Georgia Saltwater Fishing Report – March 2025

Saltwater: Inshore: Capt. Judy Helmey reports, “Well, I don’t have to tell you that January/February 2025 weather has been crazy. Our brief but devastating so-called blizzard/snowstorm dropped the water temps fast, causing much mayhem in the fisheries. This situation halted fishing for about a week. The bad weather is hopefully all behind us. It seems even though the water temperatures dropped quickly causing a much slower bite, the fish rebounded quickly. Even with the craziness of the cold fronts, water temps have been fluctuating just enough to keep the inshore bite more dependable. Although it’s a crazy bite and not everyone is catching fish daily, it is still worth trying. Why? You really don’t know unless you go. Our full-time captains, most of the time, even when they are not taking charters, are out fishing. And it does pay off. For those fishermen who don’t have the time to do this sort of thing, I suggest forming some kind of network with your fishing friends. The best news is March is the turning point month. Why? No matter what, temperatures rise in March and do not fall. I believe that fish, no matter the size, look forward to the month of March. After all, when fish can migrate, as well as eat at any time, it’s a big plus for them. This is the month when water temperatures will start to rise and not even a passing cold front can stop it, because it is still going to happen. There is an old saying that my father used all the time, especially when talking about the water temperatures in March. He always said, ‘When it’s 65, everything is alive.’ It is true when the water reaches this temperature, everything truly does comes alive. However, don’t wait until it reaches 65 degrees, I suggest starting practicing at the 60 degrees mark. Why? You are going to catch something. I guess you could call March the beginning of the end of hibernation month. Inshore bottom fishing in the sound just got more interesting. Bottom fishing is great in the sound because everything is on the move. Bull whiting should start showing up near sandbars in the sound. The best bait for this great size panfish is going to be small pieces of peeled shrimp laced on small hooks fished directly on the bottom. Best hook size is No. 4 to No. 6 khale hooks, also known as a wide gap hook, or a No. 4 to No. 6 classic j-hook. No matter the hook used, it is best to make sure it is thin-tinned style. As far as best bottom rig, I suggest Carolina-style rig. This rig keeps your bait near the bottom, allowing for a better hook-up opportunity. You could find yourself catching spotted seatrout, summer trout, flounder, trophy redfish, flounder and shark. The reason being is all fish are on the move, and they are hungry. Please remember that it is best to use a light tackle rod/reel setup with 10- to 15-lb. test main line when targeting whiting. I like using monofilament, but braid will also work. For larger fish, such as sharks or big trophy redfish, I suggest going with a little heavier tackle. I use 20- to 50-lb. test main line, and as far as the rig, I suggest a Carolina style made with 30- top 60-lb. test leader material. As far as best hook size, I suggest classic j-hook 4/0, 5/0 or 6/0. For those who prefer circle hooks instead, use 9/0 to 12/0. If using live bait, make sure the hook size and style matches the bait used. You don’t want to use a hook that is going to hinder the natural movement of the bait used. However, sometimes it is better to use a fish steak as opposed to a live fish. My best used and most hit bait during this time is a fresh whiting steak. To get the best whiting steak, cut the slice just like a loaf of bread. The secret is to not use too thick of a piece and to cut off any pieces hanging. If you don’t, smaller fish are going to assault your bait, leaving you with a leftover piece that no larger fish is going to be attracted to. Another thing to remember is that fresh cut whiting steaks are going to last only so long, so for more serious (bigger) bites, change it frequently. Once cut, let the steaks sit on your fish cleaning board, which allows them to dry. Once introduced back into the water, the true fishy scent will be repaginated (this word is not a word. However, it is a word that my father and I have used for more than 60 years. So, I am declaring it a word and it means bringing a fishy smell back to life). For those fishermen who prefer inshore trout and reds fishing, March is a great time to look for potential fishing spots. The water is clear, and it is the best time to see exactly what’s down under. And of course, while you are slowly making your way, I suggest dragging some sort of lure behind you. Best artificial proven baits are DOA shrimp patterns and Berkeley Gulp! Alive! Swimming Mullet and mud minnow/croaker soft baits. If you find any sort of action, I suggest stopping and giving it a try. As far as best live baits when fishing floats or not, is going to be live shrimp. Your best live bait and it travels well, is going to be the ever-popular cold-water loving mud minnow. The best news is you can catch your own. All you need is a minnow trap and a place such as a shallow tidal slough to set it. As far as bait for the trap, I suggest using raw chicken parts, tube of saltines, bacon, cracked crabs or oyster or clams. Another great bait is dead, old, last year’s smelly shrimp, preferably with the heads still intact. Any of these baits will work like a mud minnow attracting charm. The mud minnow can be fished lip hooked under a traditional or popping-float rig. This bait also works great when just fished directly on the bottom with a Carolina-style rig or hooked up just plain naked. And in some cases, two minnows on a hook are better than one. This hardy bait is not anywhere as delicate as shrimp and can be used a number of times, even after it has been bit and hit. I had a fisherman tell me the other day that he always let the minnow go after it caught a fish on it. He called it giving back, I called it chumming.” Capt. David Newlin reports, “February has been a real roller coaster ride with the fishing. We had some really good days and some really slow days with the fishing. March can be a really good fishing month in coastal Georgia. Redfish, trout, black drum and whiting should be here. The trout bite should be good. They will start moving toward the sounds out of the rivers and creeks. By the end of March, most trout will be in the larger bodies of water. All the usual drops should hold fish. A live shrimp under a slip-cork rig will be your best bet. Redfish are all over right now. They are way up the rivers from the freshwater line to the ocean. Any day now they will mostly head toward the sounds. In March, you can catch them in open water and up in some really small creeks. Look for structure, oyster beds, treetops and old docks. They can be from 1 foot to 20  feet deep in places. A live shrimp fished just off the bottom will catch them. The fun fish of March is always the whiting. They aren’t big, but they can be really abundant and easy to catch, and they are the only unregulated fish left. Whiting are really good eating fried fresh. When the water temps get around 70 degrees around the middle of March, find sandy bottoms from 10 to 20 feet deep. Usually the best bite is the last half of the outgoing tide. Take a 1-oz. egg sinker and run your line through it. Attach a swivel and put a 6-inch leader off the swivel and a long-shank No. 2 hook. Use a fresh piece of shrimp and fish it on the bottom. Keep moving until you start catching fish. Bring plenty of hooks and just cut off the stingrays and sharks. They can be a real nuisance. The stripers and freshwater catfish should be biting in the lower Ogeechee all month. The river between Fort McAllister and the Ford Plantation should have plenty of fish. With decent weather March should be good fishing.”

