Fishing is heating up with the current warm-up! The flatwater produced the best reports this week. Rivers are still high but are getting fishable.
River gauges Thursay, April 3 were:
• Clyo on the Savannah River – 6.6 feet and rising
• Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 6.6 feet and rising
• Doctortown on the Altamaha – 9.0 feet and falling
• Waycross on the Satilla – 10.2 feet and rising
• Atkinson on the Satilla – 9.8 feet and falling
• Statenville on the Alapaha – 7.0 feet and falling
• Macclenny on the St Marys – 5.8 feet and falling
• Fargo on the Suwannee – 10.9 feet and falling
Alapaha River – The exciting news from the river this week was an angler award and new river record channel catfish caught by Christopher Quiggins. He fooled the giant with a minnow.
It pulled the scales down to just shy of 13 pounds, 15 ounces and measured 31 inches long.
Okefenokee Swamp – Buck Johnson fished the east side and did well on warmouth. He pitched chartreuse pearl artificials on Zombie Eye Jigheads to shoreline cover and landed 33 warmouth, two pickerel, and four bowfin.
The second pickerel he caught put on a show. It was a good one that fought hard, angled toward the corner of the boat, and jumped just perfectly to land in the back of the boat.
A couple of Blackshear anglers fished the east side and caught 23 warmouth, four fliers, five bowfin and two pickerel. They pitched crickets on 1/16-oz., Mirage Jigs and Jiffy Jigs for their warmouth.
Black/chartreuse and jackfish-colored Dura-Spins produced their bowfin and pickerel. Their biggest pickerel was 18 1/2 inches and pushed two pounds.
The most recent water level on the Folkston side was 121.34 feet.
Local Ponds – Jimmy Zinker started catching some big bass on topwaters. His biggest, a 7-lb., 8oz. toad sucked down a musky Jitterbug.
A Squeaker Trophy Bass Buzzbait fooled two big ones at 6-lb., 10-oz., and 6-lb., 9-oz. A 7pounder ate a big plastic worm.
Shane and Joshua Barber fished an area pond and caught about a halfdozen bass. Their biggest was a 5-lb., 2-oz., fish that inhaled a swimbait. Some of the others bit stick baits and topwater frogs (they had a 4-pounder on the frog).
A couple of days later Shane caught five bass and three pickerel (the jackfish was three pounds). Most ate a swimbait, but one or two ate a stick worm.
My wife, Teresa, and I fished a local pond andcaught a bunch (28 total), but they were all small. The outliers were individual largemouth bass, flier, and brown bullhead.
The majority of the fish were bluegills and crappie. The fish ate bruiser Satilla Spins, chartreuse back pearl 2-inch Keitech swimbaits on 1/16-oz. Flashy Jigheads, Bream Spin in-line spinners, and 1/16-oz. Mirage Jigs tipped with crickets.
Saltwater (Ga. Coast) – Capt. Tim Cutting did well for trout and reds. They had both overslot and slot-size reds. They also had some big trout, including two over 20 inches.
Capt. Duane Harris took his cousin, Tom Pollihan, in the Brunswick area and they worked two hours for three redfish. One was Tom’s biggest ever, a 28-incher with a dead shrimp. They caught the other two on dead shrimp, as well.
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).
