Winter is back, so it is up to judging how much of a warmup behind a front will get the fish biting again.
Some folks got on good bites in both salt and freshwater and some did not put all the pieces together. The recent rain has all of the south Georgia rivers rising – some are in the floodplains.
River gauges Thursday, February 20 were:
• Doctortown on the Altamaha – 9.3 feet and rising
• Waycross on the Satilla – 12.1 feet and rising
• Atkinson on the Satilla – 9.1 feet and rising
• Fargo on the Suwannee – 6.4 feet and rising
St. Marys River – Matt Rouse fished the upper river and had a good trip. He threw a white curly-tail grub and caught five nice crappie (three of them around 12 inches) and a stumpknocker. He also put shrimp on the bottom and caught a couple nice channel catfish.
Sammy Gaskins caught 25 fish (17 were crappie). He usually flings small spinnerbaits, but I did not ask him what he used.
Okefenokee Swamp – I fished the east side by myself and checked lots of different areas. I caught a few fliers or pickerel from each spot then moved on.
I caught a couple really big fliers – pushing 3/4 pound. They ate a chartreuse back pearl 2-inch Keitech rigged on a 1/16oz. Flashy Jighead. The pickerel ate crawfish Dura-Spins and chartreuse back pearl 3-inch Keitechs fished unweighted around vegetation.
Several jackfish inhaled the swimbait and cut me off. I caught and released a total of 14 fish that morning.
Bill Stewart fished with me on the east side three days later. Water temperatures were in the upper 50’s most places we fished. We caught and released a total of 23 fish with a half-dozen pickerel, a 3-pound bowfin, and the rest fliers.
We caught a half-dozen smaller 6- to 7-inch fliers by pitching pink Okefenokee Swamp Sallies on a bream buster pole, but casting worked best. I caught my fish on a white (gold blade) prototype inline spinner I’ve been using for the last year.
Bill caught his on a chartreuse back pearl 2inch Keitech on a 1/16-oz. Flashy Jighead. The most impressive fish were the half-dozen fliers over eight inches that we caught. Our biggest was 9 1/8 inches long.
Our biggest pickerel was 19 inches, and it inhaled Bill’s fire tiger-chartreuse blade Dura-Spin. Bowfin were elusive this week, as they didn’t want to chase down our lures in the colder weather. With the rising water levels, they’re also likely moving out of the canals into the flooded prairies.
The most recent water level (Folkston side) was 121.0 feet.
Local Ponds – Joshua Barber fished a clearwater pond and had seven bass on stick worms and one on a grub. The biggest was a couple pounds.
A Blackshear angler fooled some nice bass with stick worms. His largest was 4 1/2 pounds, and his biggest five weighed 18 pounds.
Laurel fished with her dad, B.J., in a Brunswick area pond and they landed 14 bass in just a few hours by flinging Trick Worms.
Chad Lee fished with his friends, Daniel and Regan. They caught a great mess of crappie and several bass. The crappie ate a slammin chicken Assassin Tiny Shad rigged on a pink 1/32-oz. Zombie Eye Jighead, and the bass inhaled Christie Craws.
Chris, Becky, John Ross and Ella Kate fished their pond and caught several bass, but John Ross had the monster. They released it without weighing it, but it looked like a 6- or 7-pounder.
Dodge County Public Fishing Area (near Eastman) – Ken Burke had a great trip to the area. He caught and released seven 7 bass weighting 21 1/4 pounds. His biggest two were 3.75 and 3.5 pounds.
He fooled all but one of them with a crankbait, and that one outlier inhaled a shaky head worm. He also fooled a 1-lb., 10oz. slab crappie. Ken said the bass are feeding up in the shallow water ahead of the spawn.
Another angler following schools of shad with forward facing sonar was able to coax 30 small bass (a pound to 1 1/2 pounds apiece) to eat.
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).
