This is the warm-up we’ve all been waiting for. Remember, the water is going to heat up very slowly, so don’t get in too big of a hurry to fish fastmoving baits, even if you’re wearing shorts.
Shallow ponds will heat up quickly and provide the most active fish this week.
River gauges Thursday, January 30 were:
• Clyo on the Savannah River – 5.8 feet and rising
• Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 5.1 feet and falling
• Doctortown on the Altamaha – 8.6 feet and falling
• Waycross on the Satilla – 11.8 feet and rising
• Atkinson on the Satilla – 9.0 feet and rising
• Statenville on the Alapaha – 7.5 feet and rising
• Macclenny on the St Marys – 7.9 feet and falling
• Fargo on the Suwannee – 7.2 feet and falling
Okefenokee Swamp – Joshua Barber fished with me on the west side. We knew it would be really cold water and were curious just how cold.
My depth-finder read 35 degrees in Billy’s Lake. We were expecting cold, but not that cold. We did not get any bowfin to bite, but had six big pickerel eat our 1/16-oz. Mirage Jigs tipped with dead minnows.
Joshua fooled one of them with a chartreuse back pearl 3-inch Keitech rigged on a 3/16-oz. Zombie Eye Jighead. All of the pickerel were big – over 18 inches – and our biggest was a 3-lb., 6-oz., 23 1/4inch monster. They were a blast on ultralight gear.
We caught four fliers in just a few minutes by pitching yellow sallies and pink sallies on bream buster poles. We snapped a photo of a pickerel by the little bit of snow that was left on the way in then released it.
With this warm-up, I imagine it would not be too hard to catch 100 fliers by pitching sallies. This warm-up is what it takes to get them chewing.
The most recent water level (Folkston side) was 121.06 feet.
Local Ponds – Jimmy Zinker has been catching some solid bass in Worth County farm ponds. Bigger Shad Raps and spinnerbaits have been producing his strikes. He had five bass with the biggest weighing 5-lb., 11oz., on one trip.
I fished with a friend in a Baxley area lake. We didn’t catch many (10 total crappie) with 42-degree water, but had fun doing it.
I caught the biggest, right at a pound, by vertical fishing a 1/16-oz. Mirage Jig tipped with a live minnow. My friend caught 8 by spider-rigging Tennessee shad 1/16-oz. Specktacular Jigs tipped with minnows.
We marked fish all day, but they did not bite well. We’re guessing the front which passed the night before and the cold water gave them lockjaw.
Saltwater (Ga. Coast) – Expectedly, with all the super-cold weather and ice, the number of reports from the brine were down this week.
Capt. Cason Kinstle fished with a couple of friends in the Brunswick area in the cold and had a great day for trout. They ended up catching around 50 trout (most 14-17 inches), but they had to slow WAY down to get it done.
They threw plastic shrimp and worked them slowly right along the bottom. He said sometimes a cast would take five minutes or more.
First quarter moon is today (February 5). 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.
