I hope that each of you had a safe New Year. The bites all over southeast Georgia and north Florida have been really good.
Crappie, seatrout, bass, and bowfin have been tops from the folks I’ve talked with.
River gauges Thursday, January 2 were:
• Clyo on the Savannah River – 5.3 feet and rising
• Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 6.1 feet and rising
• Doctortown on the Altamaha – 8.4 feet and rising
• Waycross on the Satilla – 9.2 feet and rising
• Atkinson on the Satilla – 6.8 feet and rising
• Statenville on the Alapaha – 5.8 feet and falling
• Macclenny on the St Marys – 2.8 feet and steady
• Fargo on the Suwannee – 3.7 feet and falling
Satilla River – The river is fishable and the bass and crappie have been biting.
I saw photos of some good catches from all areas of the river, and the biggest crappie I heard of was 1.55 pounds. Oxbow lakes have produced the most fish.
Blake Edwards and Charlie Carter fished the lower river and caught 19 total fish in about four hours. They used minnows on jigheads and under floats and caught a dozen crappie, a bass, a chain pickerel (jackfish), and five bowfin (mudfish).
Michael Deen ushered in the new year in the upper river and caught seven bass (all keeper sized) up to about two pounds by flinging some custom Capt. Bert’s spinnerbaits.
St. Marys River – Dale and Emma Anderson got on the crappie in the St. Marys River. It was chilly and windy, but the fish were chewing artificials – mostly plastics on jigheads.
They had a total of 21 crappie with five over a pound. They also had a few bluegills and redbreasts.
Okefenokee Swamp – Jason, Jaxon and Nathan paddled and camped several nights and caught fliers, pickerel, and bowfin.
They fooled the fliers with sallies and bowfin and pickerel with Dura-Spins (color didn’t matter – they ate all the colors they threw). Their best day they caught around 30 bowfin (biggest was about seven pounds) and several pickerel (biggest 22 inches).
I had the pleasure of taking Glen and Rose (from Alaska) fishing on the west side. I caught two fliers in just a few pitches with pink sallies just in case we needed some fresh cut bait.
We did not need them, as they stayed hooked up with bowfin almost the whole four hours by trolling Dura-Spins (crawfish-orange blade was the ticket, but we caught a few on lemon-lime) and casting 1/16oz. Mirage Jigs tipped with dead minnows. They caught 55 bowfin, and their biggest was 5-lb., 3-oz. If they went a minute without a bite we were musing Staff at Okefenokee Adventures on the east side said that folks fishing in the canal and boat basin have been catching a bunch of bowfin and also some nice pickerel by casting lures.
The most recent water level (Folkston side) was 120.80 feet (it’s been stable around that reading for almost a month).
Local Ponds – Chad Lee finally fished again after repairing hurricane damage and had fun for about a half-hour.
He fooled three bass, a bluegill and a crappie on his goto 1/32-oz. Zombie Eye Jighead and chartreuse Assassin Tiny Shad.
Joshua Barber fished a Manor-area pond and caught 20 bass (about six or sevej were keeper-sized), four crappie and three fliers. He fooled them with 1/16-oz. Mirage Jigs tipped with minnows.
Saltwater (Ga. Coast) – Cason and Pat Kinstle whacked the trout in the Brunswick area. Cason threw paddle-tail plastics on Zombie Eye Jigheads for all of his fish.
A couple different anglers struggled inshore. One group caught six keeper trout all day and the other had five trout (tjree keepers).
Mattie fished with her dad, Teddy, and caught a bunch of trout in the Brunswick area. They ended up catching 30 trout on Keitechs. Mattie actually found them by casting to the middle of the creek while Teddy cast near the good looking cover.
Capt. Duane Harris fished with Whitey Hunt in the Brunswick area and caught five redfish and two trout before the water got too low and they had to get out. Live and dead shrimp have worked great for him this winter.
Stan Rhodes and Eddie Wade fished the Cumberland Island area and caught some nice reds and trout. They fooled eight keeper redfish and a big sheepshead with live shrimp and fiddler crabs. They also had a dozen short trout and some short black drum and sheepshead.
Capt. Chris Ruff is catching his fish up the creeks. Live shrimp and mudminnows worked best for him this week. The trout have been biting at various depths, while the reds have been chewing in the shallows around low tide and the early incoming.
Capt. Tim Cutting had two great days. They had lots of slot reds both days. All of their fish the first day were on live shrimp under Harper Super Striker Floats while the second day they used Fourseven plastics (Christmas tree) and Gotcha grubs.
