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

Get ready for some great fishing over the next month as the water warms and rivers drop out to perfect levels. The Okefenokee, ponds and St Marys River are great locations for this weekend, but different sections of some other rivers are getting right. Saltwater tides will be reasonable late this week, but they are increasing as we approach New Moon.

Satilla River: The first angler award-sized redbreast was caught this weekend on the Satilla. It was 1.08 pounds. He caught it on a crankbait. Scott, Raigan and Amiee fished the upper Satilla on Sunday and caught a 5-gallon bucket of nice catfish by fishing shrimp on the bottom. Their biggest was 2 1/2 pounds. They also had some nice redbreasts on Satilla Spins. The water is still high, but lots of quality fish are going to be caught this week. The key on the Satilla is to fish it when it’s just barely high enough to get your boat around the numerous sandbars (it’s even better fishing if you have to drag over and around a few….). That will probably happen during the next couple of weeks for most boats.

St. Marys River: Dale and Emma Anderson fished the river on Thursday and caught a giant bluegill by flinging a chartreuse back pearl 2-inch Keitech on a Zombie Eye Jighead. Their biggest was 1-lb., 6-oz. and they had 2 that were exactly 1-lb., 0-oz. They ended up keeping 43 fish, including bluegills, redbreasts and six crappie (they also threw back a half-dozen). Dale threw a 1/32-oz. Zombie Eye Jighead and chartreuse back pearl, sight flash, and bluegill flash 2-inch Keitech. Emma threw an underspin and Junebug plastic.

Dale and Emma Anderson fished the St Marys River on Thursday, April 24, 2025 and caught some nice bluegill, and Dale’s was a giant! The bluegills ranged from 1-lb. even to 1-lb., 6-ozs.

Suwannee River: Bill Stewart and Ronnie Music fished the river on Thursday morning and caught a good mess of catfish by fishing shrimp on the bottom. They had 34 bullheads and 2 channel cats.

Okefenokee Swamp: I fished the east side Friday for just a few hours and had a productive trip. I started by pitching Mirage Jigs to shoreline cover to see if warmouth were biting, and they were. I caught three nice warmouth and a good spotted sunfish (stumpknocker) in a short time then went for the big fish. Both casting and trolling produced bowfin and pickerel, and I ended up catching and releasing a total of 22 fish. The best Dura-Spin colors that day were crawfish-brass blade, lemon-lime, and jackfish. Three of the pickerel were pushing 20 inches, with the biggest right around 21 inches. Chuck Dean fished the east side Sunday for a short time and caught and released a MONSTER bowfin by trolling a fire tiger-chartreuse blade Dura-Spin. It was 30 inches (he didn’t have a scale), which would generally be a little over 10 pounds. The bad news is that during the scuffle landing it (he didn’t have his net with him) he (or the bowfin) broke the tip of his pole, so it was a one and done trip. He and his daughter had a great rest of the trip looking around at the gators, flowers, and other animals after that one catch. Billy Bice and William Royster fished with me on Monday and caught a total of 42 fish during their half-day trip. Trolling produced about two-thirds of the fish, but casting was also effective. We even had a couple of double hook-ups. Their biggest bowfin was 7-lb., 10-ozs., and biggest pickerel was 20 inches. The same three colors of Dura-Spins worked best, although we tried others. An angler fishing the east side on Thursday fooled about 20 warmouth with a white jig. The most recent water level on the Folkston side was 120.70 feet.

Billy Bice caught and released this 20-inch pickerel on Monday, April 21, 2025 while fishing the east side of the Okefenokee Swamp with Capt. Bert Deener. It ate a jackfish-colored Dura-Spin.

Local Ponds: Chip Lafferty had the best bass report I heard of this week, and it was from a Brunswick area pond. He had five fish that weighed 22-lbs., 3-ozs. One of them was on a blue glimmer shad Wobble Blade, one on a ChatterBait, and the rest were on a Texas-rigged blue worm. Buck Johnson fished a Waycross area pond and had a blast on Tuesday morning. He fished a short time after the sun came up and caught 15 bluegills and a small bass by pitching a white Mr. Jet fly. Shane and Joshua Barber fished a couple ponds over the weekend and worked for their bass. They caught their biggest (a 3-pounder) on a Satilla Spin Magnum Spinnerbait.

Jacob caught this big black drum on Friday, April 17, 2025, by putting crab on the bottom in a deep hole with Capt. Chris Ruff.

Saltwater (Georgia Coast): Tom and Rick fished the Brunswick area on Friday and worked for their fish. They ended up catching five redfish, two trout, two flounder, and a black drum. One of the redfish was a perfect 22 1/2 inches and got an invitation to supper. Don Harrison fished with a friend out of Crooked River State Park on Saturday. They had fun, but the bite was slow. Their first three trout were 16, 17 and 19 inches, but they were almost an hour apart. They added another three throwbacks to the tally before calling it. The keepers ate nuclear chicken Keitech swimbaits fished underneath Equalizer Floats, while the throwbacks ate electric chicken Keitechs. Kris Irwin came down from Athens to fish with a friend in the middle Georgia coast. They worked for their trout but caught some. Their biggest (about 18 inches based on the photo) ate an electric chicken Keitech rigged on a Zombie Eye Jighead. Capt. Billy Bice (billybeecharters.com) and William Royster fished Tuesday in the Brunswick area and kept a couple dozen really nice whiting (several over 13 inches). They had a bunch of shorter fish also. The whiting bite has been really consistent on the southern Georgia coast this week. Capt. Chris Ruff (rccaga.com) did well for flounder at the creek mouths with live shrimp, jigs, and mudminnows late last week. Trout and reds were around shell beds. He said that live bait and jigs worked equally well late last week in the Darien area. On Friday they got on some big black drum along with reds and trout. Crab on the bottom is what they bit. On Tuesday and Wednesday in the Brunswick area they had trout, reds, and flounder on live shrimp suspended under Harper Super Striker Floats. The water temperature where they were catching them was 72 to 74 degrees. On Thursday in the Brunswick area, they used live shrimp under Harper Super Striker Floats again and caught a big trout on their first cast then nothing. They moved and started catching a few oversized reds, some slot reds and two nice flounder, mostly around shell mounds. The sharks have started, as they caught some on Thursday. Capt. Tim Cutting (fishthegeorgiacoast.com) got on a great bite with artificials on Friday. They hammered 26 good trout (only kept 12). On Monday trout and reds were on fire. They had a limit of trout, 6 overslot reds that they released, and four flounder. Tuesday was about the same bite, but it included a 6-pound flounder! Wednesday was a little slower with only a dozen trout, but they had some oversized reds and some slot reds, as well. On Thursday the bluefish invaded the inshore areas they were fishing and tore up bait and plastics and anything else in their way. They also had a jack crevalle try to eat their float. They did manage to boat a half-dozen oversized reds, three slot fish, six trout and six 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.

New Moon is April 27. To monitor all the Georgia river levels, visit the USGS website at waterdata.usgs.gov/ga/nwis/rt. For the latest marine forecast, check out www.weather.gov/jax/.

River Gages On April 24:
Clyo on the Savannah River – 6.4 feet and falling
Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 5.0 feet and falling
Doctortown on the Altamaha – 10.0 feet and falling
Waycross on the Satilla – 7.9 feet and falling
Atkinson on the Satilla – 8.6 feet and falling
Statenville on the Alapaha – 7.8 feet and falling
Macclenny on the St Marys – 2.9 feet and falling
Fargo on the Suwannee – 4.6 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].