Southeast Georgia Fishing Reports With Capt. Bert Deener – April 11, 2025

Capt. Spud Woodward caught this slot redfish a couple of weeks ago while fishing in the Brunswick area.

I’ve not been around a lot this week due to fishing in the Everglades, but the reports I did receive were good. The rivers are getting back down and those bites are heating up at different rates. Guess right and you could be in for a great day!

Altamaha River: Seth Carter fished the backwaters of the river and had 15 keeper-sized bass and a handful of shorts. He fooled them with buzzbaits, spinnerbaits, shaky-head worms and crankbaits. His biggest was a monster (he said it looked like a 7-lb. class fish) that pulled off on the boat-flip when he decided that he couldn’t wait for the net.

Robert Smith took his kids fishing on the river over the weekend. They ran some bush hooks and caught a nice channel catfish. The kids loved the experience (their first time running hooks).

Oconee River: The 5th annual Wicked Fish Customs Catfish Tournament was this weekend, and they had 30 boats enter. First place with a limit of 10 flatheads weighing 144.91 pounds and also the kids’ category big fish (30.59 pounds) was Dalton Poole, David Ussery and Dracen. Nick Garner and Mathew Landrum came in second with 131.58 pounds. Third place was Ryland Thigpen and Lync Pope with 126.18 pounds (including the overall big fish of 53.87 pounds). Daniel Gullion and Dale Anderson came in fourth with 124.86 pounds. Dale and Daniel said that they threw back more than 60 blue catfish and channels up to 20 pounds while trying to catch their flatheads.

Ocmulgee River: Miles Zachary fished the Ocmulgee on Friday and caught some nice bass on a Capt. Bert’s buzzbait. The river has been up and down over the last couple of months but is rising fast at the time of writing this.

St. Marys River: Matt Rouse fished the upper river on Monday. He fought the wind and caught a dozen nice redbreast, along with several bluegill, bowfin and pickerel. White with red dot Beetlespins produced his fish.

Sammy Gaskins fished the river on Wednesday and had a total of 35 fish that included a crappie and a bass. The rest were redbreast and bluegill. I didn’t ask the details, but he usually catches them on a Beetlespin.

Shane and Joshua Barber fished the middle river on Thursday afternoon and did really well. They fooled most of their fish with bumblebee and crawfish Satilla Spins but caught a few on a bug. They ended up catching around 35 fish, including a crappie, two bass and the rest redbreast, bluegill and stumpknocker.

A couple of friends walked a tributary to the main river on Thursday evening and caught a bunch of panfish. They fooled warmouth, bluegill, spotted sunfish (stumpknockers) and bass, mostly with chartreuse back pearl 2-inch Keitech swimbaits.

The Temple Landing, recently rebuilt by the GA Wildlife Resources Division, is now reopened. The new facilities will serve boaters and anglers well for decades to come!

Okefenokee Swamp: Buck Johnson fished the east side on Friday and caught 30 warmouth. He pitched chartreuse pearl artificials on Zombie Eye Jigheads to shoreline cover for his fish. Bowfin and warmouth have been the best bites on the east side, according to Okefenokee Adventures staff. The most recent water level on the Folkston side was 121.14 feet.

Local Ponds: Chip Lafferty fished a Brunswick pond for an hour just before the storms rolled in on Tuesday, and the bass were chewing! He landed 25 of them up to 5.1 pounds.

Jimmy Zinker did not have any big bass this week, but he said that the buzzbait bite is on fire for numbers of mid-sized fish. Robert Smith and his children fished their pond for the first time this year and caught a bunch of nice bluegill on Monday.

Everglades, Florida: I headed south with friends Bill Stewart, Teddy Elrod and Chuck Dean early this week for a few days. We fished the canals around Fort Lauderdale and had a blast. Cichlids of several species and lots of native bluegill, spotted sunfish (stumpknockers) and largemouth bass ate our flies and spinners. The most special day for Bill and me was Tuesday when we figured out the peacock bass. They were locked down on beds and would not take the usual offerings. I decided to drop a jig in their bed to see if I could get them to react. I didn’t want them to see it very well, so I chose one of my 1/16-oz. Mirage Jig made with pearl tinsel. Sometimes it took several pitches to get them to eat it, but they reacted to it every time. We caught (and released) all six fish with the Mirage Jig that we found locked on beds that evening. The next day we spent the entire day in that same canal and ended up catching 91 peacock bass. Again, every one that was locked on a bed would eat the tiny little jig. The best part was that we caught them on ultralight gear, so once we set the hook the fun was just beginning. We caught nine of them at other canals, so we realized on the way home that we had caught exactly 100 peacock bass during the trip. Teddy and Chuck used fly rods the entire time and caught several peacock bass along with tons of cichlids and natives. They ended up catching and releasing 783 fish. The four of us caught a total of 1,531 fish during the 2 1/2 days of fishing.

Saltwater (Georgia Coast): It’s been windy in the brine! I had a buddy who tried some big water over the weekend and got blown out. He was hoping to find some fishable areas, but it didn’t happen for him. You have to get into some protected areas when the afternoon breeze kicks up.

A local captain said it was a little slow for everything but redfish and sheepshead. On Tuesday, they got into a couple of limits of redfish and six nice trout. On Wednesday, 8-year old Banks caught about the same and added a beautiful flounder to get his slam. This week they caught fish on live shrimp rigged on a Capt. Bert’s Shrimp Hook suspended underneath a Harper Super Striker Float.

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.

Anna Maria Island, Fla.: Charles Sweat and his family fished the Anna Maria Island area with Bass and Bay Charters and got on some nice snook and seatrout during the day. Their biggest was a 25-inch snook.

River gages on April 10th were:
Clyo on the Savannah River – 8.7 feet and rising
Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 8.5 feet and rising
Doctortown on the Altamaha – 9.0 feet and falling
Waycross on the Satilla – 11.2 feet and rising
Atkinson on the Satilla – 8.4 feet and falling
Statenville on the Alapaha – 7.2 feet and falling
Macclenny on the St Marys – 4.3 feet and falling
Fargo on the Suwannee – 9.3 feet and falling

New Moon is April 12.

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/.

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].