Southeast Georgia Fishing Reports With Capt. Bert Deener – April 18, 2025

Ellie Deener fooled this rooster redbreast in the St. Marys River Friday with an 1/8-oz. warmouth craw Satilla Spin.

Springtime fishing is here. Bass are in all stages of the spawn. Early spawners are done and feeding up ahead of summer heat, and some species are just starting to spawn. Fun stuff, but sometimes difficult to pick a bite. If you pick right, it’s a blast! But if you don’t, then it could be a slow day. All the southeast Georgia rivers are full to flooded, except the St. Marys. Your best bets this weekend are probably saltwater (if weather allows), ponds, and the St. Marys River.

Satilla River: The river is still high, but the tributaries are in good shape. A Pierce County angler walked a small tributary on Tuesday evening pitching an orange Okefenokee Swamp Sally and caught three fliers in a short time.

St. Marys River: My daughter Ellie visited this past week, and we fished the middle St. Marys on Friday morning for a few hours. We ended up catching and releasing 14 fish total, including a bass, stumpknocker and several bluegill and redbreast. Ellie’s first redbreast was a rooster pushing 10 inches, and my biggest bluegill was right at a pound. We caught the fish on 1/8-oz. warmouth craw, black/chartreuse and coachdog Satilla Spins.

Matt Rouse fished the upper river on Friday and took a friend. Travis caught his personal best bluegill—right at a pound—during the trip. They also caught some other nice bluegill and redbreast.

Suwannee River: The state record for spotted sunfish (stumpknocker) was tied this week with a monster (12 ounces is a monster for that species) caught in the Suwannee. The river is still high and flowing through the floodplain, but it is dropping fast.

Bill Stewart and Orbie Davis fished the Fargo area on Tuesday and started out trying for panfish and pickerel. They changed tactics after only hooking one bowfin and bottom fished for catfish. They put shrimp on the bottom and fooled a good mess of bullheads. Orbie had a giant bullhead—likely over 2 pounds based on photos. They also had another unusually large bullhead.

Orbie Davis fished the Suwannee River on Tuesday and caught this giant bullhead catfish by fishing shrimp on the bottom.

Okefenokee Swamp: Buck Johnson fished the east side on Friday and caught 33 warmouth in three hours of fishing. He pitched chartreuse pearl artificials on Zombie Eye jig heads to shoreline cover for his fish. Another angler fishing that morning caught a mixed bag (fliers and warmouth) of 30 panfish. Another angler fishing this week caught a couple pickerel on spinners. Other reports were fairly slow. A friend had his first yellow fly bite this week, reminding us that time is coming in about a month. The most recent water level on the Folkston side was 120.94 feet.

Ocmulgee Public Fishing Area (near Hawkinsville): Ken Burke fished the area this week and had a really nice bass. He had two bass in four hours that weighed a total of 9-lbs., 1-oz. His biggest was a 6.25-lb. toad. He caught both fish on a crankbait.

Local Ponds: I missed a great report from last week. Last Saturday a group of Blackshear anglers fished a pond near Tifton and caught 45 slab crappie (kept 36) up to 14 inches and caught and released three bass (total of 7 pounds). Postspawn bass fishing has been great for folks pitching stick worms.

Lester Rowland and Chad Lee fished an Alma area pond on Saturday and caught some good bass. They had nine of them, and Uncle Lester caught the big fish (a 5-pounder) on his signature red-shad worm. Chad caught his on a green-pumpkin stick worm.

Chip Lafferty fished a Brunswick area pond this week and had a blast catching 14 bass with the largest pulling the scales down to 6-lbs., 5-ozs. Green-pumpkin stick worms and golden-shiner ChatterBaits were the ticket for him. The trio of Tripp, Charlotte and Waylon put it on the bluegill and shellcracker in their pond. The fish were bedding, and they fooled them with worms.

Saltwater (Georgia Coast): Seth Carter fished the Brunswick area this week and caught some really nice fish, including a great slam! They only had one keeper trout but lots of short fish on chartreuse D.O.A. Shrimp. Redfish cooperated, and they had some giants! Seth caught his personal best (on artificials)—a 31-incher—on a Gulp! shrimp. Five other oversized (26 to 27 inches) and a slot red ate paddletails. They also had two solid flounder on the Gulp! shrimp.

A local captain said trout, reds and flounder were in 6 to 10 feet of water this week in the deeper creeks. Floating shrimp under a Harpers Super Striker Float was the way to go for them on everything except the whiting. Pieces of shrimp on the bottom fooled the whiting.

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.

River gages on April 17 were:
Clyo on the Savannah River – 10.3 feet and falling
Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 10.4 feet and falling
Doctortown on the Altamaha – 10.2 feet and rising
Waycross on the Satilla – 12.2 feet and falling
Atkinson on the Satilla – 9.2 feet and rising
Statenville on the Alapaha – 7.9 feet and rising
Macclenny on the St Marys – 3.5 feet and falling
Fargo on the Suwannee – 6.6 feet and falling

Last quarter moon is April 20.

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/.

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].