Georgia Saltwater Fishing Page

Nearshore: Capt. Judy Helmey reports, “Fishing artificial reefs equals short boat rides to the fish. During this time if you would like a short offshore boat ride to the fish, I suggest heading out to one of the nearshore artificial reefs. And the next question would be, your boat or mine? These areas are holding some pretty interesting catching options. Normally the black fish, also known as black seabass, school on low-relief bottom areas. There are pallet balls, tires, concrete piles and culvert pipes, which offer these fish a lot of feeding opportunities. As far best bait, I suggest using cut squid or fillet of fish. Heck, jigs tipped with or without any sort of bait, artificial or not, jigged or placed directly on the bottom will also work. I have found that artificial reefs, such as J, L, CCA, or any others located in 55 plus feet of water, to hold the most concentration of large black fish. The secret is to stop, drop and move until you find the fish. And since we have had several close encounters over the last few years with hurricanes, some artificial bottom has been moved or is covered with locking bottom sand. So, if you mark a few fish up off the bottom, there is most likely a lot more locked down in the sand in a facing-the-current mode. This is where stopping, dropping and checking could turn into some serious catching. Please know when drifting bottom spots at this depth, too many drifts will scatter the fish. I suggest making a couple of drifts, moving off and looking for more active bottom. After waiting 30 minutes or so, circle back and fish at this same spot. If the fish have moved, I suggest looking up or down current around the next structure. The offshore sheepshead bite should still be strong for the first two weeks of March. I suggest keeping your search for these fish to those artificial reefs or wrecks located in less than 50 feet of water. Any structure that offers lots of vertical feeding opportunity will hold the most sheepshead. Normally this is the time when these fish bulk up for their journey back to the inshore waters. The best bait when targeting this fish is the purple back or black back fiddler. Did you know that a sheepshead can hit your fiddler so hard that it can suck the insides out of the crab while leaving only its empty shell left balanced on your hook? So therefore, with this shared knowledge, I suggest always giving your fiddler crab a good once over before sending it back to the bottom. After all, no respectable sheepshead would be interested in an old empty fiddler shell. However, I do offer a secret tip back over on page 73 you’ll want to check out.” 

