Southeast Georgia Fishing Reports With Capt. Bert Deener – Dec. 20, 2024

Blake Edwards caught this big warmouth on a 1/16-oz. Mirage Jig tipped with a minnow while fishing the lower Satilla River with Capt. Bert Deener on Thursday.

I hope that each of you is having a wonderful Christmas season! It’s been good fishing this week for the few who reported.

Altamaha River: The crappie bite was fantastic before water from the rains up-country hit this week. Brentz McGhin and I fished together on Saturday, Dec. 14, in the lower river and caught a bunch of fish. We had about 2 dozen—mostly crappie. Our biggest crappie was 1 1/4 pounds. We caught half of them on a 1/16-oz Mirage Jig tipped with a minnow and half on a 1/32-oz. Tennessee Shad Specktacular Jig worked slowly. 

Jamie Hodge fished the lower river on Sunday and caught a couple dozen really nice crappie up to 1-lb., 10-oz. He spider-rigged minnows for his fish. The river rose all week and is at the edge of the floodplain again.

Satilla River: Blake Edwards fished with me on Thursday, Dec. 19, in the lower river, and we caught a total of 54 fish of nine different species. Almost everything bit on a 1/16-oz. Mirage Jig tipped with a minnow, but I caught a couple on a 1/32-oz. Tennessee shad Specktacular Jig. The fish were scattered but active. We didn’t get on any concentrations of fish but caught one here and one there the whole trip. Our biggest crappie was 1-lb., 3-ozs. and our biggest warmouth was 3/4 pound. I heard of a couple good bass catches in the middle river.

Savannah River: Mark Vick and Daniel Rhodes fished the river on Wednesday and Thursday and had some great trips. On Wednesday, the crappie, bass, bluegill and flier were eating the usual Satilla Spin colors and Warmouth Whacker Jigs (bumblebee and crawfish) tipped with Garland tadpoles or minnows. They ended up keeping 19 for a meal. During just a few hours Thursday evening, they found a good crappie bite deep in 15 to 18 feet of water and caught 30 crappie and two big fliers on Tennessee shad Specktacular Jigs tipped with minnows. They left them biting!

St Marys River: The Temple Landing is currently closed 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:  Joshua Barber fished some northern tributaries to the Okefenokee this week and caught a half-dozen bowfin on shiners and a warmouth and three fliers on worms. The most recent water level (Folkston side) was 120.94 feet.

Local Ponds: Jay and Mason Turner fished a Bulloch County pond and fooled several-dozen crappie up to 2 pounds with Keitechs, Sliders and Rat-L-Traps. Mason had one that measured 16 inches. Joshua Barber fished a Manor area pond on Monday evening and fooled six crappie, two small bass and a warmouth on Flashy jig heads rigged with chartreuse back pearl 2-inch Keitech swimbaits and Gulp! Minnows and a couple on live minnows.

Paradise Public Fishing Area (near Tifton): The one report I got was from an angler who caught a few bass, crappie and bluegill on artificials and minnows on Saturday, Dec. 14. He worked for them but had a decent catch at the end of the trip.

Orange Lake (Florida): Shane and Joshua Barber fished the lake this week and caught a dozen bass up to 2 1/2 pounds by flinging plastic worms and swimbaits and caught a few on live bait.

St. John’s River (Astor, Florida) / Crescent Lake: I received two really good reports this week for crappie. An angler caught several dozen nice slabs up to 2 1/2 pounds by fishing in the main river. Expect the reports to ramp up as waves of slab crappie head into the backwaters to spawn over the next couple of months.

Saltwater (Georgia Coast): Tommy Sweeney and Scotty Steedley fished the Brunswick area on Saturday, Dec. 14, and they caught more than 40 trout (they kept 16). Most of their fish were in the 12- to 15-foot-depth range. Zombi Eye jig heads rigged with various plastics worked best for them. The smaller Keitechs with silver flake in them seemed to work the best. Tommy fished the Jekyll Island Pier for two hours one evening and caught a dozen trout in the 15- to 17-inch range by casting black/chartreuse tail Assassin Sea Shads rigged on Zombi Eye jig heads around the shallow areas. The water was really dirty, but the fish still ate it well.

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.

Last quarter moon is Dec. 22.

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. 19 were:
Clyo on the Savannah River – 7.9 feet and rising
Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 11.1 feet and falling
Doctortown on the Altamaha – 9.1 feet and rising
Waycross on the Satilla – 9.5 feet and rising
Atkinson on the Satilla – 6.1 feet and falling
Statenville on the Alapaha – 4.8 feet and rising
Macclenny on the St Marys – 2.7 feet and falling
Fargo on the Suwannee – 3.5 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 email him ([email protected]).

Captions – Blake Edwards caught this big warmouth on a 1/16-oz. Mirage Jig tipped with a minnow while fishing the lower Satilla River with Capt. Bert Deener on Thursday.

Mason fished with his dad Wednesday evening and caught a great mess of crappie, including these 16 and 14-inchers.