Southeast Georgia Fishing Reports With Capt. Bert Deener – April 26, 2024

John Ross caught this bass this week while casting a bluegill flash Keitech swimbait on a 1/16-oz. Zombi Eye jig head.

The annual Satilla Riverkeeper fishing tournament will be held May 3-12. Get the details on the Satilla River Facebook page. Rivers are dropping out but are still high. Okefenokee Swamp is high, but the flier, bowfin and pickerel bites are picking up with the warmer weather. Your best bets this week are ponds and saltwater, but the St. Marys is fishable.

Satilla River: Catfish Legends held a tournament on Saturday out of the Burnt Fort Ramp. Sasquatch Outdoors won the event with 66-lbs., 7-ozs. The Bull Gator team brought 35-lbs., 6-ozs. to the scales for second and 28-lbs., 12-ozs. is what the Undercover team caught for third place. For all the latest information on the tournament trail, check out Catfish Legends on Facebook. The upper river has dropped below flood stage, but it is still in the floodplain. I expect it will be within the banks by late in the week, and catfishing should be decent by late in the week in the upper river.

St. Marys River: Brentz McGhin fished the river on Saturday and caught some nice panfish. He had a stumpknocker that would have been a river record, but he did not take the time to get it certified. He also caught warmouth, bowfin and a small bass that he released. He used crickets and plastic crawfish.

Okefenokee Swamp: I fished the east side on Saturday and checked a bunch of different areas. The water is still high and way out in the prairies, but there are fish in the canals. I fished four hours in the middle of the day and caught 16 fish by myself. I only caught a couple fish trolling, but casting was the ticket that day. All of the fish ate either lemon-lime, firetiger/chartreuse blade,or jackfish Dura-Spins. I tried lots of other colors, but the fish did not want the other hues.

What they lacked in numbers, the fish made up in size. I had three bowfin over 5 pounds and pickerel up to 22 inches. The biggest fish was a monster pickerel that I watched open its huge maw and totally inhale a Dura-Spin and immediately break me off. That’s the first time I’ve had one take it deep enough to get past the long wire that I use on the in-line spinner.

That same day a couple anglers dabbling jigs said that they had a “mess” of warmouth. Another group had caught only three warmouth. Almost all warmouth reports I’ve gotten are fewer than a dozen fish per trip.

Jim and Hayden Blackburn walked the boat basin on Wednesday morning and caught a handful of warmouth and fliers. They caught the most on crickets, but Hayden fooled a big warmouth with a Satilla Spin. The most recent water level (Folkston side) was 121.46 feet.   

Paradise Public Fishing Area: The King of the Kayak Series held a double-header tournament on Saturday. It was an interesting format. They fished Paradise PFA in the morning and then nearby Rutland Farms in the evening. It was well-received, as 22 people fished, and they scored 70 legal-sized bass during the event. Jason Lee won the event, Hank Joyner came in second and Seth Carter rounded out the top three.

Local Ponds: Don Harrison fished out of his kayak in a Waycross area lake on Saturday and flung Satilla Spins. He caught 18 nice bluegill up to 8 inches, and the best color was black/chartreuse. Jimmy Zinker fished a lake this week at night with Jitterbugs and buzzbaits and fooled five in one night. The biggest two were 7-lbs., 15-ozs. and 5-lbs., 15-ozs., and both ate the Jitterbug.

Jim Trollinger used one of my whitetreuse (white and chartreuse) Perch Hounder Spinnerbaits in a pond in the Savannah area and caught three bass in 10 minutes.

John Ross fished with his dad, Chris, this week and caught some bass in a Waycross area pond. He was flinging bluegill flash Keitech swimbaits rigged on Zombi Eye jig heads.

Saltwater (GA Coast): Warmer weather improved the reports before the cold front hit during the weekend. Capt. Cason Kinstle fished the Savannah area and put some youth on a good whiting bite by putting dead shrimp on the bottom.

Capt. Greg Hildreth had a great trip Friday with a group of biology club members from Georgia Military College. They were tagging sheepshead and ended up catching and tagging 14 of the convict fish.

Capt. Tim Cutting said that he had a couple good trips this week, but they worked for them. On Monday they had nine solid keepers along with three slot redfish and three oversized reds. They added a few sheepshead and black drum by floating shrimp over rip-rap. On Tuesday, they were mostly sight-seeing but caught a dozen trout and kept three for a waterside lunch at Mudcat Charlie’s. They saw a giant alligator and a bunch of smaller ones that afternoon.

On Wednesday, Capt. Tim had trouble finding trout—just a nice 18-incher and a good flounder. But, they made a stop for reds and caught them on every cast for about 15 fish (all released). They added a couple sheepshead and black drum late in the trip, as well. All week the ticket was live shrimp under a Harper Super Striker Float.

Wat-a-melon Bait and Tackle in Brunswick is open Friday through Sunday from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. each week. They have plenty of lively shrimp and fiddler crabs and also have live worms and crickets for freshwater. They’re on Highway 303 just north of Highway 82. For the latest information, contact them at 912.223-1379.

Saltwater (Nassau Sound near Jacksonville, Fla.): Dionte Smith fished from the bank over the weekend at the Nassau Sound. He had 10 nice whiting but was hounded by sail catfish. Dead shrimp on the bottom was the ticket for his whiting.

Keaton Beach/Steinhatchee, Florida: Capt. Pat McGriff of One More Cast Guide Service out of Keaton Beach had some great trips and some where he had to work for them this week. His toughest day was Sunday when they were only able to fish three hours before being run off the water by storms. During the short time they managed six keeper trout with four over 18 inches (only one over 19 inches). One of them was on a stinky pink Assassin 5-inch shad under an oval Cajun Thunder Float, while the balance were on live pinfish. The magic depth that day was 4 1/2 feet. The other three trips this week each produced limits of trout and a few redfish mixed in. Live pinfish under Back Bay Thunder Floats was the prime presentation.

Last quarter moon is May 2. To monitor all the Georgia river levels, visit the USGS website. For the latest marine forecast, check out www.weather.gov/jax/.

River gages on April 25 were:
Clyo on the Savannah River – 4.8 feet and rising
Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 6.6 feet and rising
Doctortown on the Altamaha – 9.7 feet and falling
Waycross on the Satilla – 11.1 feet and falling
Atkinson on the Satilla – 13.0 feet and falling
Statenville on the Alapaha – 19.9 feet and falling
Macclenny on the St Marys – 5.8 feet and falling
Fargo on the Suwannee – 11.8 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, call him at 912.288.3022 or email him at [email protected].