The fish are starting to move out of their summer patterns and move around more. It can be good and bad. It’s good because they feed better than in their mid-summer mode, but it’s sometimes hard to find them in the fall.
River gauges Thursday, August 29 were:
• Clyo on the Savannah River - 4.4 feet and falling
• Abbeville on the Ocmulgee - 0.7 feet and falling
• Doctortown on the Altamaha - 4.7 feet and falling
• Waycross on the Satilla - 7.9 feet and falling
• Atkinson on the Satilla - 9.9 feet and falling
• Statenville on the Alapaha - 4.1 feet and falling
• Macclenny on the St Marys - 7.8 feet and falling
• Fargo on the Suwannee - 11.5 feet and falling
Satilla River - Seth Carter and Luke Steedley fished the upper river for a couple hours and got a few bass to eat buzzbaits. They didn’t have anything big.
Altamaha/Ocmulgee River - My prediction last week about the Ocmulgee was correct — the bass bite was good on that river.
Don Harrison and Scott Robinson fished with me.
We caught and released 22 largemouth bass and three bowfin. Our three biggest bass were between 4.29 and 4.56 pounds. The only fish caught on a moving bait was a 4.29-pounder that ate a blue shad (white blade) Dura-Spin.
Everything else was on a Texas-rigged plastic worm, and junebug was the color of the day. I tried to force-feed them green pumpkin in the clearer water (about two feet visibility), but they were not having it. By the time Scott landed the first half-dozen bass on junebug, both Don and I switched and started putting them in the boat also.
Bill Stewart and Ronnie Music fished the lower Altamaha River and said conditions were not bad, but their bites were few and far between. They landed seven bass up to 14 inches (had several keepers but released them).
A blue Texas-rigged worm was the best, and they could not get them to hit a black or chartreuse worm. They said the visibility was about 18 inches.
Ogeechee River - Dan Clary and Daniel Mc-Nair of Brooklet fished the river hard pitching crickets under floats, rooster tails, and spinners but couldn’t get them to eat.
Daniel had the idea to back off and fish the deeper holes on the bottom with a Carolina-rig, and it worked. Red wigglers on the bottom are what the fish wanted. They ended up keeping 20 redbreasts and bluegills and an eating-sized catfish.
They had two giant panfish and the rest were average sized.
Okefenokee Swamp
- The water is still high and the fish spread out, but it is dropping.
A few fish were caught in the boat basins on both sides, but you will have to work for them. The most recent water level (Folkston side) was 121.67 feet.
Hugh M. Gillis Public Fishing Area (near Dublin) - Ken Burke had a great day catching 10 fish for 16 1/2 pounds, with his big fish weighing 3 1/4pounds. He lost another five fish that were about average size for the day.
He caught his fish on crankbaits and shaky-head worms. Most of his bites were in the first few hours of fishing in the early morning. The water temperature was 87 degrees by noon.
Local Ponds - Surprisingly, none of my buddies who frequent ponds in southeast Georgia fished last week.
I expect a decent bass bite early and late around shoreline cover, and you will probably have to fish offshore around cover (if your favorite pond has any) for the bigger panfish.
You might be able to get a big bluegill to suck down a glow-bug at night if you have access to a blackwater cypress pond.
Saltwater (Ga.
Coast) - Several folks told me the tarpon are starting to show back up in their pre-Debby locations inshore, but not in as big of numbers as before the storm.
Capt. Greg Hildreth said the trout bite has been very good. They are catching lots of numbers, but not a ton of keepers.
A couple of friends fished the Brunswick backwaters and caught five redfish on artificials.
They had thgree small fish and two oversized brutes (28 and 30 1/2 inches).
They said there was a ton of bait in the creeks.
Capt. Tim Cutting had some great trips last week for flounder, trout and redfish. He used artificials all week, except when he was bull redfishing.
They targeted flounder and caught two dozen good flatties over the first two days of the week. They fooled a half-dozen keeper trout and keeper reds.
Bbull redfishing was in the middle of the weekwith bait on the bottom.
They caught six nice ones.
As a bonus, they found a dozen flounder on the way in.
They caught mostly short trout and reds the next day. They had a handful of keeper trout and reds.
To monitor all the Georgia river levels, visit the USGS website (waterdata. usgs.gov/ ga/nwis/rt). http://www.weather.gov/jax/
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 email him (bertdeener @yahoo .com).
Scott Robinson caught this 4.47pound largemouth bass on the Ocmulgee River. He was pitching a Texas-rigged junebug plastic worm. SPECIAL PHOTO
