The reports were as varied as the weather. The best reports came from ponds and the Okefenokee Swamp. Saltwater was hitand- miss.
The southeast Georgia rivers are still high, but are falling now that the leaves have budded out and the trees are pulling more water.
River gauges Thursday, March 27 were:
• Clyo on the Savannah River – 6.3 feet and falling
• Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 6.7 feet and falling
• Doctortown on the Altamaha – 10.0 feet and rising
• Waycross on the Satilla – 11.7 feet and falling
• Atkinson on the Satilla – 11.7 feet and falling
• Statenville on the Alapaha – 9.6 feet and falling
• Macclenny on the St Marys – 7.3 feet and falling
• Fargo on the Suwannee – 11.9 feet and falling
Okefenokee Swamp – Mike and Matt Rouse fished the east side of the Okefenokee in cool, superwindy condititons and still caught fish.
They had a few warmouth and fliers on black sparkle/chartreuse Warmouth Whacker Jigs. They also caught a couple bowfin by flinging crawfish- brass blade Dura-Spins.
Bill Stewart fished with me on the east side. We ended up catching and releasing a total of 22 fish (three pickerel, three fliers, 16 warmouth). We had one of the pickerel on a copperfield Wobble Blade but the rest were on a crawfish or popsicle Warmouth Whacker Jig or Keitech 2-inch chartreuse back pearl swimbait on a Zombie Eye Jighead.
Steve caught and released 20 warmouth. He used chartreuse curlytailed grubs. Another angler kept 15 warmouth that day.
Buck Johnson fished and had 31 warmouth by pitching chartreuse pearl artificials on Zombie Eye Jigheads to shoreline cover. The water is high, but fish are biting.
The most recent water level on the Folkston side was 121.34 feet.
Lake Eufaula – Sammy Gaskins of Waycross and a buddy made the trek west to crappie fish. They brought home 109 crappie over a threeday period. Sammy usually only uses artificial lures, but I didn’t ask him what he caught them on.
Clarks Hill Reservoir – Jamie Hodge traveled up to the big lake to chase crappie. he Had a good catch of slabs, including a 2.82-pounder. He was long-lining them with plastics.
Dodge County Public Fishing Area (near Eastman) – The bite slowed, according to Ken Burk. He fished 5 1/2 hours and only had one bite.
He caught the 1-lb., 13oz. bass with a squarebill crankbait, but that’s all he could muster. He said he didn’t see anglers fishing for crappie do much of anything either.
Paradise Public Fishing Area (near Tifton) – Seth Carter tried out a new spinnerbait design he’s working on and fooled a handful of keeper bass on the white version. The bigger ones were a few pounds apiece.
Local Ponds – Chad Lee and Daniel Johnson fished an Alma-area pond and caught 20 nice crappie and about a dozen bass up to two pounds. Christy craws fooled the bass, and Assassin plastics produced the crappie.
Chip Lafferty fished a Brunswick area pond and fooled a dozen bass up to 4 1/2 pounds.
Jimmy Zinker is fired up that the topwater bite is finally working. He fooled several this week on Squeaker Trophy Bass Buzzbaits and one on a musky Jitterbug. His fish were up to 4-pounds, but those are much smaller than his double-digit goal.
Joshua Barber fished a Manor-area pond and caught a half-dozen bass. His biggest five weighed about 13 pounds. He caught them on Texasrigged stick worms and plastic craws.
Saltwater (Ga. Coast) – Teddy Elrod fished a couple of hours after work in the Brunswick area and got on both trout and redfish.
He ended up catching 10 reds (four oversized up to 27 inches) and nine trout. He released them all. He had one fish on topwater, and it jumped like a bass. All of the others were on Keitech swimbaits.
Brentz McGhin and Joseph Mitchell fished the Brunswick area and whacked the whiting. They caught 91 by fishing dead shrimp on the bottom.
Capt. Duane Harris took his cousins, Tom and Kelly Pollihan, in the Brunswick area. They had a great time with live shrimp, catching a dozen redfish and a trout in two hours of fishing.
St. John’s River (Astor, Fla.)/Crescent Lake – It’s been a couple weeks since I got a good report from down south, but I did this week. Anglers reported long-line trolling in Crescent Lake and catching some really nice post-spawn crappie.
Keaton Beach, Fla.
– Capt. Pat McGriff had some good trips and also some where he had to hunt them.
During his best trip of the week his folks caught their limit of trout in a few hours by fishing shrimp under Back Bay Thunder Floats. They caught a few on artificials.
He searched around the outer edges of the big slug of fresh water and found some willing keeper-sized trout on another trip. Again, bait was best, but artificials picked up a few.
From most reports, plastics have been catching fish better than plugs. The warmer forecasted weather should get the flats fish biting this week.
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.co m or e-mail him (bertdeener@ yahoo.com).
