Georgia Saltwater Fishing Report – May 2025

Saltwater: Inshore: Capt. Judy Helmey reports, “Well, if you have been following my fishing reports, you already know that this year’s cold-water spotted seatrout bite was very good both early 2024 and 2025. And normally I am saying, ‘The spotted seatrout bite is about to really turn on.’ However, it never shut off. All good things. For those who have had trouble finding a solid inshore bite up to this point, all of this is about to end. Why? With the month of May at bay, the fish bite is more dependable and predictable. In our fishing world, where we get to fish all the time, it is no wonder that we catch the fish. And as you all know, the fish don’t bite all the time. However, whether you fish all the time or not, I suggest keeping records because you think you will remember. However, trust me, you will not. Records kept equal, making it easier to know the fish’s whereabouts. Believe me during colder-water times if you don’t fish a lot and can’t get a handle on the whereabouts of live shrimp, then you’re catching troubles are many. During this time, live shrimp can be caught holding on mud banks, deeps holes, backs of creeks and of course at the bait shops. The best news is when it comes to the month of May. It is our best month because everything that swims is putting on a big-fish feeding bag. By the time this month rolls around, the spotted seatrout bite is joined up with the flounder bite, meaning two types of fish for one type of bait. As always, live shrimp under an adjustable float or popping cork works like a charm. However, if you want to get your bait closer to the bottom, but not right on it, an adjustable cork will do just that. The reason being is that you can adjust the depth fished (close to the bottom) to keep your cork floating properly up right. The bottom line when presenting bait this way is spotted seatrout will find your bait and the flounder can see it. If it’s artificial lures that you are looking to use instead, I suggest purchasing yourself some Berkley Gulp! Alive bait, which come in all sizes and shapes. The old saying, ‘the secret is in the sauce’ comes into play when using this line of artificial baits. These styles of artificial baits have been proven by the wants of many fish and fishermen. For those who just want to get the best chance at catching, I suggest giving bottom fishing in the sound a try. The whiting bite has been pretty good and should continue well into June. The best place to fish are around mud and sandbars anywhere from 10 to 30 feet of water. Believe it or not, but the old whiting can be found in both shallow and deeper water. I always suggest fishing every chance you can while not letting the tides be your guide. However, whiting (also known as southern kingfish) bite better with the least amount of current. This boils down to its best to have your line in a straight up and down. Therefore the two hours before until the two hours after the tide turns scenario is going to be the optimum time to get your best bite. As far as bait, this fish loves small pieces of shrimp fished directly on the bottom. Please remember this is the only fish that I know of that peels its shrimp before eating them. So therefore, feel free to peel some just to see how that bite goes. If you get a bite and miss it, reeling in and finding a cleaned shrimp shell only on your hook is a very common thing. At this time, it will be up to you whether you want to go into peeling your bait mode or not. Other great baits are small pieces of filet of fresh whiting with or without added small pieces of shrimp. Please remember when the bite slows, change your bait, and give that a try. Sometime using just shrimp or just small pieces of fish will turn the bite back on. Heck, if that doesn’t work, put both baits on the hook at the same time. This is better known by us as a fish’s greatest fish cocktail. As far as the best rig to use when targeting whiting, I suggest a Caroline style. This rig should be made with an appropriate size egg sinker that will hold your bait on the bottom and a small, thin-tinned hook. It will be up to you whether you want to use a circle or kahle-style hook. I mostly use small circle size No. 2 (or smaller) thin-tinned hooks Eagle Claw circle L197 hooks when targeting whiting. Please know that the sheepshead that have been wintering offshore at the artificial reefs have now started their normal yearly migration back to the inshore waters. When they move to the inshore waters, they are very spread out. They school around any sort of vertical structure that supports marine growth, such as pilings, bridge uprights, wrecks, downed tree limbs, and believe it or not but sometimes the old sheepshead school together with spotted seatrout.” Capt. David Newlin reports, “Spring and early summer are happening on the coast. Water temp was 78 degrees this morning in Ossabaw Sound. The water is alive with baitfish and shrimp almost everywhere I have fished this week. The redfish bite has been really good all month. In my 45 years of guiding, I have never seen this many redfish. On my last few trips, my fishermen have told me to quit fishing when they were worn out from catching fish. Yesterday, we caught 35 in about an hour and a half, from 16 to 36 inches. Redfish have been in the sounds and way back up in the creeks. A live shrimp has been working really good under a cork. If you can’t get shrimp, small mullet will work. Sometimes a chunk of mullet will work if the small trash fish are stealing your shrimp. Yesterday, I saw redfish chasing schools of pogies on the surface. I have never seen that before. The redfish bite should keep right on into summer. The trout bite should be really good during May. May and June are usually really good for trout catching. Trout should be all over the sounds. Oyster beds, points, drop-offs and all the usual drops should hold some trout. A slip-cork rig with a live shrimp should be your trout rig in May. Trout can be from 3 feet to 30 feet of water. Many places we will fish a slip cork as deep as 25 feet. Adjust your cork until it hits the bottom and shallow it up 3 or 4 feet in the deeper holes. Adjust the depth until you start catching trout. Some days a couple of feet make a big difference. The topwater trout bite should be good in May. Try throwing lures the first couple hours after daylight and the last hour before dark. A floating MirrOlure works good for me. Retrieve it in a jerking motion with a steady fairly fast speed. A lot faster than freshwater fishing. Strikes are usually really hard. Black drum have been biting really good all month. Try fishing a live or dead shrimp on the bottom in 10 to 25 feet of water around structure. Dock pilings, trees, any kind of junk will hold them. Fish a slip-sinker rig with a leader lighter than your main line. When you get hung, you just pop the hook off. May should have some big drum. Try fishing a blue crab on a heavy rod, and you might catch a big one. Use a big 8/0 circle hook. The big black drum are usually full of parasites, so just take a picture and release it. Flounder should start showing up any day. As usual, try fishing over shell flats and anywhere that shells and mud or sand mix together. I usually do my best flounder catching on the last half of the outgoing tide. Fish a live shrimp under a cork just off the bottom. When you catch one, fish the area real thoroughly. There should be a couple more. The whiting bite has been good and should keep going right on through June. Sharks are here early this year. A lot of bonnetheads and sharpnose sharks are in the sounds. The shrimp boats working 3 to 5 miles offshore have a lot of big blacktips all around them. When they pick the nets up, get behind one and the sharks should be there. Be careful and stay out of the way of working shrimp boats. Read regulations carefully if you plan on killing a shark. Any fresh fish works for bait. May should be a good fish catching month. Give me a call about a trip.”

