Southeast Georgia Fishing Reports With Capt. Bert Deener – Aug. 16 2024

Blake Edwards caught and released this gator trout this week on a pink Sea Shad under an Equalizer Float. He was fishing in the Jacksonville, Fla. area.

The southeast Georgia blackwater rivers are still blown out, but ponds, lakes and saltwater have produced some good reports this week.

Altamaha/Ocmulgee River: The Ocmulgee is fishable (even low in the upper, rocky reaches) for panfish and bass. The Altamaha is falling out within the banks and should be a good option later in the week. For this week, catfish would be your best option in the middle to lower Altamaha.

Two-Way Sportfishing Club is hosting a catfish tournament on Sept. 21-22. It will be a rod-and-reel only tournament. For details, contact tournament directors Jamie Hodge (912.271.8589) or Tiff Thompson (229.938.4789).

Okefenokee Swamp: The fish are still spread out into the prairies with the high water. You might luck out into a few fish, especially in the boat basins on either side, but I’m not fishing there this week. The most recent water level (Folkston side) was 121.90 feet.

Dodge County Public Fishing Area (near Eastman): The bass bite was good late last week. Bryan Smith had the two biggest I heard of—a 7-lb., 6-oz. whopper and one just over 5 pounds. Another angler caught four fish that same morning that totaled 7 pounds (his biggest was 2.75 pounds). This is the time of year to hit the offshore points, humps and brushpiles. Shad-colored crankbaits around schools of shad work well first thing in the morning, then shaky-head plastics are hard to beat once the sun gets up.

Local Ponds: Joshua Barber fished a local pond on Friday and caught seven bass. He fooled them with Senkos, speed worms and buzztail shads.  Most were caught by slowly crawling a Senko. He tried a new pond one evening and set the hook on a big fish. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a bass, and the 6-lb. bowfin took him for a ride before he finally landed it.

I fished a Brunswick area pond on Friday for a couple hours in the middle of the day. The bass bite was pretty good on offshore structure. I banged a vibrating jig and shad-colored DT6 crankbait around brushpiles and got six bass to bite (my biggest were 5.13 and 4.38 pounds). I also fooled five channel catfish that were the perfect size to be guests of honor at a fish fry the following night.

Chad Lee fished on Friday during his lunch break and caught a nice, fat 4-pounder on a Whopper Plopper in the middle of the day.

Jimmy Zinker got back into his nighttime bass fishing this week and duped a 6-lb., 6-oz. bucketmouth with a black Jitterbug. He lost a monster that dove and got him down in the grass before pulling off.

Saltwater (GA/North Florida Coast): Pam Sweeney tried out her new Trout Tamer Rod from their Brunswick area dock and caught four spotted redfish with it on Saturday evening. 

Blake Edwards fished with me this week in the Jacksonville area backwaters, and we caught some big trout. Blake had a 21-inch gator (3 pounds) that ate a pink Sea Shad under an Equalizer Float, and I had a 23-incher (4.3 pounds) suck down an electric chicken 4-inch Keitech swimbait under an Equalizer Float. The lure of the day was the electric chicken/Equalizer rig, and we ended up catching exactly a dozen trout with it. About half of them were keepers, but we released them all. We had one keeper eat a firetiger-colored twitch bait, but the topwater bite was totally dead.

Don Harrison and I fished the St. Marys Jetties this week, and the water looked like we were miles up the St. Marys River (it was blackwater the whole time on the end of the rocks). The bite was really slow, but we each managed about a half-dozen bluefish, jack crevalle and black sea bass while flinging bucktail jigs and plastics.

Don Harrison fooled this jack crevalle at the St Marys Jetties by flinging a nuclear chicken Keitech swimbait rigged on a 1/4-oz. Zombi Eye jig head.

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 now open every day. On Monday to Thursday their hours are 6:30 to 10 a.m. and 2 to 5 p.m. and Friday through Saturday from 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. They have plenty of lively shrimp 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.

Keaton Beach, Florida: Capt. Pat McGriff of One More Cast Guide Service had some good summertime trips this week. On Tuesday, he put his folks on dozens of fish and ended up with nine nice keeper trout. Their biggest was 19 inches, and they had about four short fish for each keeper.

Thursday’s crew brought in a limit of trout up to 18 1/2 inches. He has been fooling them primarily with live pinfish under Back Bay Thunder Floats. The water north of Keaton has been dirty after Hurricane Debby, so he’s been having to look around a good bit for the best color water. If you’re in the Keaton area scalloping, book a trip with Capt. Pat for a fun change of pace.

Full Moon is Aug. 19. 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 Aug. 15 were:
Clyo on the Savannah River – 12.4 feet and falling
Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 1.7 feet and falling
Doctortown on the Altamaha – 9.5 feet and falling
Waycross on the Satilla – 14.6 feet and falling
Atkinson on the Satilla – 16.6 feet and falling (record high for the date)
Statenville on the Alapaha – 12.7 feet and falling
Macclenny on the St Marys – 14.5 feet and falling
Fargo on the Suwannee – 14.4 feet and steady

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].