I didn’t get many reports from freshwater, but the saltwater reports were fantastic. The Okefenokee, St Marys River, ponds, and saltwater are the places to fish right now.
River gauges Thursday, October 17 were:
• Clyo on the Savannah River – 6.5 feet and falling
• Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 4.0 feet and steady
• Doctortown on the Altamaha – 10.0 feet and falling
• Waycross on the Satilla – 10.7 feet and falling
• Atkinson on the Satilla – 11.7 feet and falling
• Statenville on the Alapaha – 12.9 feet and falling
• Macclenny on the St Marys – 4.2 feet and falling
• Fargo on the Suwannee – 7.3 feet and falling
Satilla River – I fished the extreme lower Satilla for striped bass. I got a nice one to eat a 3-inch chartreuse pearl Keitech swimbait on an 1/8-oz. Zombie Eye Jighead, but it shook its head, stripped off drag, and made a run around the cover before breaking me off.
Another angler putting shrimp on the bottom caught some nice white catfish. He said he caught an 8-pound keeper striped bass the previous evening. So, there are some nice stripers around in the lower rivers right now.
Okefenokee Swamp – The Okefenokee entrances are all open after being closed around Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
There are very few trees down. I was able to check the east side (Folkston entrance) with my wife, Teresa. It basically looked exactly the same as before Hurricane Helene – we were shocked!
We mostly just rode around, but we fished for about an hour. We trolled the canal and fooled five bowfin to four pounds with fire tiger-chartreuse blade and lemon-lime Dura-Spins.
We anchored up and cast cut flier on one of my new prototype weedless hooks and caught the biggest of the day – a 5pounder.
The flowers are getting spectacular, as usual in October.
The most recent water level (Folkston side) was 121.36 feet.
Local Ponds – I didn’t receive any reports from pond anglers. These cooler temperatures should get the crappie chewing!
Saltwater (Ga. Coast) – Saltwater fishing has been great on the days folks could get out.
Blake Edwards and I fished out of our own boats, but near each other. We did pretty well for trout first thing, catching about 20 of the specks on perch-colored 3.5-inch Keitechs rigged on 3/16-oz. Zombie Eye Jigheads and suspended underneath Equalizer Floats. Our biggest was 18 inches, and we caught about two throwbacks for each keeper.
We switched to targeting redfish once the tide got off the shells. We slammed them pretty good. We had about two dozen of the spottails – mostly by pitching live shrimp on Redfish Wrecker Jigheads (both 3/16-oz., 3/0 and 3/8-oz., 5/0 models).
Blake had a couple bait-stealers peck the live shrimp and get it, so he threaded a tougher Gulp shrimp on the hook and got a couple redfish to take it. After I ran out of shrimp, I bounced rootbeer 4-inch Keitech swimbaits on a 1/4-oz. Zombie Eye Jighead on the bottom and caught a half-dozen oversized fish.
Along the way, Blake fooled a big 20inch class flounder which jumped out of the net and got away. We also had three big black drum that were invited to a fish fry in Waycross. It was an awesome trip. Blake caught, tagged, and released his personal best redfish – a 26-incher.
Seth Carter fished the Brunswick area and caught at least 40 trout (mostly shorts).
Brandon and Richard Young fished the Brunswick area and hammered the trout and redfish catching over 100 fish (released most of them) in a three-hour span. Their biggest redfish was a 29inch bull, and they also had a 30-inch class black drum come off right at the boat.
They caught their fish on live shrimp under a popping cork and rootbeerchartreuse paddle tails on 1/4-oz. jigheads (after they ran out of shrimp).
Capt. Tim Cutting said the bite was off the chain. They used Rapala X-Raps and Fourseven Lures plastics (agitator color) to fool over 100 fish total. The bite slowed the next day, but they still had one limit of trout and 20 slot reds along with a couple bull reds.
Capt. Greg Hildreth said he’s been crushing the bull redfish. He fished for trout one day and caught 35 (16 keepers) on live shrimp under Harper Super Striker Floats.
Shrimp have been moving a bunch toward the sounds with this cooler weather. Flounder have been lower in numbers, but huge in size.
One angler targeting flatties reported catching three over 23 inches on live bait. The bite on the St. Simons Pier has been hit-and-miss.
Ed Zmarzly caught a doormat 7.3pound flounder from the pier before the hurricanes.
Ed took his young nephews fishing on the pier and they caught big bull redfish just about as big as they were.
Lots of redfish have been caught from other piers, and a few sheepshead and black drum have been lurking, as well.
Last quarter moon is Thursday, October 24. 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 ([email protected]).
