Freshwater is heating up in the flat waters. Rivers are still mostly high, but some stretches and backwaters will be fishable soon.
The Okefenokee is high, but the bite has still been good. Very few people fished the brine with the strong winds and bigger tides earlier in the weekend.
River gauges Thursday, March 20 were:
• Clyo on the Savannah River – 9.8 feet and rising
• Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 10.8 feet and falling
• Doctortown on the Altamaha – 9.5 feet and rising
• Waycross on the Satilla – 13.9 feet and falling
• Atkinson on the Satilla – 13.0 feet and rising
• Statenville on the Alapaha – 11.7 feet and falling
• Macclenny on the St Marys – 10.9 feet and falling
• Fargo on the Suwannee – 12.1 feet and rising
Savannah River – Mark Vick fished the river oxbows and did well for crappie. He managed 23 slabs but had to search for them.
They had moved supershallow (he guessed they were spawning). Something that caught his attention was the crappie were slamming minnows on the surface regularly. They were really active that day.
He caught all of his fish on a chartreuse Specktacular Jig.
Satilla River – Will Gibson and Coby Eunice fished limb lines in the middle Satilla over the weekend and caught three flathead catfish.
The biggest was 47 pounds, and it ate a big panfish they put out for bait. Will caught his first flathead ever during the trip.
Okefenokee Swamp – Chad and Casey fished with me to celebrate their anniversary. Before they got there I pitched a crawfish- colored Warmouth Whacker Jig for a few minutes and caught and released a nice 9-inch warmouth.
Chad had the hot hand at first, catching a pickerel and an angler award-sized flier. He caught the flier with a prototype in-line spinner and the pickerel on a whitetreuse Warmouth Whacker Jig.
Late in the trip Casey was on fire by casting a crawfish – brass blade Dura-Spin. She caught an 18 1/2-inch pickerel and a 7-lb., 12-oz. bowfin on the lure. They had a few other fish, as well catching eight fish total.
Buck Johnson pitched to shoreline cover and did well for warmouth on the east side. He stopped after catching 30 on a chartreuse/ pearl artificial on a Zombie Eye Jighead.
The most recent water level on the Folkston side was 121.42 feet.
Dodge County Public Fishing Area (near Eastman) – The crappie are still shallow based on staff spring sampling conducted. The numbers of bass and crappie in the samples were strong.
Ocmulgee Public Fishing Area (near Hawkinsville) – Dave fished the lake and did well for bass. He used live bait from the bank and caught five bass weighing 32 lbs. A 7.4-pounder was his biggest. Remember, bass fishing on the lake is catchand- release only.
Local Ponds – Jimmy Zinker caught the biggest bass I heard – a 7-lb., 1-oz. hawg – by throwing a Trophy Bass Buzzbait in the Squeaker version.
It’s a black, flat-bladed buzzbait designed by legendary big bass expert Pat Cullen. Jimmy loves topwater fishing and is figuring out the nuances of the big bass lure.
Lester Rowland fished an Alma area pond and had a great trip. He ended up catching over 20 crappie by fishing live minnows. He also fooled a half-dozen bass up to two pounds with red shad plastic worms.
I fished with Teddy Elrod in a Brunswick area pond. We caught and released 46 bass up to six pounds (most were 2-4 pounds) and a half-dozen channel catfish.
Teddy’s hot lure was a bluegill-colored spinnerbait early and then a tequila sunrise Texasrigged worm at the end of the day. My best lures were a 3/8-oz. Wobble Blade Spinnerbait (golden shiner and blue glimmer shad colors) a Texasrigged Keitech Mad Wag worm in heavy cover.
Joshua Barber caught 15 bass at a south Georgia lake. His biggest two were 4.9 and 5.7 pounds. He was rigging plastics (stick worms, swimbaits, crawfish, and speed worms) both unweighted and weighted for his fish.
Saltwater (Ga. Coast) – Capt. Tim Cutting caught a bunch of fish despite the high winds and big tides.
Tom Lanyi fished both shrimp and plastics with Capt. Tim. He had lots of small trout and slot reds and an oversized red. He also added a flounder to catch a slam.
He dabbled some fiddlers and caught a bunch of short sheepshead before catching a big one (about 5 pounds).
A couple of days later on his last trip of the winter with Capt. Tim before heading back home to Pennsylvania, Tom tangled with about a dozen redfish and released them all. They also hit a sheepshead hole and caught several, including a few good ones.
Jason and Ely Folds braved the conditions and caught some good reds and trout. They had about 10 trout and 10 reds along with a kicker flounder and black drum.
One of their three oversized reds had a rare pink tag worth $100. Eightyear- old Ely caught it.
Chad and Jason fished with Capt. Tim and worked for their fish. They caught a redfish or two on each stop and ended up with 22 reds. The trout bite was slow for them.
Casey and Chad (left photo) caught this almost 19-inch pickerel on a crawfish-brass blade Dura-Spin while fishing the Okefenokee on their anniversary. Will Gibson and Coby
