Southeast Georgia Fishing Reports With Capt. Bert Deener – Jan. 17, 2025

Lee Edney caught this lineside in cold, windy conditions on Saturday while fishing in the Brunswick area.

This is some incessant cold! And after the slight warm-up late this week and weekend, it’s forecasted to be rainy AND cold—and maybe even a little wintry weather. For those who have toughed it out, the fishing has been very good for most this week.

Oconee River: Some exciting news this week is that the blue catfish river record was broken by about 12 pounds. Kevin Cary landed a 62-lb., 15-oz. blue cat on Sunday and got it certified as the new river record. He broke his brother Eli’s record that was set back in April. Kevin fooled the monster with a live baitfish.

Savannah River: I heard from one angler who fished the oxbow lakes this week on the lower river. He caught four big fliers but did not get on the crappie.

Satilla River: Shane and Joshua Barber fished the lower Satilla on Saturday in the nasty cold and wind. They fooled two crappie, a 3 1/2-lb. bass and a giant chain pickerel with 1/16-oz. black-green eye Zombi Eye jig heads and 2-inch chartreuse back pearl Keitech swimbaits.

Seth Carter fished the upper Satilla River on Sunday and caught a chunky 2 1/2-lb. bass on a spinnerbait. He caught a few on suspending jerkbaits, also.

Bill Stewart fished with me on the lower river on Tuesday. Even with the cold and strong winds, we got on a bunch of warmouth. We tried some new oxbow lakes that I’ve never been in and fooled a total of 22 fish from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. All of them ate a 1/16-oz. or 3/32-oz. Mirage Jig tipped with either a minnow or a worm. We ended up with a big chain pickerel, three crappie, eight bowfin up to about 4 pounds, and the rest really nice warmouth. Water temperatures were as low as 41 degrees, and we had to work slowly to get bites. The better bite was in the afternoon.

Bill Stewart, of Folkston, caught this and several other big warmouth with a 1/16-oz. Mirage Jig on the lower Satilla while fishing with Capt. Bert Deener on Tuesday.

St. Marys River: Ferman Dasher fished the upper river on Tuesday and worked for a handful of panfish. They just weren’t biting his Beetle Spins that day. 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: Matt Rouse took a few anglers fishing on the east side on Saturday in the nasty weather, and they caught a few bowfin by trolling Dura-Spins in the canal. Crawfish and black with brass blades worked best for them. The fish were in the 2- to 4-lb. range.  The most recent water level (Folkston side) was 120.80 feet.

Local Ponds: Jay Turner fished a Savannah area pond for a half hour this week and fooled a dozen crappie around 3/4-lb. apiece by swimming a slider jig by them. He released them, but they would have made a perfect fish fry for his family.

Joshua Barber tried out his waders in a Manor area pond on Sunday afternoon and caught a half-dozen crappie on minnows. He fished a Manor area pond on Thursday afternoon and fooled a few bowfin, two catfish, two warmouth and a pair of chain pickerel. One of the jackfish was a jumbo! He used 1/16-oz. Mirage Jigs tipped with minnows, shiners and shrimp (for the catfish).

St. John’s River (Astor, Florida) / Crescent Lake: Neil and Arlene Jones fished at Crescent Lake on Thursday and didn’t do anything during the cold morning. But, during the afternoon the crappie started getting active, and they fooled 16 slabs that they kept before calling it quits. They had several fish over 1 1/2 pounds. A Keitech swimbait rigged on a slider head fooled their specks.

Saltwater (Georgia Coast): Trips varied this week with the bigger tides and strong winds most of the week. Folks who chose locations with clearer water fared better than those who went where the water was muddier. I talked with one person who zeroed, but most caught a few fish. I heard of a few trips where folks found big schools of trout.

Justin Lee and Chaney Burke fished the Brunswick area this weekend and worked for them. They managed four really nice fish, though. The four oversized redfish up to 29 inches ate live shrimp fished on a jig head.

Tommy Sweeney fished from the bank in the Brunswick area on Wednesday afternoon and caught some really nice trout. He had 6 trout on a hard minnow plug and three big trout on a plastic shrimp suspended underneath a float. He only fished about an hour.

A local captain had a couple of trips late last week on Friday and Saturday and got on the fish. On Friday, he switched gears and went after redfish and sheepshead. They sight-fished some big reds and caught slot fish, as well. They fished about 30 pilings but only two held fish (fairly typical in the winter). On Saturday, they ran west and tried for stripers. They broke off three of them before landing one. They caught that striper and a couple of redfish before the bite slowed. They headed back east toward Hampton and finished out their trout limit. Sunday was a slower bite with a bunch of short trout and just few keepers. On Wednesday, they had 20 throwback trout and only six keepers on all plastics. They also fooled an oversized redfish, a sheepshead and a black drum on plastics.

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 Jan. 21.

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 Jan. 16:
Clyo on the Savannah River – 7.4 feet and rising
Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 5.7 feet and rising
Doctortown on the Altamaha – 8.3 feet and rising
Waycross on the Satilla – 8.9 feet and falling
Atkinson on the Satilla – 8.4 feet and falling
Statenville on the Alapaha – 5.9 feet and falling
Macclenny on the St Marys – 3.6 feet and falling
Fargo on the Suwannee – 4.1 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 at [email protected].