The weather has been great. The Okefenokee Swamp, saltwater and ponds have produced the best catches from the reports I received. River gauges Thursday, February 27 were:
• Clyo on the Savannah River – 7.4 feet and rising
• Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 8.9 feet and falling
• Doctortown on the Altamaha – 10.9 feet and rising
• Waycross on the Satilla – 12.7 feet and falling
• Atkinson on the Satilla – 10.6 feet and rising
• Statenville on the Alapaha – 9.4 feet and falling
• Macclenny on the St Marys – 5.6 feet and falling
• Fargo on the Suwannee – 6.6 feet and falling
Local Ponds – Some folks did well and some not so much.
I talked with one friend who is an excellent angler. He did not catch any crappie the day he went. But I also had good reports.
Hayden and Steven Lee fished an Alma area pond with minnows and caught seven big crappie.
The bass reports were good from area ponds. Chip Lafferty caught the biggest I heard of – a 7lb., 5-oz., pig that ate a purple wacky-rigged worm in a Brunswick area pond.
Joshua Barber fished a Waycross area pond and caught and released a few bass, including a 3-pound class fish which ate a black-blue wacky-rigged stick worm.
Chuck Dean fished a Kingsland area pond and caught several bass with a fly rod.
Okefenokee Swamp – Tim Corey fished with me on the east side of the swamp. We caught and released 22 fish total, including 2 pickerel (up to 18 inches) and 20 fliers.
The size of the fliers was impressive, with 15 of them over eight inches. Our biggest was Tim’s 9 1/4-incher that earned him an angler award from the GA Wildlife Resources Division.
His big one ate a whitetreuse Warmouth Whacker Jig tipped with a red wiggler. That’s the lure he caught all of his fish on. I caught mine on a white (gold blade) prototype in-line spinner and a crawfish Warmouth Whacker Jig.
Kris Irwin came down from the Athens area and fished with me for two days. We fished the east side the first day and caught and released 18 fish (a bowfin, three pickerel, and 14 fliers). It was cold that morning and the bite was slow.
As the water warmed, the fliers woke up and started feeding. The size was impressive again with a dozen of them over eight inches. Our biggest was just under nine inches.
Our biggest pickerel was 22 inches. It bit a crawfish-brass blade Dura-Spin. We had another giant pickerel on a jackfish-colored Dura-Spin, but it broke us off.
We fished the west side the second day and absolutely whacked the bowfin. We trolled the first hour for a half-dozen bowfin up to four pounds.
When we slowed down they started chewing. We fished cut flier and red wiggler worms on 1/16oz. Mirage Jigs and caught bowfin after bowfin. We ended up catching and releasing a total of 58 fish (56 bowfin and two fliers).
Our biggest five bowfin weighed 7-lb., 7-oz., 7-6, 7-3, 6-3, and 5-14. Those monsters were a BLAST on the light tackle we were using.
The most recent water level on the Folkston side was 121.02 feet and at SC Foster State Park it was 4.85 feet.
St. Marys River – Seth Carter fished and caught some bass and Matt Rouse reported the upper river is still in good shape but a little offcolor.
The crappie and catfish bites have been good.
Continued from Page 7 St. John’s River (Astor, Fla.)/Crescent Lake – The crappie bite was slow. Some of my friends had a couple nice fish per day, but the hot bite has cooled.
Saltwater (Ga. Coast) – Capt. Tim Cutting had very productive outing. They had a bunch of short trout before getting into some nicer fish in the bigtime cold.
They ended up catching a mixed bag of trout, flounder, reds, and black drum, with a couple of oversized redfish.
Brothers Dick and Fred Bissinger could do no wrong. They had two limits of trout and some nice black drum, sheepshead, and flounder. Dick had a giant 5 1/2-pound sheepshead.
Tom fished with Capt. Tim and had a great catch of reds and trout off the same oyster bar while fishing for an hour. He had a couple oversized reds during the melee, as well.
They released everything a day later, including some trout up to 22 inches. The following day they caught about 25 trout that included about a dozen keepers.
First quarter moon is Thursday, March 6. 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]).
