Southeast Georgia Fishing Reports With Capt. Bert Deener – June 28, 2024

Seth Carter caught this giant redbreast in the Satilla River this week while flinging a crawfish Satilla Spin.

The bites have been good all over the place. With the forecasted rains this week, it’s going to be interesting figuring out what basins got the rain and are rising and which ones did not. Good luck! Morning trips are the ticket now with the heat and afternoon thunderstorms a possibility.

Altamaha/Ocmulgee River: Jamie Hodge had a great trip for panfish on the lower river this week. He had a mess of big bluegill and shellcracker that he fooled with worms.

Satilla River:  I had several good reports this week, and folks caught them on everything from worms on the bottom to bugs on top and everything in between. Right now you can basically catch them on whatever you want to catch them on.

Seth Carter and Luke Steedley fished the Satilla this week and caught about 50 stumpknocker and warmouth and a few redbreast by pitching Silverback Micro Flipping Jigs and Satilla Spins on ultralight baitcasting gear. He was trying out a new custom light-action rod I built for him and loved it. Some of the stumpknockers and warmouth ate the jig (bruised banana pepper was the best color), but the lures of the day were rooster bug and crawfish Satilla Spins.

Noah Mitchell fished the middle Satilla for just a couple hours from the bank and caught a couple dozen redbreast and bluegill by fishing worms.

Lane Lott fished with his family this weekend and pitched bugs to fool 82 redbreast and bluegillsover the weekend. He was secretive over exactly which popper he was using and would not even tell his grandfather.

The water is perfect right now in the Waycross area to idle a boat around and catch fish. You’re going to have to drag every now and then over logs and sandbars. Float trips are the ticket in the upper river. Remember that the Highway 84 (Blackshear Bridge) ramp is closed for bridge construction and will be for years… literally.   

Ocmulgee River: Scott Robinson, John Biagi and I floated the river above Macon on Friday and had a blast. We caught right at 100 fish (about 25 redbreast and bluegill and 75 bass) on artificials. John had the biggest shoal bass at 3 1/2 pounds, and it ate an Okeechobee Craw creature bait. Scott had a big shoal bass, as well, and he got on a crankbait bite for a little bit of the float. Most of my 49 fish (both panfish and bass) ate an 1/8-oz. copperjuice Perch Hounder spinnerbait with a gold blade, although my biggest spot and shoal ate a black Keitech Fat Swing Impact swimbait. We caught largemouth, spotted and shoal bass during the float.

Okefenokee Swamp: The warmouth bite has been great this week with pretty much everyone catching fish on everything from crickets and crawfish to Dura-Spins and topwater bugs. Yes, Dura-Spins—the big in-line spinner designed for jackfish and mudfish.

Matthew Cady fished a tributary to the Swamp on Saturday and caught about 20 nice warmouth on the spinner. The most recent water level (Folkston side) was 120.50 feet.

Local Ponds: One of the neatest stories I heard this week was Matthew Cady bought a black/chartreuse silver blade Dura-Spin on Friday and took it to a tributary to the Swamp on Saturday and caught a great mess of warmouth. While he was working on Monday, his wife took his new bait to a pond and caught a 24-inch bass—her biggest fish ever.

Saltwater (GA Coast): The tides and wind improved some this week, and the number of reports increased significantly. Todd Kennedy fooled a doormat flounder and a slot redfish on a fly this week.

Joe Morris surf fished in and near the St. Marys inlet and caught a 30-inch redfish on Monday.

A local captain had some really good trips this week. He put his folks on some trout and reds, but the sharks behind the shrimp boats was the best bite. They caught lots of big sharks each trip.

Another captain got on the tarpon and bull redfish this week at the St. Marys Jetties by threading a live pogie on a Tarpon Tamer Hook (the 7/0 version was his best). That hook is built on a 4X strong Gamakatsu hook that hooks and holds them well. Most of the tarpon were sub-100 pounds, but he had a couple giants.

Another captain had some great trips with kids aboard over the weekend and early this week. They bottom fished and caught lots of whiting, small sharks and rays, along with a few black drum and an occasional flounder. Tripletail are still around the Jekyll beach on the days you can get out and look for them, and tarpon and big sharks are crashing pogie pods along the beaches. Summer is here, and so are the big fish!

Wat-a-melon Bait and Tackle in Brunswick is open Friday through Sunday from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. each week. They have plenty of lively shrimp and fiddler crabs and also have live worms and crickets for freshwater. They’re on Highway 303 just north of Highway 82. For the latest information, contact them at 912.223-1379.

Keaton Beach, Florida: Capt. Pat McGriff of One More Cast Guide Service had several really good trout trips with limits of trout 4 to 6 feet deep on live pinfish under Back Bay Thunder Floats. He had a first this week, as his clients caught the first barracuda ever landed on his boat since he has been guiding. Redfish are hit and miss right now, but he has been catching some around shallow rocks at high tide.   

Saltwater (South Carolina Coast): Scout Carter and his fiancé Ivy got on the giant flounder AGAIN on Friday. Ivy had the hot hand again, catching ANOTHER 22 1/2-inch flounder and also a 30-inch redfish the second day. They fooled 23 flounder total and kept a limit of keepers by flinging electric chicken and chartreuse back pearl 4-inch Keitech Swing Impacts on electric-chicken Zombi Eye jig heads. They had two days of AWESOME fishing.

Ivy Spratling fooled this 22 1/2-inch flounder with an electric-chicken 4-inch Keitech swimbait on a 3/16-oz. Zombi Eye jig head while vacationing on the South Carolina coast this week.

River gages on June 27 were:
Clyo on the Savannah River – 5.0 feet and rising
Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 1.0 feet and falling
Doctortown on the Altamaha – 3.9 feet and falling
Waycross on the Satilla – 5.5 feet and falling
Atkinson on the Satilla – 4.5 feet and falling
Statenville on the Alapaha – 2.7 feet and falling
Macclenny on the St Marys – 2.2 feet and falling
Fargo on the Suwannee – 2.7 feet and falling

New Moon is July 5. To monitor all the Georgia river levels, visit the USGS website. 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, call him at 912.288.3022 or email him at [email protected].