Southeast Georgia Fishing Reports With Capt. Bert Deener – April 5, 2024

McCoy Skinner caught a giant channel catfish on the Savannah River and had it certified at the Waycross Fisheries Office. His big channel weighed 33-lbs., 8ozs. and is the new river record.

I hope you and your family had a great Easter weekend. The bite has been off and on with the changing weather.

Satilla River: The annual Satilla Riverkeeper fishing tournament is coming up and will run from April 12-21. Get the details on the Satilla River Facebook page.

Savannah River: McCoy Skinner caught a giant channel catfish on the river and had it certified at the Waycross Fisheries Office. His big channel was 38 1/8 inches long and weighed a whopping 33-lbs., 8ozs. on certified scales. GON certified it as the Savannah River record channel cat. He caught it on cutbait in the Sylvania area of the river. Congratulations, McCoy!

Okefenokee Swamp: The bite was cranking up just in time for this latest rain. I think it will be a short blip that the bite slows, but it will probably slow some as fish spread out a little more into the prairies.

Melba and Risa fished with me on the east side on Friday, and we had a blast trolling Dura-Spins. We had a total of 34 fish trolling the canals. Our biggest bowfin was 6-lbs., 12-ozs., and our biggest pickerel was 18 inches. The best colors were crawfish-brass blade, lemon-lime and black/chartreuse-chartreuse blade.

Before they got there, I cast a crawfish-brass blade to see if I could get fish to respond (I was concerned that the fish would not cooperate with the rising water), and I caught a 10-lb., 4-oz. bowfin on about my fifth cast right around the boat basin. The fish didn’t miss a beat after that rain.

On Monday, Bryan and Jonathan fished with me before their camping trip on one of the platforms on the east side. We pitched sallies (pink and chartreuse) for a little bit and caught some fliers. One was big enough to earn Jonathan a Youth Angler Award from the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division. We then switched to trolling Dura-Spins and caught a total of 20 fish. We had pickerel to 17 inches and bowfin to 6 pounds. One of Jonathan’s bowfin earned him a Youth Angler Award for his second species of the trip. The best colors of Dura-Spins that day were crawfish-brass blade and lemon-lime.

I fished by myself on the east side Tuesday and pitched crawfish Warmouth Whacker Jigs under a float for about an hour and caught a handful of fliers and pickerel, a nice warmouth and a giant spotted sunfish (stumpknocker—my first ever stumpknocker on the east side). I cast and trolled Dura-Spins the rest of the day and ended up catching a total of 34 fish—mostly bowfin (up to 6 pounds) and pickerel (up to 18 inches). Lemon-lime and jackfish Dura-Spins were tops.

Matt Rouse took his friend Travis to the east side Tuesday and caught bowfin, pickerel and warmouth. They pitched a bluegill-flash Keitech swimbait suspended under a float for a few warmouth. A few pickerel and a bowfin ate Dura-Spins. Their biggest surprise was that they caught a big bluegill on the Dura-Spin. Cole and Ethan Crawford fished a little while on Thursday afternoon and had a monster bowfin by flinging a red/white-silver blade Dura-Spin. The giant was 30 1/2 inches long and really fat. Cole didn’t bring a scale, but I’m guessing it was between 10 and 11 pounds based on the length and photo.

An angler pitching around the island caught just one warmouth on Thursday morning. I didn’t hear of any good warmouth reports this week. The folks I talked with caught only a couple per trip. The most recent water level (Folkston side) was 121.32 feet Thursday after the hard Wednesday rains.   

Local Ponds: The biggest bass I heard of being caught this week was an 8 1/2-pounder (24 inches) caught by one of my Blackshear fishing buddies. He caught it in a Tifton area pond.

Jimmy Zinker said the nighttime topwater bite is slowly picking up. His biggest two bass this week weighed 6-lbs., 14-ozs. and 8-lbs., 2-ozs. He caught some fish during the daylight on glide baits. Most of the nighttime fish ate his customized Jitterbugs, but he also caught one on a Trophy Bass Buzzbait (designed by Pat Cullen). He lost a monster that buried him in the vegetation and pulled off.

I got a report from a Brunswick pond where an angler flung spinnerbaits to shoreline trees to catch 46 bass up to 6 pounds. Another angler at the same pond caught a 6-pounder the next day. That’s the best report I’ve gotten from that pond so far this year, so the bass bite is probably on in Brunswick area ponds.

Brentz McGhin caught some good bass from his pond this week on a weedless popping frog.

Charlotte fished her family’s pond in the Guyton area. A green-pumpkin Zoom 4-inch plastic worm fooled a few bass for her.

St. John’s River (Astor, Florida) / Crescent Lake: Zack Murray and a couple of friends fished the Astor area on Thursday and caught 20 crappie. That’s a good catch considering they fished behind a strong cold front. Two-inch Keitech swimbaits fished on Zombi Eye jig heads worked well for them. In fact, they were scrambling for more Keitechs that evening. I heard from some other folks that the crappie were in the pads in the Astor area.

For the latest fishing information or to reserve a room or cabin in Astor, you can call Kerry at South Moon Fish Camp at 386.749.2383.

Saltwater (GA Coast): The wind and rains kept most folks away from the salt this week, but a few hardy anglers braved the weather. Capt. Greg Hildreth has been doing well on the offshore sheepshead on days he can get out. He fished inside on Thursday with Marty from New York, and they had a really big trout at about 10 a.m. when I was talking to Capt. Greg.

Capt. Tim Cutting said that he worked for them this week, but they cooperated in the iffy weather. On Monday they had 12 trout and a redfish on Zombi Eye jig heads and Assassin Sea Shads. He took his crew whiting fishing Tuesday, and they caught a couple dozen before the sharks moved in and aggravated them. On the way in, they stopped at a redfish hole and caught 15 reds, plus a couple of nice trout. All of the reds and trout came on live shrimp fished under Harper Super Striker Floats.

On Thursday, his crew caught whiting again and kept a dozen, threw back a dozen and caught six redfish in the howling wind.

Seth Carter fished the Brunswick area creeks this week and caught a bunch of oversized redfish. He fooled them with a Gulp! Shrimp rigged on a jig head and bounced along the bottom.

Cason Kinstle took families on spring break whiting fishing this week, and they caught a bunch on dead shrimp in the Savannah area. They even landed a bull redfish on whiting tackle. That’s a spring-break catch the young boys will remember a long time. He took his own boys redfishing in the Brunswick area this week and caught 20 reds (kept enough for supper) on live shrimp fished under a popping cork.

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.

New Moon is April 8. 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/.

River gages on April 4 were:
Clyo on the Savannah River – 10.9 feet and falling
Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 8.8 feet and rising
Doctortown on the Altamaha – 10.8 feet and falling
Waycross on the Satilla – 14.4 feet and falling
Atkinson on the Satilla – 14.6 feet and falling
Statenville on the Alapaha – 17.2 feet and rising
Macclenny on the St Marys – 9.8 feet and rising
Fargo on the Suwannee – 10.7 feet and rising

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].