Dodge County Public Fishing Area (near Eastman) – Ken Burke fished the area and caught three bass with a total weight of five pounds. I didn’t ask him, but he usually catches his fish on crankbaits or shaky head worms.

Saltwater (Ga./North Florida Coast) – Several folks checked their tarpon areas where they were catching them before Hurricane Debby, and a few found their fish, but most did not see anything.

The better reports came from folks fishing south of Brunswick, but they were only seeing a few fish.

Capt. Greg Hildreth was catching some good trout before this week’s big tides.

There was a decent early topwater bite for big trout, as well. He expects the bite to pick up again after the tides subside.

Capt. Cody Baker of Top Hook Charters of Fernandina put Tom and Thomas on some decent redfish, jack crevalle, bluefish and a flounder while fishing inshore. They were using live Keaton Beach, Fla. – I fished with Capt. Pat McGriff of One More Cast Guide Service and we caught a bunch of trout.

I fished live pinfish under a Back Bay Thunder Float all day (first time I’ve ever not cast artificials) and had fun. We ended up catching 32 trout (13 keepers - kept our limit of 10) with the biggest just under 19 inches.

We had a 27-inch redfish, four sharks and a few gafftop sailcats and ladyfish mixed in with the trout. Pat cast some candy corn Assassin plastics pinned to a Zombie Eye Jighead and caught a few fish, but we used live bait most of the trip.

We caught fish both north and south, and areas that were blown out with blackwater from the rivers just a few days before were fishable again. The best depth was from 6 1/2 to 7 feet.

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.