Alapaha River Bite On Fire: Fishing Report May 22, 2025

Kaden Forsythe with a nice Alapaha River bass.

Level: 4.58 feet and rising at this Alapaha River gauge. Water Clarity: Stained.

The Alapaha River has been on fire the past few days, and I’ve had numerous reports come in from anglers up and down the river. Josh Forsythe, of Homerville, made several trips this week, and the bite seemed to get better each time.

“The bite has been slap crazy. I’ve put in at a few different ramps this week, and no matter where I go, the fish are biting. We’ve been catching 10 to 20 bass per trip, and 30 to 40 bream. What’s really surprising is the size of fish we’re catching. We’re catching plenty of bass in the 2- to 4-lb. range, and a lot of the redbreast we’re catching are those big, hand-sized roosters,” said Josh.

To get on a good bass bite, Josh recommends throwing a Speed Craw, wacky-rigged worm or a white buzzbait with either a gold or black blade.

“The buzzbait bite has been insane this week. We’ve been catching them in the current but also backed way up in the sloughs, and that’s unusual for this time of year,” said Josh.

To target bream, Josh has been using a GA BOY LURES Swamp Spider in multiple colors with white being the best.

“They have been killing the topwater bug this week. I’ve tried several different colors, but anything white has really been the ticket. My father-in-law fished with me last week, and he caught a pile on the Beetle Spin. It seems like they’re biting anything you throw at them right now,” Josh added.

Jacob Crews, of Waycross, has also been fishing the Alapaha this week, mainly throwing a white buzzbait with a black blade first thing in the morning and then switching to bream fishing as the sun gets above the trees.

“They’ve been hitting that buzzbait hard first thing in the morning. When they stop on it, I’ve been swapping to the Swamp Spider to put some bream in the cooler,” said Jacob.

Other anglers reported large catches of fish this week on the locally made Satilla Spin. Top colors that I received reports on were crawfish and bruised banana. I didn’t hear from anyone who fished live bait, but I’m certain a cricket or half piece of worm drifted under a cork would get the job done.

The best reports I received this week seemed to come from the boat ramp at Lakeland, and with the current water, it’s easy to get around in a small jonboat or fish out of a kayak.

If you make it to the Alapaha River this week, be sure to send some pictures to our GON Facebook page, we’d love to see them!