Georgia Saltwater Fishing Page

Offshore Artificial Reefs: Capt. Judy Helmey reports, “Bottom fishing can be very good at this time of the year at the artificial reefs. The best bottom baits are cut squid and filet of fresh fish. These baits once put on or near the bottom get the fish’s attention. The black sea bass, trigger fish, summer trout, flounder and other bottom bitters love the option of a free meal. Any small fish that you catch I suggest lip hooking them on a beefed-up Carolina-style rig and sending them right back to the bottom. With a live-bait offering, you could find yourself catching anything from a large king mackerel to a big gag grouper to an early arriving cobia. As far as the topwater bite, the Spanish mackerel have arrived. You might not see them, but they are here. The best places to troll are going to be over and around structure. For those fishermen who don’t want to troll lures, I suggest pitching spoons or any sort of glass or cigar minnow imitators over and around the structure. If you happen to see a few Spanish catching air, I suggest working the area while pulling small to medium Clark spoons at different depths. While circling the structure and around any sort of surface live bait or jumping Spanish mackerel, you also could find yourself catching king mackerel, barracuda or little tunny. May is cobia month. The month of May means a lot for the topwater fisherman because it is the cobia season at the artificial reefs. During this time, the allusive cobia arrives along with its various ways for driving fishermen crazy. This is a fish that sometimes bites, and sometimes they don’t. Here’s the thing, you can see them, and they can see you, but sometimes bites don’t happen. So, it is best that you try to trigger a bite. Best live baits are juvenile black fish, pinfish, cigar minnow, Spanish sardines, peanut menhaden, live shrimp and eels. The full bottom line is that these live baits might not work in regards to getting the eating attentions of this fish. If the live stuff doesn’t trigger a bite, I suggest being prepared with some sort of artificial bait. My go-to artificial is a green/white or blue/white 3-oz. hair jig, which I have threaded on a white eel or some sort of trailing soft artificial bait. This bait in most cases brings on a hit whether the fish is hungry or not. If a cobia comes to your boat, swims around and won’t take any of your bait offering, I suggest casting the jig out in front of the fish’s heading, letting it fall free for about 10 feet, then working it in an upward/downward motion while not reeling in any line. It is a known fact that this action in most cases can cause the cobia to strike at the jig. Please whatever you do, once in this mode, give the jig time to work. You might not see the cobia, but it will be watching your bait. And while I am writing this report, Captain Dan DeYoung ‘Chum Bucket,’ while plain old bottom fishing, hooked up three nice cobias. While using a two-hook (made with 4/0 circle hooks) bottom rig laced with small pieces of squid, one of his fishermen hooked up two nice 32-inch cobia, which put up one heck of a serious fight. After these two fish were safely released back to the wild, they had another fishy visitor. This cobia was in the over 36-inch range, which is a very legal keeping fish. However, since this was a catch-and-release kind of a fishing trip, this over 36-inch cobia was fought, caught and released unharmed. And what does this mean to you? This cobia is still swimming and growing. It is time to go, because now you certainly do know.” 

