Southeast Georgia Fishing Reports With Capt. Bert Deener – Sept. 27, 2024

The Kros family from Atlanta tripled up on bull redfish with a local captain on Wednesday.

I’m writing this as Hurricane Helene is bearing down on Keaton Beach, Fla. I’m praying that everyone is able to stay safe. Fishing conditions will be changing this weekend as rains will be variable around the area.

Altamaha/Ocmulgee River: The bass bite has remained great on the Altamaha system. Seth Carter and his buddies Michael Jeffers and Luke Steedley fished the river over the last week and spanked them. They had fish up to about 5 pounds and had a great photo of each of them holding several bass at the end of the trip. Buzzbaits, spinnerbaits and jigs produced most of their bites.

Two-Way Sportfishing Club held their rod-and-reel catfish tournament on Sept. 21-22. Tiff Thompson and his partner won it with two big catfish that pulled the scales down to 74 pounds!

St. Marys River: Matt Rouse fished the upper river this week and had a fun morning. He caught four bullhead catfish on the bottom and four redbreast and bluegill throwing a topwater cricket lure.

Okefenokee Swamp: The bite has been slow, but folks reported that a few bowfin were caught in the east side boat basin this week. The most recent water level (Folkston side) was 121.44 feet.

Dodge County Public Fishing Area (near Eastman): Kevin Cooley fished the area last Friday and had a fun morning. He fooled two bass and four channel catfish. The catfish were perfect eating size.

Paradise Public Fishing Area (near Tifton): The Outdoor Adventure Day scheduled for this Saturday has been cancelled due to the storm. They are going to open the kids ponds at a later date this fall, so stay tuned.

Local Ponds: I did not receive a single report from area ponds this week, but I am sure that folks caught some bass and bluegill. The bass are generally staying with the bait schools this time of year and moving around a bunch. A crankbait is a good lure to locate them. For bream, the same old cricket under a float is hard to beat around shoreline cover or vegetation. First thing in the morning, it’s hard to beat casting a bug with a fly rod, though.

Austen Walls caught this big trout this week while fishing with a local captain.

Saltwater (GA Coast): Inshore fishing is about to bust wide open as the water cools, so get your trout and redfish tackle in order. Jay Turner fished the Savannah area this week and did really well for trout, redfish and flounder with nuclear-chicken Keitech swimbaits, even with some less-than-ideal conditions. They even got into a school of stripers crashing through mullet. They caught two before the school moved on.

Randy Dorris and his fishing buddy caught a bunch of trout and a few redfish on Monday. They ended up with five keepers up to 18 inches. Four-Seven swimbaits in the stellar-blue color produced most of their fish, and they fished it on a 3/16-oz. jig head. Randy caught a few trout on a DOA shrimp (clear-red flake) under an Equalizer float. His buddy went back Tuesday and had 10 keeper trout on pearl Gulp! Shrimp under a popping cork. That day he fooled three keeper reds and a keeper flounder on a pearl/chartreuse tail swimbait.

A local captain crushed the inshore fish this week. He said there are tons of short trout with some keepers mixed in. He fooled them with Four-Seven plastics, DOA shrimp and live shrimp. He had around 20 keepers each day, and they were a mixed bag of trout, redfish, flounder, sheepshead and black drum.

Another local captain did well this week for bull redfish and had a few tarpon mixed in. The Kros family caught a triple of bull reds on Wednesday with him. I talked with several folks who caught trout, reds and flounder from docks in the Brunswick area. Most fooled them with shrimp, but several ate swimbaits bounced along the bottom.

Don’t forget about the fish carcass freezer at the Waycross Fisheries Office at 108 Darling Avenue. The Coastal Resources Division collects most inshore saltwater species so that they can determine age and growth for each species. All the supplies and information cards are in the freezer. Filet your fish then drop off the carcasses in the freezer.

Wat-a-melon Bait and Tackle in Brunswick is now open every day. On Monday to Thursday their hours are 6:30 to 10 a.m. and 2 to 5 p.m. and Friday through Saturday from 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. They have plenty of lively shrimp 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.

New Moon is Oct. 2. 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/.

River gages on Sept. 26 were:
Clyo on the Savannah River –  3.6 feet and rising
Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 2.8 feet and rising
Doctortown on the Altamaha – 4.0 feet and falling
Waycross on the Satilla – 9.3 feet and falling
Atkinson on the Satilla – 10.5 feet and falling
Statenville on the Alapaha – 6.1 feet and rising
Macclenny on the St Marys – 4.9 feet and falling
Fargo on the Suwannee – 9.6 feet and falling

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].