Okefenokee Swamp Offering Great Late-Winter Bites

Capt. Bert Deener and a friend recently caught 76 fliers in the Okefenokee Swamp. These small panfish are an excellent-tasting fish.

The Okefenokee Swamp bite is excellent right now.

After several sunny days, the shallow, blackwater system warms quickly, and the fish start chewing. Fliers make up for their lack of size with their taste and high numbers. In two hours of fishing recently on the east side, a friend and I caught 76 fliers by pitching pink sallies and chartreuse sallies on bream-buster poles.

Fliers are effectively caught with small Okefenokee Swamp Sally flies either pitched on bream buster poles or fly rods. If you like to watch a cork, fliers will readily take red worms or crickets pitched under a small float.

Bowfin and pickerel bit jackfish and black/chartreuse-colored Dura-Spin in-line spinners over the weekend. Brentz McGhin caught a 7-pounder, but double-digit bowfin are not uncommon. Whether you do it yourself from rental boats available on the east (Okefenokee Adventures) and west sides (SC Foster State Park) or book a charter, you will enjoy the surroundings and active bite. Try to time your trip after a few warm days for the best action.

The Swamp should still be good this weekend unless we get a ton of rain on Thursday.

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].