Southeast Georgia Fishing Reports With Capt. Bert Deener – Nov. 1, 2024

Ava caught this big flounder while fishing with her dad and a local captain this week.

Saltwater is still on fire, and several other freshwater fisheries produced some good catching this week, as well. Pretty much all the southeast Georgia rivers are fishable again.

Altamaha River: A couple of Waycross anglers fished the river on Saturday and caught 21 bass up to 2.52 pounds. They had one straighten the hook that was in the 6-lb., range. They also had five bowfin up to 8 pounds.

Okefenokee Swamp: The fishing effort has been almost zero again this week on the east side. The best reports were for catfish on the west side (at the Sill). Putting shrimp on the bottom produced the best catches. The fish are there and will bite, and the water level is good for getting around (but not too high). The most recent water level (Folkston side) was 121.15 feet.

Dodge PFA (near Eastman): Milton Jones from the Eastman area had a good day Wednesday. He fished worms on the bottom to catch 10 nice redear sunfish (shellcrackers).

Paradise PFA (near Tifton): Area staff reported the crappie bite fired off this week. An angler fishing from the Lake Patrick fishing pier caught 15 nice crappie on Wednesday.

Lake Ida, Florida: Seth Cater and some buddies took a trip south to chase exotic fish and had a blast. They landed peacock bass, snakeheads and clown knife fish, along with a giant largemouth bass (the only one of the bunch that SHOULD be in the lake). Their best two presentations were Satilla Spins and Alabama rigs rigged with Crush City The Mayor swimbaits. They caught a few fish on almost anything they threw, though.

Saltwater (GA Coast): Saltwater fishing has been excellent again this week. Tim Corey fished with me on Friday in the Brunswick area, and we did great for redfish, black drum and even a couple of nice flounder. We caught 15 redfish (nine of them were oversized), a half-dozen trout up to 18 inches, a few black drum and two nice flounder up to 19 inches. About two-thirds of our fish ate live shrimp rigged on a 3/16-oz., 3/0 hook Redfish Wrecker Jighead. We tightlined the shrimp on the bottom, reeled into the fish when it bit, and the Gamakatsu circle hook got them in the corner of the mouth almost every time. We also bounced a rootbeer Keitech 4-inch swimbait on a 1/4-oz. Zombi Eye jig head for about one-third of our fish (including the big flounder and a couple of our biggest redfish).

I returned the next day with another buddy, Capt. Teddy Elrod, and we caught a bunch again. We ended up releasing all 30 redfish we caught and a half-dozen black drum. We had a few trout mixed in the catch that day, as well. The exact same rigs (live shrimp and Keitechs) worked that day, also.

Steve and Brenda Hampton fished the Jekyll Island Pier on Saturday, and Brenda had the catch of the day, a 16-inch flatfish. It ate a mudminnow. Steve said that there were a few other flounder and a couple trout caught (all were keepers) around high tide, but overall it was a very slow bite.

Tommy Sweeney and Charles Sweat had a great day in the St. Marys area. They had about 2-dozen trout first thing at one of their stops (most were keepers). A little later they got into the bull reds and had a blast with them on light tackle. A 1/4-oz. Zombi Eye jig head and blue/chartreuse Keitech Swing Impact swimbait put it on the big reds.

Chris O’Berry and Joey Whitaker fished the Crooked River area late last week and had a great catch. Most of their fish were trout, but Joey had his first inshore slam (trout/flounder/redfish). They caught their fish on pearl- and sexy-shad colored plastics rigged on pearl Zombi Eye jig heads.

Conner fished with his dad last Monday and caught this nice inshore redfish.

Another captain reported that the inshore bite has been “fantastic.” There have been a lot of short trout but quite a few keepers mixed in. The redfish bite was good for him but not off the chain. The bull reds have been sporadic, and he believes that bite is winding down. He expects the growing tides late this week to slow things a bit but then it will pick back up on the back side.

Another captain said his trips early in the week crushed the trout inshore. On Monday, they had a bunch of short and keeper trout on live shrimp and Harper Super Striker Floats. Most were caught around oyster mounds and creek mouths. Trips early in the week caught a few bull reds each trip, as well.

Another captain said that he was mostly seeing red this week. The redfish were chewing! Most of the reds were slot fish, and he had a bunch of trout mixed in, as well. He caught and released about a dozen oversized reds for the week and had some really big flounder and trout mixed in the catch. Ava caught the biggest flounder of the week, and her dad Zack caught a giant bull red. The trips varied from shrimp under Harper Super Striker Floats to plastics bounced on the bottom, and all of the presentations caught fish.

Several others fished the Brunswick area Monday and wore out the trout during just a short, 2-hour trip while using paddletail plastics rigged on 1/8-oz. Zombi Eye jig heads. They fooled a 21-inch trout that was released. They kept a couple smaller keeper trout. They also had a keeper red during the quick trip.

An angler fishing a short time in the Altamaha Sound caught a couple of bull reds on cutbait. Farther north, reports were slow for the bull reds, but the bite has been hot in the southern half of our coast.

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 Nov. 1.

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 Oct. 31 were:
Clyo on the Savannah River – 5.6 feet and falling
Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 1.5 feet and falling
Doctortown on the Altamaha – 5.2 feet and falling
Waycross on the Satilla – 7.0 feet and falling
Atkinson on the Satilla – 6.2 feet and falling
Statenville on the Alapaha – 4.3 feet and falling
Macclenny on the St Marys – 3.2 feet and falling
Fargo on the Suwannee – 4.6 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, you can download it from his website at bertsjigsandthings.com or e-mail him ([email protected]).