Savannah Snapper Banks: Capt. Judy Helmey reports, “This live-bottom area is located about 29 miles off our coast. It takes a longer boat ride but certainly does offer a lot of different catching opportunities. The bottom fishing is great and no matter the amount of baited hooks used; hook-ups should happen. The best bottom rig is going to be a two-hook rig made with 3/0 to 4/0 circle hooks. Please know that when targeting fish in the snapper-grouper complex, regulations require that you must use some type of non-offset circle hook. I like making my rigs out of 80-lb. test monofilament line. In the charter boat world, 16-oz. bank sinkers are the best. However, you can get away with 8 to 10 ounces, especially when there isn’t as many fishing at one time. As far as the fish catching possibilities, I will name a few: large green head black fish, 5-gallon-bucket-size trigger fish, nice hog nose snapper, knobbed head porgy, amberjack, masked almaco jacks, banded rudder fish, football-sized vermilion, solider fish, and I could keep on listing, but I think you get the point of it all. Lots of different species of fish for sure. We tell our customers that the Snapper Banks trip offers the biggest opportunity to catch the most different colorful fish. Don’t forget your offshore fish color identification booklet. This is one area that it will come in handy. This is a great time of the year to bottom fish around the naval towers as well as the live bottom areas located at the Savannah Snapper Banks. Believe me, I have fished in these areas for years and they are still holding fish. I call these fishing spots meeting places for fish. I have broken it down into three areas. At the north snapper banks, fish the following: R7 3149.000/8016.500; Naval tower, live bottom areas, 3144.970/8013.890. This is a good area to start a bottom fishing drift. Try 3144.192/8013.021. This is the coordinates to a ledge. Running 160 degrees and 330 degrees will keep you on the ledge. At the middle snapper banks, fish the following: R6 (M2R6) 3132.000/8014.000 naval tower; live bottom areas 3135.350/8021.660 (ledge) and 3134.990/8022.900, which is scattered live bottom. At the south snapper banks, fish R2 3122.530/8034.010 naval tower, live bottom areas 3124.768/8036.795 (tight/small area but very productive) and 3124.658/8035.262. Once locating this coordinate, work your way back 290 to 310 degrees to find more live bottom areas. Prior to heading out, it is best to always check the coordinates/areas in which you are planning to fish. I suggest purchasing a TOP SPOT Georgia offshore Brunswick to Savannah waterproof chart Map number N229. I provided coordinates to this company many years ago. These coordinates are proven to hold the attention of fish. As with most coordinates passed around, the numbers used sometime aren’t exactly on the fishing spot. The reason being is, especially in my case, these coordinates were derived from the use of loran. When transferring and re-computing coordinates, it seems that they never seem to be spot on the fish. To combat this problem, I always suggest slowing down before reaching suggested coordinates. While making way slowly I suggest keeping a sharp eye on your fishing finder. 

Blue Water: Capt. Judy Helmey reports, “It’s about a 60-mile run and is considered a more serious boat ride for sure. Please know that the secret to success when it comes to this type of fishing is that you must always factor in the weather. The most popular areas to fish in are going to be South and Triple ledges, which are in about 160 to 200 feet of water. The Deli Ledge is another good ledge to fish, which is located a little to the north of these areas. When your fish day takes you this far offshore, wind and waves can dictate your compass heading for the most comfortable ride to the fishing grounds. When departing the Savannah area, it is always good having onboard coordinates for the northern and southern blue water areas. These areas certainly do hold the interests of some colorful fish. It’s a great time to catch wahoo and black fin tuna. Now you might not see them, but they are there. During this time, old school trolling techniques is the rule. We pull standard Ilanders lures black/black and red/black rigged with medium/large ballyhoo, naked cedar plugs soaked in menhaden oil, and Trackers Ilanders rigged with dink/pewee ballyhoo. To some fishermen this means the basics, but for us elders, it just works. If you are a planer user, this method, especially during this time of the year, is very effective, because in some cases big fish are holding much deeper. I like using No. 4 inch high-speed planers with at least 30 feet of monofilament leader between planer and lure used. The oldest of oldest type of spoon that we use is a 3 1/2-inch Drone spoon. My preferred is www.dronespoons.com. There is a reason for using this style of spoon. The Drone spoons have two rings, which is what causes it to make erratic moves when trolled at about 4 to 6 knots. This movement gets a fish’s attention. If you have spoons in your tackle box that only have one ring, I suggest adding a second ring. And in fact, I always like to have extra and assorted size split rings just in case the Drone spoons are missing that extra ring. Double rings on a spoons change everything is regards to the movements made and the hits delivered. Best ledges to work this time of the year are going to be South Ledge (3106.416/7955.300), Deli Ledge (3132.961/7943.493) and Triple Ledge (3116.769/7952.069). These ledges hold the interest of black fin tuna, wahoo and numerous kinds of bottom fish. You can troll the area; give vertical jigging a try or just go plain old bottom fishing with a two-hook rig. Believe me, one way or the other you will catch fish. For those who want to do a little deep water wreck blue water fishing, try the Deep Water Wreck Dump Scow (3121.525/ 7950.403). I always suggest before heading out to check for any fish closures. For state regulations, go to www.eregulations.com/georgia/fishing. For federal regulations, go to http://safmc.net/ for the latest information. If you have trouble finding information, contact Kim Iverson, public information officer at 843.571.4366 or [email protected]. Kim is always very helpful.”