Southeast Georgia Fishing Reports With Capt. Bert Deener – June 13, 2025

Okefenokee Swamp fishing has been great this week. Pond fishing has been consistent, but the number of reports has been low as the heat and evening thunderstorms have increased. Get used to it for the next several months!

Satilla River: A Waycross angler fished the middle river on Friday and only caught a couple fish on Satilla Spins. He said the river had come up and muddied since he fished earlier in the week. Unfortunately, it’s rising again just as it was getting right for floating for panfish.

Okefenokee Swamp: Chad and Casey Raulerson fished the east side Friday and caught a bunch of bowfin and pickerel. However, their catch of the day was a largemouth bass that ate Casey’s parrot-colored Perch Hounder Spinnerbait—the same one they use for cichlids in the Everglades! It was 1 1/2 pounds. Congratulations, Casey!

Joshua Barber fished with me on the east side Friday morning for a few hours, and we caught and released a total of 28 fish. Half of them were on the fly rod, and the other half were casting a Dura-Spin on spinning tackle. We caught fliers, warmouth, pickerel and bowfin on flies. Most of the fish ate a 3-inch white Game Changer fly, but the fliers chewed a small, green-backed shad fly. Our biggest bowfin was around 4 pounds. The only species we added with spinning tackle was a Florida gar, and we caught two of them and had at least a dozen of them slash at the in-line spinners.

Kent and his son John  Kent Jr. (10 years old) stayed at the cabins at SC Foster State Park and fished the west side over the weekend. They whacked fish on Dura-Spins each day. On Friday, they caught a total of 34 fish, with the biggest bowfin 5.36 pounds. Their scale broke, so that was it on weights, but they said they didn’t have any bigger than that 5-pounder. On Saturday the bite was better, but they had to dodge storms. They were in and out of their cabin but caught fish when they were out. They caught a bunch of bowfin, pickerel, several warmouth and even a bluegill on the big spinners.

On Monday, Wade and Mychaela Eatmon came down from Atlanta to fish with me on the east side. Wade used a fly rod almost all day, and Mychaela cast Dura-Spins. We caught a total of 26 fish, and about half were on the fly and the other half the in-line spinner. The best fly was a jackfish-colored (red/white/yellow) Clouser minnow, but a pickerel cut it off after only a few fish. After that we could only get one or two fish to inhale each pattern we tried. The best color Dura-Spins were jackfish and firetiger-chartreuse blade. Wade fooled our biggest bowfin (5-lbs., 14-ozs.) with the fire-tiger version.

On Tuesday, Justin, Jax (10) and Axel (6) came down from Metter and fished with me on the east side. The amount of energy those boys had is a distant memory for me, but it invigorated me to see them having so much fun! They boot-stomped the bowfin and pickerel, catching a total of 51 fish during a half-day trip. Justin had a few pickerel up to 18 inches early in the trip on jackfish-colored Dura-Spins then it was a bowfin-fest. Jax had the biggest—a 5-lb., 15-oz. monster. Lemon-lime was the color late in the trip, and firetiger-chartreuse was best at the beginning. Jackfish fooled the most in the middle. They kept a few bowfin and made fish tacos that evening for supper. The whole family enjoyed them—no leftovers! The key to bowfin is to eat them the same day you catch them. I usually make “crab cakes” once a year with bowfin and haven’t done that yet this year, so it’s time.

Jeremy Robertson and Robert Pittman fished the Swamp Thursday and caught 15 pickerel and quit counting the bowfin while casting Dura-Spins. Their first color that they killed them with was blood red, but they had to switch after a bunch of bowfin destroyed it. They also caught them on firetiger, chartreuse and white. They ended up deciding that color didn’t really seem to matter that day.

Jim and Clay Spencer fished the west side Wednesday and the east side Thursday. They caught plenty of bowfin and several pickerel on each side using mostly Dura-Spins. Clay had the hot hand on big fish and had their biggest Wednesday on a firetiger Dura-Spin and Thursday (8 1/2 pounds) on a white-red body version. He also had a big gar on the same lure. The most recent water level on the Folkston side was 120.70 feet.

Local Ponds: Joshua Barber had a stellar trip Thursday at a local pond. His top four bass weighed just over 22 pounds. He had two over 7 pounds, with his biggest 7-lb., 15-oz. He fooled them with SPRO topwater frogs fished over vegetation. He released the bass after a few photos.

Jimmy Zinker has been night fishing for bass but has not caught any big fish lately. The 2- and 3-pounders have been hitting Musky Jitterbugs and Trophy Bass Buzzbaits.

Ella Kate fished with her dad, Chris in their Ware County pond and caught some bluegill and bass on bumblebee Satilla Spins.

Ocmulgee Public Fishing Area (near Hawkinsville): Ken Burke fished the area on Monday morning and had a great day for bass at the catch-and-release only (for bass) lake. Water temperatures hovered around 85 degrees in the sunny to cloudy conditions, and the fish were chewing as bad weather moved in. Another boat on the lake had five bass with one over 5 pounds on topwaters early in the day. Ken had nothing for the first three hours, but then it turned on. He got on a good stretch and within 30 minutes as the rain started caught and released six bass that weighed a total of 18 1/4 pounds. His biggest was just over 4 pounds. He fooled them with a squarebill crankbait in two different color patterns. On Wednesday, David Blake caught and released three bass, with two over 5 pounds and one over 6 pounds. The big fish are chewing at the area!

Saltwater (Georgia Coast): I got one excellent flounder report from the St. Marys Jetties. They caught 18 keeper flounder up to 20 inches using mud minnows as bait. A local captain said that the trout bite has slowed a little, but they’re still catching fish, and they released a decent number of trout longer than 18 inches this week, as well. They caught oversized and slot reds, along with a few undersized fish starting to show up, which is typical for this time of year. He and his wife had a dozen nice redfish Tuesday—all released. She was pitching a Gulp! 4-inch grub and even caught a big flounder on it. The bigger trout have been eating the stellar blue-colored FourSeven 3.5-inch swimmer pinned to a Zombie Eye jig head. His trips had a handful of solid flounder this week by floating live shrimp under Harper Super Striker Floats. The trick was to float the shrimp shallow next to shell beds on the outgoing tide.

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.

Last quarter moon is June 18.

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 gages on June 12 were:
Clyo on the Savannah River – 10.1 feet and rising
Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 7.3 feet and falling
Doctortown on the Altamaha – 9.7 feet and rising
Waycross on the Satilla – 5.9 feet and rising
Atkinson on the Satilla – 7.7 feet and rising
Statenville on the Alapaha – 3.0 feet and rising
Macclenny on the St Marys – 2.6 feet and rising
Fargo on the Suwannee – 4.5 feet and falling

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].