Southeast Georgia Fishing Reports With Capt. Bert Deener – Feb. 21, 2025

John Ross fooled this lunker bass on Tuesday with a Sammy topwater.

Winter is back, so it is up to judging how much of a warm-up behind a front will get the fish biting again. Some folks got on good bites in both salt and freshwater, while others did not put all the pieces together. This week’s rains have all of the south Georgia rivers rising—some are in the floodplains.

Oconee River/Lake Sinclair The first Catfish Legends Tournament of the year was attempted on Saturday at the Balls Ferry Ramp on the Oconee River, but rain the day before flooded the river. They made a last-minute move to Lake Sinclair and held the catfish tournament. First place (36.59 pounds) and big fish (13.22 pounds) was Team Soggy Bottoms. Catfish Champions took second with 29.75 pounds, while third was Team C & H with 28.65 pounds. If you are interested in future tournaments, check out Catfish Legends on Facebook.

St. Marys River:  Matt Rouse fished the upper river on Monday and had a good couple-hour trip. He threw a white curly tail grub and caught five nice crappie (three of them around 12 inches) and a stumpknocker. He also put shrimp on the bottom and caught a couple nice channel catfish.

Sammy Gaskins fished Tuesday afternoon and caught 25 fish (17 were crappie). He usually flings small spinnerbaits, but I did not ask him what he used.

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.

We will hate seeing the popular Shady Bream Tournaments come to an end! You may want to check out the new trail Bream Reapers Fishing Tournament if you are interested in fishing bream tournaments. Many of the details are still being developed, so you can comment about how you would like to see them run.

Okefenokee Swamp: I fished the east side by myself on Saturday and checked lots of different areas. I caught a few fliers or pickerel from each spot and then moved on. I caught a couple really big fliers—pushing 3/4 pounds. They ate a chartreuse back pearl 2-inch Keitech rigged on a 1/16-oz. Flashy jig head. The pickerel ate crawfish Dura-Spins and chartreuse back pearl 3-inch Keitechs fished unweighted around vegetation. Several jackfish inhaled the swimbait and cut me off. I caught and released a total of 14 fish that morning.

On Tuesday, Bill Stewart fished with me on the east side. Water temperatures were in the upper 50s most places we fished. We caught and released a total of 23 fish with a half-dozen pickerel, a 3-lb. bowfin and the rest fliers. We caught a half-dozen smaller, 6- to 7-inch fliers by pitching pink Okefenokee Swamp Sallies on a bream buster pole, but casting worked best. I caught my fish on a white (gold blade) prototype in-line spinner I’ve been using for the last year. Bill caught his on a chartreuse back pearl 2-inch Keitech on a 1/16-oz. Flashy Jighead. The most impressive fish were the half-dozen fliers over 8 inches that we caught. Our biggest was 9 1/8 inches long. If you want to catch a big flier in the Swamp, now is the time to do so. Our biggest pickerel was 19 inches, and it inhaled Bill’s firetiger-chartreuse blade Dura-Spin. Bowfin were elusive this week, as they didn’t want to chase down our lures in the colder weather. With the rising water levels, they’re also likely moving out of the canals into the flooded prairies. The most recent water level (Folkston side) was 121.0 feet.

Dodge County Public Fishing Area (near Eastman): Ken Burke had a great trip to the area on Saturday. He caught and released seven bass for a total of 21 1/4 pounds. His biggest two were 3.75 and 3.5 pounds. He fooled all but one of them with a crankbait, and that one other inhaled a shaky-head worm. He also fooled a 1-lb., 10-oz. slab crappie. Ken said that the bass are feeding up in the shallow water ahead of the spawn.

Another angler following schools of shad with forward-facing sonar was able to coax 30 small bass (a pound to 1 1/2 pounds apiece) to eat.

Paradise Public Fishing Area (near Tifton): The Wildlife Resources Division is beginning a bass study on the area and will be tagging bass over the next month. If you catch a tagged bass, clip the tag and return it along with the information requested on a tag return form. The forms are available on the porch at the area office. Each person returning a tag will receive a custom-embroidered ball cap and be entered into a drawing for a Yeti cooler. Each angler will only receive one cap, but there is no limit to the number of times you can be entered into the drawing.

Local Ponds: Joshua Barber fished a clear-water pond on Saturday and had seven bass on stick worms and one on a grub. The biggest was a couple pounds. A Blackshear angler fished a pond on Saturday and fooled some nice bass with stick worms. His largest was 4 1/2 pounds, and his biggest five weighed 18 pounds.

Laurel fished with her dad BJ in a Brunswick area pond over the weekend and had a blast. They landed 14 bass in just a few hours by flinging Trick Worms.

Chad Lee fished with his friends Daniel and Regan on Saturday afternoon. They caught a great mess of crappie and several bass. The crappie ate a slammin chicken Assassin Tiny Shad rigged on a pink 1/32-oz. Zombi Eye jig head, and the bass inhaled Christie Craws.

Chris, Becky, John Ross and Ella Kate fished their pond on Tuesday evening. They caught several bass, but John Ross had the monster. They released it without weighing it, but it looked like a 6- or 7-pounder.

St. John’s River (Astor, Florida) / Crescent Lake: This cold snap slowed down the great crappie bite in Astor from the reports I heard. The couple folks I talked with still had a few big fish per day, but the numbers were very low. Reports from the spider-rigging folks in Crescent were better than the Astor reports.

Saltwater (Georgia Coast): A charter captain had two good trout days this week. On Tuesday, they cleaned 17 trout and had about the same number of shorts by flinging bay shrimp (Four-Seven Lures) rigged on Zombi Eye jig heads. On Thursday, they had almost exactly the same results but caught them on Four-Seven 3.5-inch swimbaits and 4-inch grubs. They finished the day by flinging live shrimp under a Harper Super Striker Float and caught a limit of redfish with a couple oversized fish.

Shane and Joshua Barber fished this week out of Crooked River and had a good time. They tried sheepshead but did not get on them and then switched to flinging artificials for trout. They ended up catching around 25 trout, but only two were keepers. A chartreuse Kalin grub and plastic shrimp fooled their fish. They found a small area that held all of their fish— typical of wintertime trout fishing.

Tommy Sweeney did not get out on the boat but caught several trout from a nearby dock by slow-rolling Crush City swimbaits.

Capt. Duane Harris fished with friends John Marshall and Spud Woodward on Tuesday and put it on the redfish. They caught 24, including a few oversized fish.

Brentz McGhin surf fished on Jekyll Island Saturday and caught a handful of whiting. He said it’s a little too early for that bite.

After your next trip to the Georgia coast, drop off your fish carcasses in the 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 open Friday through Tuesday each week (closed Wednesday and Thursday) They have plenty of lively shrimp and also have live worms and crickets for freshwater. For the latest information and their hours, contact them at 912.223.1379.

New Moon is Feb. 27.

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 gauges on Feb. 20 were:
Clyo on the Savannah River – 8.3 feet and rising
Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 12.5 feet and rising
Doctortown on the Altamaha – 9.3 feet and rising
Waycross on the Satilla – 12.1 feet and rising
Atkinson on the Satilla – 9.1 feet and rising
Statenville on the Alapaha – 8.9 feet and rising
Macclenny on the St Marys – 4.6 feet and rising
Fargo on the Suwannee – 6.4 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 at [email protected].