Georgia Saltwater Fishing Report – October 2007

Saltwater:

Inshore: The inshore fishing for trout and redfish has been very good on the south part of Georgia’s coast around the Golden Isles and St. Simons. Capt. Greg Hildreth said he has been using live shrimp under slip-cork rigs and fishing in the creeks and in the sound area. “The cast-netting for shrimp has been good too and will only get better,” Capt. Hildreth added. On the northern Georgia coast, Capt. David Newlin said the trout bite has been very good in the Richmond Hill area, and the spottail bass are finally big enough to keep. “The majority of the spottails now are 14 inches long,” Capt. Newlin said. “The main thing these guys are using around here is live shrimp,” he said.

Nearshore: There’s still time to get in on Georgia’s fantastic tarpon fishing. “There’s a big run of tarpon coming through, but it won’t last much longer. By the 10th of October it’ll be about over, but right now there are thousands of tarpon coming through — the most I’ve ever seen,” Capt. Newlin said, adding that the tarpon are between 2 to 5 miles offshore and heading due south in big schools. “We caught three Sunday casting Rapala Magnums, the one’s with a red head with a white body. If the water is clear enough, you can catch them casting a plug. If it’s the normal color, you can use a live pogie on top or a dead pogie on bottom,” said Capt. Newlin. On the southern coast, Capt. Greg Hildreth said the tarpon bite has been very good for the past few weeks around St. Simons. “There have been a lot of fish on the nearshore bars, as well as in the rivers. I’ve been catching most of my fish on live and dead pogies fished on the bottom as well as on float rigs. With this weather changing we should see fewer tarpon, and the bull redfish should get going,” Capt. Hildreth said.

Offshore: Bottom fishing has been fair, but it should begin to improve. “We’re catching a fair amount of bottom fish, and they’re starting to turn back on. The snapper and sea bass should turn on by the middle of October. The grouper have been hard to find this year, but it’s been a good year on big snapper, and we should be able to catch plenty of legal sea bass here pretty soon,” Capt. Newlin said. “We have a pretty good run of kings,” he said. “They’re on all the wrecks, towers and on the Snapper Banks. We’re trolling cigar minnows behind chartreuse Sea Witches, and we’re catching them up and down — trolling on top and with downriggers.”