Southeast Georgia Fishing Reports With Capt. Bert Deener – Feb. 28, 2025

Hayden Lee caught seven nice crappie while fishing an Alma area pond this week while using minnows.

The weather has been great for most of this week. The Okefenokee Swamp, saltwater and ponds have produced the best catches from the reports I received.

St. Marys River:  Seth Carter fished the river on Sunday and caught some bass. Matt Rouse reported that the upper river is still in good shape but a little off-color. The crappie and catfish bites have been good. We will hate seeing the popular Shady Bream Tournaments come to an end, but the new trail Bream Reapers Fishing Tournament will be holding their first tournament on March 22. It is an artificial lure-only format. For more details check it out on Facebook.

The Temple Landing is currently closed while the GA Wildlife Resources Division boat ramp crew rebuilds the ramp. The project is winding down, and it should be reopen soon.

Okefenokee Swamp: Tim Corey fished with me on the east side of the swamp on Saturday. We caught and released 22 fish total, including two pickerel (up to 18 inches) and 20 fliers. The size of the fliers was impressive, with 15 of them over 8 inches. Our biggest was Tim’s 9 1/4-incher that earned him an Angler Award from the GA Wildlife Resources Division. His big one ate a whitetreuse Warmouth Whacker Jig tipped with a red wiggler. That’s the lure he caught all of his fish on. I caught mine on a white (gold blade) prototype in-line spinner and a crawfish Warmouth Whacker Jig.

Kris Irwin came down from the Athens area and fished with me on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday, we fished the east side and caught and released 18 fish (a bowfin, three pickerel and 14 fliers). It was cold that morning and the bite was slow. As the water warmed, the fliers woke up and started feeding. The size was impressive again with a dozen of them over 8 inches. Our biggest was just under 9 inches. That day the fliers ate crawfish Warmouth Whacker Jigs tipped with worms the best, but we caught a few on the bream spinner. Our biggest pickerel was 22 inches, and it bit a crawfish-brass blade Dura-Spin. We had another giant pickerel on a jackfish-colored Dura-Spin, but it broke us off.

On Wednesday, we fished the west side and absolutely whacked the bowfin. We trolled the first hour for a half-dozen bowfin up to 4 pounds, but it was when we slowed down that they started chewing. We fished cut flier and red wiggler worms on 1/16-oz. Mirage Jigs and caught bowfin after bowfin. We ended up catching and releasing a total of 58 fish (56 bowfin and two fliers). Our biggest 5 bowfin weighed 7-7, 7-6, 7-3, 6-3 and 5-14. Those monsters were a BLAST on the light tackle we were using. The most recent water level on the Folkston side was 121.02 feet and at SC Foster State Park was 4.85 feet.

Paradise Public Fishing Area (near Tifton): The Wildlife Resources Division is beginning a bass study on the area and will be tagging bass over the next month. If you catch a tagged bass, clip the tag and return it along with the information requested on a tag return form. The forms are available on the porch at the area office. Each person returning a tag will receive a custom-embroidered ball cap and be entered into a drawing for a Yeti cooler. Each angler will only receive one cap, but there is no limit to the number of times you can be entered into the drawing.

Local Ponds: Some folks did well and some not so much this week. I talked with one friend who is an excellent angler, and he did not catch any crappie the day he went. But I had good reports, also. Hayden and Steven Lee fished an Alma area pond with minnows and caught seven big crappie. The bass reports were good from area ponds. Chip Lafferty caught the biggest I heard of this week—a 7-lb., 5-oz. pig that ate a purple wacky-rigged worm in a Brunswick area pond.  Joshua Barber fished a Waycross area pond on Tuesday afternoon and caught and released a few bass, including a 3-lb. class fish that ate a black/blue wacky-rigged stick worm. Chuck Dean fished a Kingsland area pond Monday and caught several bass with a fly rod.

Saltwater (Georgia Coast): A local captain had a very productive week. In the big-time cold on Friday, they had a bunch of short trout before getting into some nicer fish. They ended up catching a mixed bag of trout, flounder, reds and black drum, with a couple of oversized redfish.

On Saturday, brothers Dick and Fred Bissinger could do no wrong. They had two limits of trout and some nice black drum, sheepshead and flounder. Dick had a giant 5 1/2-lb. sheepshead. Tom fished with him on Monday and had a great catch of reds and trout off the same oyster bar while fishing for an hour. He had a couple of oversized reds during the melee, as well. They ended early and took a few fish to Mudcat Charlie’s for a hook ’em and cook ’em special. They don’t get any fresher than that! They stopped in an area on the way back from the restaurant and caught and released a bunch more reds and left them biting.

On Tuesday, the bite was trickier, and they abandoned the live shrimp under a Harper Super Striker Float to cast FourSeven plastics. The big trout ate the plastics rigged on Zombi Eye jig heads. They released everything on Tuesday, including some trout up to 22 inches.

On Wednesday, Tom Kirkland came aboard, and they caught about 25 trout that included about a dozen keepers.

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.

First quarter moon is March 6.

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 Feb. 27:
Clyo on the Savannah River – 7.4 feet and rising
Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 8.9 feet and falling
Doctortown on the Altamaha – 10.9 feet and rising
Waycross on the Satilla – 12.7 feet and falling
Atkinson on the Satilla – 10.6 feet and rising
Statenville on the Alapaha – 9.4 feet and falling
Macclenny on the St Marys – 5.6 feet and falling
Fargo on the Suwannee – 6.6 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].