We just thought last week was cold. This week’s snow and ice storm was crazy.
The bite beforehand was very good most places, and some folks even found them after the storm. Fish are catchable, but lethargic.
River gauges Thursday, January 23 were:
• Clyo on the Savannah River – 6.4 feet and rising
• Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 6.1 feet and rising
• Doctortown on the Altamaha – 8.5 feet and rising
• Waycross on the Satilla – 10.1 feet and rising
• Atkinson on the Satilla – 7.8 feet and rising
• Statenville on the Alapaha – 7.0 feet and rising
• Macclenny on the St Marys – 10.4 feet and rising
• Fargo on the Suwannee – 6.7 feet and rising
Satilla River – Rusty Foshee fished with me for a few hours on the lower river.
We caught 39 total fish including a 4-pound bowfin, a channel catfish and white catfish, three crappie, and warmouth. Most of the warmouth were really nice fish over eight inches and up to nine inches.
Water temperatures were really cold – 43-45 degrees, and the fish were lethargic. We had to work the baits right around the bottom, and the best presentation was a 1/16-oz. Mirage Jig tipped with a minnow or worm (the minnows fooled the biggest fish). It was a blast catching those nice fish on ultralight gear.
Savannah River – Mark Vick and Thomas Carroll fished for two hours and whacked the crappie.
They pitched popsicle and Tennessee shad Specktacular Jigs tipped with minnows for 28 crappie and a dozen big fliers. They kept 12 of the slabs for supper.
The fish were deep – in 16 to 19 feet of water, and the water temperature that day was 44 degrees.
St. Marys River – Randy Hanson fished the middle St. Marys and caught some channel catfish, crappie, and bowfin (up to five pounds). They ate minnows fished on the bottom.
I got a report of an angler fishing the middle St. Marys catching a good mess of crappie from the deep holes. There were also a few redbreasts mixed in his creel. He was casting Crappie Assassin plastics.
– Bobby and Hadrian fished with me before the front came through.
We trolled Dura-Spins the first couple of hours and had very little success. We staked out and bottom fished with 1/16-oz. Mirage Jigs tipped with dead minnows and cut bait rigged on 1/16-oz. Shrimp Hooks (3/0 hook) in several places, and that was the ticket.
The fish did not want to chase a spinner, but they ate the slowly presented baits. Hadrian and Bobby ended up catching 21 bowfin and a chain pickerel (jackfish).
Hadrian had a bowfin big enough to earn him a youth angler award from the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division.
Matt Rouse fished the east side boat basin after work and fooled a nice bowfin and pickerel by casting a black/chartreuse Dura-Spin for about 10 minutes.
The most recent water level (Folkston side) was 120.80 feet.
Paradise Public Fishing Area (near Tifton) – The big crappie have started biting for anglers fishing from the Lake Patrick Pier.
Lamar Green from Alapaha fished the area this week and caught some slabs. His biggest was 2lb., 5-oz. and it ate a minnow.
Local Ponds – Jay Turner and his son, Drew, fished a Savannah area pond after the snow ended. They caught several nice crappie in the 10to 11-inch range on 3-inch Keitech swimbaits and Zombie Eye Jigheads.
Drew had a 7-pound bass inhale the tiny offering during a morning trip. After warming up at the house, they returned that afternoon to catch a few for supper. The bigger fish chewed that afternoon.
They flung the same baits as in the morning and caught a couple dozen specks. Three were around 16 inches and two pounds (on scales). They released two of the monsters and kept a twopounder and five smaller fish for supper.
I missed a report last week from an angler fishing a Baxley area pond. He fooled a limit of small crappie by spider-rigging minnows.
St. John’s River (Astor, Fla.)/Crescent Lake – Patrick Pierce and Justin Bythwood won a Fishers of Men Tournament Trail event on the river.
The pair weighed a 5fish limit of 23.26 pounds and won by a little more than 10 pounds. They also had big fish at 6.11 pounds. Capt. Bert’s jigheads hooked all of their fish that they weighed.
Neil and Arlene Jones fished at Crescent Lake and fooled 25 nice crappie (their two-day total was 41 specks). A Keitech swimbait rigged on a slider head fooled their specks the whole trip.
Saltwater (Ga. Coast) – The best report I heard all week was from Jay Turner in the after the snow.
He followed up his great Wednesday trip to a pond in the Savannah area near his house where he has caught trout in the past. He flung the same Zombie Eye Jighead and 3-inch Keitech swimbait on the same rod and reel and six-lb. test he caught crappie the day before and smashed the trout.
He caught trout on almost every cast for an hour 35 trout from 15-18 inches) and had a halfdozen redfish mixed in, as well. He kept a half-dozen trout and a redfish fresh on top of the snow while he fished.
Capt. Duane Harris took Mona Mounts and her grandson out in the Brunswick area. They worked several holes to no avail, but then got on a few nice trout in a small creek.
Miles Smith had a good trip in the Brunswick area catching a great mess of trout.
Tommy Sweeney fished from the bank in the Brunswick area and caught some nice trout. He flung a copper crackle Zombie Eye Jighead and plastic shrimp for a half dozen fat trout up to 18 inches.
New Moon is today (Wednesday, January 29). 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. For a copy of his latest catalog, you can download it from his website at bertsjigsandthings.co m or e-mail him (bertdeener@ yahoo.com).
