I hope that each of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We have so much for which to be thankful.
Saltwater fishing was off the chain last week. This cold front will slow the bite for a couple of days, but once it stabilizes, the winter bite should be on.
River gauges Thursday, November 28 were:
• Clyo on the Savannah River – 8.4 feet and falling
• Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 2.4 feet and rising
• Doctortown on the Altamaha – 8.1 feet and falling
• Waycross on the Satilla – 10.2 feet and falling
• Atkinson on the Satilla – 10.0 feet and falling
• Statenville on the Alapaha – 6.7 feet and falling
• Macclenny on the St Marys – 2.7 feet and falling
• Fargo on the Suwannee – 3.9 feet and falling
• Okefenokee Swamp – The water is in good shape, and the bite has been good.
Christina and Steve were over from Australia visiting family for the holidays and went fishing with me two days before Thanksgiving.
It was a trip of firsts, as they saw their first pair of Florida sandhill cranes and Steve caught his first bowfin and pickerel. The bite started very slowly, but picked up as the afternoon progressed.
We tried both cut bait and trolling, and trolling was the ticket. Three pickerel up to 18 inches and a dozen bowfin up to 3 1/2 pounds ate our offerings. Our best color Dura-Spin was black-brass blade during the cloudy times, but we caught a couple fish on fire tiger-chartreuse blade, as well.
Joshua Barber fished a small creek near the swamp and got on about a dozen warmouth on a chartreuse 2-inch Keitech swimbait.
The most recent water level (Folkston side) was 121.06 feet.
• Savannah River – Charlotte had been trying to get her dad, Mark, to take her to the river for awhile. They fished some deep oxbow areas with Warmouth Whacker Jigs (rubber tail) and Specktacular Jigs (tinsel tail) and put it on the crappie. They had some fish up to a pound and even a big flier.
Saltwater (Ga. coast) – With improving tides and winds, the trout and redfish bites were excellent. It was the kind of bite that has cemented November as my overall favorite inshore trout fishing month.
Brandon Young and Bud Crews fought the cold and windy conditions and fished the creeks in the Brunswick area. They’re glad they did.
They caught around 50 redfish and two trout. All the reds were slot fish except five oversized reds in the 26-27-inch range. The reds were schooled up chasing shrimp around the flats and creeks.
They threw live shrimp under popping corks and stayed with the schools. Then they found them in a deep hole and it didn’t matter what they threw. They smashed them on both shrimp and artificials.
I went twice this week. The approaches were totally opposite, but the results were very similar. Paul Williamson fished with me in the Brunswick River.
We tail-hooked live shrimp on a Capt. Bert’s Shrimp Hook and fished them along the bottom the whole time. I used the 1/8oz. version, and Paul worked the 1/4-oz. hook.
We had redfish, black sea bass, weakfish and spotted seatrout in the mix. All of the weakfish were over 16 inches and up to 19 inches (you can only keep one weakfish per person).
Our two biggest spotted seatrout were 18 1/2 and 21 inches. The neatest catch of the day was a 17-inch snook inhaling my shrimp. That was my first one in Georgia, and I released it after a photo.
I fished with Capt. Teddy Elrod in the Brunswick area. We fished artificials exclusively and released everything. We started with Teddy catching an oversized redfish and 16inch flounder on Keitech 3.8 swimbaits and me catching a half-dozen trout up to 17 inches on a 3 1/2inch Keitech under an Equalizer Float.
We got on three good schools of trout during the six-hour trip. We ended up catching trout, three redfish, a flounder and three bluefish.
The best setup was swimming an 1/8-oz. Zombie Eye Jighead (chartreuse with a pearl eye) and 3 1/2-inch Keitech Swing Impacts. We fooled them best with smoke-silver flake, perch, bluegill flash, and blue/chartreuse.
Emma fished with her dad in the Brunswick area and had a great redfish trip. They fooled 18 reds and a trout with 3.8-inch Keitech swimbaits and Gulp swimming minnows.
Seth Carter and friends had a couple stellar trips catching a box of redfish one day and a bunch of trout the other trip to the Brunswick area. DOA shrimp, Gulp shrimp, and plastics produced their fish.
Charles Sweat and Joey Whitaker put it on the trout in the St Marys area. They flung plastics rigged on a Zombie Eye Jighead to load the fish cleaning table with a limit of trout and a nice flounder.
Tommy Sweeney and Scotty Steedley came in third in the Hickory Bluff Trout Tournament. They caught over 70 keeper trout during the day. About 30 of them ate live shrimp and the rest ate plastics on Zombie Eye Jigheads.
Their biggest trout was 19 inches, and their three biggest (under 18 inches) weighed 5.62 pounds. The winner had 6.02 pounds.
Jay Turner and his partner, Gerald Riner, fished a tournament in the Savannah area and came in third. They caught so many fish it was silly.
Gerald used mostly shrimp while Jay flung Keitechs on a 1/4-oz. black Zombie Eye Jighead. They had a nice flounder and redfish to weigh in, and they had trout up to 23 inches.
To monitor all the Georgia river levels, visit the USGS website (waterdata.usgs.gov/ga/n wis/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.
