Southeast Georgia Fishing Reports With Capt. Bert Deener – Dec. 13, 2024

Bill Stewart, of Folkston, fished with Capt. Bert Deener on the Altamaha River on Tuesday. He fooled this nice crappie with a popsicle Specktacular Jig suspended under a float.

It’s been both cold and warm, and both calm and windy this week… typical December weather in southeast Georgia. Folks almost always find some biting fish, and this week is no different. Grab your coveralls and get in on some of the best fishing of the year.

Altamaha River: The river is getting right for lots of species.

Jamie Hodge fished the lakes in the lower river two days this week and fooled his limit of crappie each day by spider-rigging minnows. His biggest fish were over a pound.

Justin Lee and Caleb Turner bass fished the lower river on Tuesday, Dec. 10, and they found a good bite. They fooled six bass and three pickerel by flinging bright-colored crankbaits. They tried plastic worms first but only had a few bites and no hook-ups.

Bill Stewart fished with me in the lower Altamaha River on Tuesday, and we caught a total of 30 fish of six species. Twenty of our fish were crappie, our target species. We found crappie in the oxbows and caught them on 1/16-oz. popsicle and Tennessee shad Specktacular Jigs and 1/16-oz. Mirage Jigs both with and without a minnow. We had four fish over a pound, and our biggest was 1-lb., 3-ozs. We picked up a few nice bass on the crappie jigs, and Bill caught a 3 1/2-pounder on his confidence bait—a Texas-rigged black-fire tail plastic worm. The catch of the day was a 1-lb., 4-oz. redear sunfish (shellcracker) that inhaled a popsicle Specktacular Jig. We released it after a photo shoot. Another angler fishing the river that day fooled a great mess of crappie by easing along with four float rigs baited with minnows.

Hunter Dean and a buddy had an awesome trip Sunday on the lower river after doing some hunting. They cast black/blue jigs and caught six bass—some of them really nice ones—that weighed a total of 17 pounds.

St Marys River: Fermen Dasher and his nephew Larry fished the middle section of the St. Marys River on Friday, Dec. 6 and had a really nice mess of bluegill and a few crappie and bass. They flung Beetle Spins, and Larry did best for bluegill by tipping his with a piece of worm. He returned on Monday and caught a couple dozen panfish, including crappie, bluegill, stumpknocker and redbreast.

I fished the middle river on Friday and ended up catching 27 fish of six different species by myself. The best presentation was a 1/16-oz. Mirage Jig tipped with a minnow (2/3 of the fish on the jig were when it was tipped with a minnow and 1/3 with just a plain jig), but I also caught a few really nice fish on a Tennessee shad Specktacular Jig. My biggest crappie was a little over a pound, and my biggest warmouth  weighed 3/4 pound.

Note: The Temple Landing will be closed beginning Dec. 16 while the GA Wildlife Resources Division boat ramp crew rebuilds the ramp. It will be a much-improved facility when they finish the project. The projects typically take a few months to complete, but it is always weather and river level dependent.

Okefenokee Swamp:  An angler fishing the east side on Saturday caught a nice mess of fliers by pitching red wiggler worms in the canal. The most recent water level (Folkston side) was 120.94 feet.

Local Ponds: Chip Lafferty had a GREAT trip at a Brunswick area pond on Tuesday. His biggest bass were 7-4, 6-3 and 5-13, and he had a handful of smaller bass, as well. Tripp has been whacking the bass this week in their Guyton area pond by slow-rolling catalpa-colored Satilla Spins.

Joshua Barber fished a Manor area pond on Tuesday and caught a half-dozen bass and four pickerel. Swimbaits and speed worms worked for him.

Jimmy Zinker fished a Worth County pond on Wednesday and caught three bass on a white spinnerbait in the cold, windy conditions.

Dodge County Public Fishing Area (near Eastman): Ken Burke fished on Tuesday for five hours and caught four bass that weighed 12.75 pounds. He had a 5-lb. kicker. The bass were chasing shad schools, and he fooled them by putting a crankbait (squarebills and lipless crankbaits) near them when they were busting bait.

Hugh M. Gillis Public Fishing Area (near Dublin): Area staff said that the effort was low this week, but anglers caught some nice crappie by fishing the deeper timber with minnows and jigs.

Saltwater (Georgia Coast): Even with the cold and wind, the trout and redfish bites were generally good. One trip was really slow, but everyone else who reported caught quite a few fish. Dane Clements and Wayne Canady caught a great mess of sheepshead in the cold this weekend. They caught 44 fish and kept a limit. Most of their fish were in the 2- to 8-foot depth range. Fiddler crabs were the ticket.

Charles Sweat took his brother-in-law David to the St. Marys area on Saturday. They worked for their fish, but they still caught eight trout, a big sheepshead, a black drum and a 28-inch bull red. Tail-hooked live shrimp worked for them.

Sean Tarpley had a productive weekend in the brine around Brunswick. On Saturday, he started at sunrise with the incoming tide and rode it up into the creeks catching trout all along the way (from his kayak). He used plastics (DOA paddle tails, E-Z Shrimp, and Z-man mulletron). His biggest trout was around 18 inches. Near some trees and deep holes he found the redfish and caught a bunch along with a 28-inch hybrid striped bass. What an unexpected monster! On Sunday, he went back and started in the redfish hole and caught over a dozen reds. He used shrimp on a Capt. Bert’s Shrimp Hook the second day. 

A local captain fished with Bill Kelly and Pat Bisese on Monday and Tuesday and put it on the fish. They threw Fourseven lures 3.5-inch swimbaits and grubs on Zombi Eye jig heads and Trout Eye jig heads. They tried different colors but kept coming back to pink/blue (agitator) and Christmas tree colors. They had a couple limits of trout on Monday and then caught a bunch of redfish on the way in by floating shrimp under a Harper Super Striker Float. They did the same thing on Tuesday but started with the redfish. They caught redfish until their arms were sore, and some were really nice oversized fish. Those big reds would not touch anything other than the 3.5-inch swimbait. Fish had been eating a gold flake plastic shrimp, but they would not have anything other than the Fourseven swimbait that day. They finished Tuesday by fooling lots of trout drifting live shrimp under the floats. He piddled around Thursday with some new Fourseven plastics and caught trout on their straight-tailed worm and plastic shrimp.

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 a.m. to 10 and 2 p.m. to 5 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.

Full moon is Dec. 15.

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 Dec. 12 were:
Clyo on the Savannah River – 4.9 feet and falling
Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 3.3 feet and rising
Doctortown on the Altamaha – 6.4 feet and rising
Waycross on the Satilla – 8.2 feet and falling
Atkinson on the Satilla – 6.4 feet and falling
Statenville on the Alapaha – 4.7 feet and rising
Macclenny on the St Marys – 2.8 feet and rising
Fargo on the Suwannee – 3.5 feet and rising

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 email him ([email protected]).