I hope that each of you is having a wonderful Christmas season! It’s been good fishing this week for the few who reported.
River guages Thursday, December 19 were:
• Clyo on the Savannah River – 7.9 feet and rising
• Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 11.1 feet and falling
• Doctortown on the Altamaha – 9.1 feet and rising
• Waycross on the Satilla – 9.5 feet and rising
• Atkinson on the Satilla – 6.1 feet and falling
• Statenville on the Alapaha – 4.8 feet and rising
• Macclenny on the St Marys – 2.7 feet and falling
• Fargo on the Suwannee – 3.5 feet and falling
Altamaha River – The crappie bite was fantastic before the rains from up-country hit.
Brentz McGhin and I fished together in the lower river and caught a bunch of fish. We had about two dozen – mostly crappie. Our biggest crappie was 1 1/4 pounds.
We caught half of them on a 1/16oz. Mirage Jig tipped with a minnow and half on a 1/32-oz. Tennessee Shad Specktacular Jig worked slowly.
Jamie Hodge fished the lower river and caught a couple dozen really nice crappie up to 1-lb., 10-oz. He spider-rigged minnows for his fish. The river rose all week and is at the edge of the floodplain again.
Satilla River – Blake Edwards fished with me in the lower river. We caught a total of 54 fish of nine different species.
Almost everything bit on a 1/16oz. Mirage Jig tipped with a minnow, but I caught a couple on a 1/32-oz. Tennessee shad Spectacular Jig. The fish were scattered but active.
We didn’t get on any concentrations of fish, but caught one here and one there the whole trip. Our biggest crappie was 1-lb., 3-oz. and our biggest warmouth was 3/4 pound.
Savannah River – Mark Vick and Daniel Rhodes fished the river and had some great trips.
The crappie, bass, bluegill, and flier were eating the usual Satilla Spin colors and Warmouth Whacker Jigs (bumblebee and crawfish) tipped with Garland tadpoles or minnows. They ended up keeping 19 for a meal.
During just a few hours the second day they found a good crappie bite deep in 15 to 18 feet of water and caught 30 crappie and two big fliers on Tennessee shad Spectacular Jigs tipped with minnows. They left them biting!
Okefenokee Swamp – Joshua Barber fished some northern tributaries to the Okefenokee and caught a half-dozen bowfin on shiners and a warmouth and three fliers on worms.
The most recent water level (Folkston side) was 120.94 feet.
Local Ponds – Jay and Mason Turner fished a Bulloch County pond and fooled several dozen crappie up to two pounds with Keitechs, Sliders, and Rat-L-traps. Mason had one that measured 16 inches.
Joshua Barber fished a Manor area pond and fooled six crappie, two small bass, and a warmouth on a Flashy Jigheads rigged with chartreuse back pearl 2-inch Keitech swimbaits and Gulp minnows and a couple on live minnows.
Orange Lake (Fla.) – Shane and Joshua Barber fished the lake this week and caught a dozen bass up to 2 1/2 pounds by flinging plastic worms and swimbaits and caught a few on live bait.
St. John’s River (Astor, Fla.)/Crescent Lake – I received two really good reports for crappie. An angler caught several dozen nice slabs up to 2 1/2 pounds by fishing in the main river.
Saltwater (Ga. Coast) – Tommy Sweeney and Scotty Steedley fished the Brunswick area and caught over 40 trout (kept 16).
Most of their fish were in the 12 to 15 foot depth range. Zombie Eye Jigheads rigged with various plastics worked best for them. The smaller Keitechs with silver flake in them seemed to work the best.
Tommy fished the Jekyll Island Pier and caught a dozen trout in the 15 to 17-inch range by casting black/chartreuse tail Assassin Sea Shads rigged on Zombie Eye Jigheads around the shallow areas.
Capt. Tim Cutting only fished for a few hours on one trip. He caught 15 trout with half of them being keepers. A sheepshead latched onto his plastic, also.
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]).
