Savannah River Flounder Near Augusta

Justin Moody, of Augusta, along with buddies Jeff Petersen and Mike Thorp, love bowfishing for catfish and other species on the Savannah River below the New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam. A few years ago, they learned to start looking for flounder on sand and gravel bars. They’ve arrowed some good ones.

Stripers, mullet and American shad are among the species that spend time in both freshwater and saltwater. Depending on the season, they can be found in good numbers in Georgia’s coastal freshwater rivers. But what are flounder doing 160 miles up the Savannah River below the Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam in Augusta?

Bowfisherman Justin Moody, of Augusta, sent GON photos of a few good flounder in the 3 1/2- to 4-lb. range that he and his buddies have arrowed on the Savannah River just downstream of the lock and dam over the last few years. The Savannah River basin is the only place in Georgia where it’s legal to arrow catfish, and that’s primarily what they hunt. But when they’re out at night shining lights in the shallows, they keep an eye out for flounder. Justin said he starts seeing them every August.

WRD Region 7 Supervisor Tim Barrett said he is aware of flounder in the Savannah.

“There are always some up there, but just a handful,” Tim said. “We may see two or three while electrofishing every year.

“I don’t know what they’re doing up there. My guess would be these things are living out on sandbars and making a living on minnows and darters and things.”

Tim said biologists also find hogchokers — a smaller, rounder saltwater flatfish — way up the Savannah River. And they see the same thing on other coastal rivers, like the Ogeechee. However, Tim said flounder and hogchokers are the only purely saltwater species he knows of that make it that far into freshwater.

If you want to catch one, Tim suggested fishing sand and gravel bars. If you want to arrow one, Justin said they’re tough to spot.

“The sand is so light that it’s real hard to see them,” Justin said. “They bury themselves in the sand part-way, and it’s pretty much their head you’re looking for.”