Savannah Snapper Banks: Capt. Judy Helmey reports, “When the month of May rolls around, offshore fishermen get excited. The reason being is grouper season is in the wide-open mode. Please go to https://safmc.net/regulations and make sure you are up to date on the current federal regulations. Gag grouper season is open May 1, 2025 through June 15, 2025! Please go to https://safmc.net/regulations to get full details on regulations on shallow-water complex. This is the month the grouper exercises their right to make a move to feed. As far as what’s best to use for bait, I suggest the nervous bait, such as live cigar minnows or Spanish sardines, which are easily caught on just about any type of gold hook sabiki rigs. The secret is to use sabiki bait rigs made with No. 6 to No. 8 size hooks laced with fish skin. Once these styles hooks are dipped into the water, baits can’t resist the gold flash or the secret luring smells delivered. Another method for getting a solid grouper bite is by jigging, which has been working quite well for us for many years. As far as best jigs colors, cigar minnow or Spanish sardine imitations has been the catching deal. The secret to jigging when it comes to catching big grouper is to drop to the depth where the fish are holding and then work your jig by raising and dropping your rod. This basically works your jig about 4 to 5 feet up and down at the same depth. I call this working the strikes zone. Once hooked up, this area then becomes better known as the feeding zone! As far as topwater fishing at the Banks, anything goes from king mackerel to dolphin. This means you never know what might bite your hook. When moving from spot to spot, I try to always pull some sort of a swimming lure, which means just about any will work. I like dragging a 6/0 j-style, three-in-line-hook rig Sea Witch (1- to 2 1/2-oz. head) lure rigged with a small to medium ballyhoo. The secret to hooking up is to make sure that you have your reel in a medium drag mode, which is not too loose and not too tight. At this drag setting, your fish will get hooked up in a more solid fashion. I like pulling this rig on a standard stand-up, bottom-fishing rod with a 4/0 reel loaded with 50-lb. test monofilament line. My father always said, ‘If you want to snag them, you got to drag them every time you make a move!’”

Blue Water: Capt. Judy Helmey reports, “The blue waters of the Gulf Stream can certainly offer lots of action during the month of May. Water temperatures to the west of the stream are still cooler, meaning the edge is still strong. The best way to find fish is to locate any temperatures breaks. The dolphin bite is normally the best during this month. You can catch them pulling small- to medium-rigged baits right on the surface. For those who don’t want to rig ballyhoo, there is another option. I suggest pulling old-school birds with artificial squid in tow. My favorite in-tow artificial, which are very old school, is No Alibi Dolphin Delight lures. I have seen dolphins cross over an entire boat wake passing numerous baits just to get to the No Alibi lure. It is a great lure that doesn’t have to be rigged with any sort of bait. I always like pulling them about 3 feet behind my birds. And finally, once you find a dolphin school, I suggest stopping and pitching lures to them. You can use small jigs with screw tails, squid on a hook, cut ballyhoo on a hook, or you can use small live baits. Believe me, all will work. Here are a few things to remember when it comes to catching and keeping a school of dolphin’s attention. If they come to the boat with their lights on (colorful attire), they are most likely going to eat just about anything you throw at them. To keep the school’s attention, always leave the last fish hooked up swimming in the water right by your boat until you have landed the one before. Dolphins are very jealous fish and always want whatever their counterparts are eating. Over the years I have noticed an increase in billfish sightings off Georgia’s coast. Just last week (end of April) a Georgia-based blue water boat caught, fought and released seven Atlantic sailfish, which is most unusual for this area. I have seen many sailfish feeding on the surface in this area, and it is show-stopper for sure. When this fish is feeding on the surface, its dorsal fin (its sail) is completely opened. And if you get to watch long enough, you will notice that sailfish’s dorsal fin (aka sail) has an array of different up/down range of heights. They keep it down to reduce drag and increase speed. They raise it when they feel threatened, when in the hunting mode, to intimidate or to appear much larger than they really are. Sailfish are known for beating up their prey to soften it up, so that they can swallow it. Therefore, when targeting a sailfish, you must match the hatch, meaning don’t use too large of a dragging bait. Use small to medium ballyhoo with chin weights or birds with artificial squid in tow. However, the secret to hooking up a sailfish is that once the fish whacks at your bait, you must quickly drop the bait back. In other words, if the bait doesn’t look stunned, the sail just might quickly move on. And there is one more way to ensure a more solid hook-up, and that’s to drop all your bait in your trolling spread back. And what is this called? Prospect Fishing! Which can better be known by you as Catching by Prospect!”