Southeast Georgia Fishing Reports With Capt. Bert Deener – Jan. 3, 2025

Dale and Emma Anderson doubled up on crappie this week while fishing the St Marys River.

I hope that each of you had a safe New Year! The bites all over southeast Georgia and north Florida have been really good. Crappie, seatrout, bass and bowfin have been tops from the folks I’ve talked with.

Satilla River: The river is fishable and the bass and crappie have been biting. I saw photos of some good catches from all areas of the river, and the biggest crappie I heard of was 1.55 pounds. Oxbow lakes have produced the most fish.

Blake Edwards and Charlie Carter fished the lower river on Saturday and caught 19 total fish in about four hours. They used minnows on jig heads and under floats and caught a dozen crappie, a bass, a chain pickerel (jackfish) and five bowfin (mudfish).

Michael Deen ushered in the new year in the upper river and caught seven bass (all keeper sized) up to about 2 pounds by flinging some custom Capt. Bert’s spinnerbaits.

Savannah River: Waylon and Tripp fished with their dad Mark on two different trips to the river this week. Tripp went first and pitched 1/16-oz. Mirage Jigs and Tennessee Shad Specktacular Jigs for their crappie and fliers. They caught 47 fish and kept a couple dozen. That day they caught them in the 10- to 18-foot range. Waylon and Mark fished Thursday and caught fliers and crappie on popsicle and Tennessee Shad Specktacular Jigs. Waylon caught four fish big enough to earn him angler awards from the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division. His biggest was a 14 3/4-inch crappie that ate the Tennessee Shad colored jig. They caught 36 fish and kept 22 of them. They’re going to have a great fish fry this weekend! Way to go, guys!

St. Marys River: Dale and Emma Anderson got on the crappie in the St. Marys River on Wednesday. It was chilly and windy, but the fish were chewing artificials—mostly plastics on jig heads. They had a total of 21 crappie with five over a pound. They also had a few bluegill and redbreast.

The Temple Landing is currently closed while the GA Wildlife Resources Division boat ramp crew rebuilds the ramp. It will be a much-improved facility when they finish the project. The projects typically take a few months to complete, but it is always weather and river level dependent.

Okefenokee Swamp: Jason, Jaxon, and Nathan paddled and camped several nights out of the west side last weekend and caught fliers, pickerel and bowfin. They fooled the fliers with sallies and bowfin and pickerel with Dura-Spins (color didn’t matter). They said that the best bite was when they would kill the spinner and let it fall near the bottom. Their best day they caught around 30 bowfin (biggest was about 7 pounds) and several pickerel (biggest 22 inches – way to go Jaxon!). They enjoyed a couple of fresh fish meals during their trip.

On Tuesday I had the pleasure of taking Glen and Rose (from Alaska) fishing on the west side. I caught two fliers in just a few pitches with pink sallies just in case we needed some fresh cutbait. We did not need them, as they stayed hooked up with bowfin almost the whole four hours by trolling Dura-Spins (crawfish-orange blade was the ticket, but we caught a few on lemon-lime) and casting 1/16-oz. Mirage Jigs tipped with dead minnows. They caught 55 bowfin, and their biggest that we landed was 5-lbs., 3-ozs. If they went a minute without a bite, we were musing, “Hey what’s happening—we must have gotten out of the fish.”

Staff at Okefenokee Adventures on the east side said that folks fishing in the canal and boat basin have been catching a bunch of bowfin and also some nice pickerel by casting lures. The most recent water level (Folkston side) was 120.80 feet (it’s been stable around that reading for almost a month).

Dodge County Public Fishing Area (near Eastman): Paul Moore had seven crappie on Tuesday morning. On Thursday morning, Ken Burke fished the area for almost five hours and caught four bass that weighed a total of 9 1/2 pounds. His biggest was just over 3 pounds. Crankbaits were the ticket for him. The water temperature is in the mid-50s.

St. John’s River (Astor, Florida) / Crescent Lake: Slab crappie are chewing in the Astor area. Jamie Hodge and friends hit them over New Years and caught several-dozen fish each day by pushing minnows and trolling. Tuesday Jamie had seven crappie over 2 pounds apiece! Wednesday was another banner day, and he trolled plastics that day for a limit of slabs. His photos of the fish board and livewell this week have been amazing!

Local Ponds: Chad Lee finally fished again after repairing hurricane damage and had fun for about a half-hour. He fooled three bass, a bluegill and a crappie on his go-to 1/32-oz. Zombi Eye jig head and chartreuse Assassin Tiny Shad.

Joshua Barber fished a Manor-area pond on Thursday evening and caught 20 bass (about six or seven were keeper-sized), four crappie and three fliers. He fooled them with 1/16-oz. Mirage Jigs tipped with minnows.

Saltwater (Georgia Coast): I missed a report last week. Cason and Pat Kinstle whacked the trout in the Brunswick area. Cason threw paddle-tail plastics on Zombi Eye jig heads for all of his fish. Pat is usually a live shrimp guy, but even he got in on the artificial bite that day. A couple different anglers struggled inshore on Saturday. One group caught six keeper trout all day and the other had five trout (three keepers). An angler reported catching five short trout on Wednesday. Most of the other reports were really good.

Mattie fished with her dad Teddy and caught a bunch of trout in the Brunswick area over the weekend. They ended up catching 30 trout on Keitechs. Mattie actually found them by casting to the middle of the creek while Teddy cast near the good looking cover. After Mattie caught about three in a row on her green pumpkin-chartreuse Keitech. Teddy switched and started catching them, as well.

A local captain fished in the Brunswick area for a few hours Saturday morning and caught five redfish and two trout before the water got too low and they had to get out. His previous three trips were from 14 to 40 redfish on the falling tide. Live and dead shrimp have worked great for him this winter.

Tom Davis caught this gator trout this week while fishing with Capt. Tim Cutting in the Brunswick area.

Stan Rhodes and Eddie Wade fished the Cumberland Island area on Friday and caught some nice reds and trout. They fooled eight keeper redfish and a big sheepshead with live shrimp and fiddler crabs. They also had a dozen short trout and some short black drum and sheepshead. The wind was stiff, but they got on them.

Tommy Sweeney caught an upper-slot redfish from a dock on Thursday afternoon by casting plastics.

A local captain is catching his fish up the creeks. Live shrimp and mud minnows worked best for him this week. The trout have been biting at various depths, while the reds have been chewing in the shallows around low tide and the early incoming.

Another captain fished Monday and Tuesday and had two great days. They had lots of slot reds both days. On Monday, they had 10 good trout and 15 good ones on Tuesday. All of their fish Monday were on live shrimp under Harper Super Striker Floats, and all of the fish Tuesday were on Four-Seven plastics (Christmas tree) and Gotcha grubs.

Don’t forget about the fish carcass 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 a.m. to 10 and 2 p.m. to 5 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.

First quarter moon is Jan. 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 Jan. 2 were:
Clyo on the Savannah River – 5.3 feet and rising
Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 6.1 feet and rising
Doctortown on the Altamaha – 8.4 feet and rising
Waycross on the Satilla – 9.2 feet and rising
Atkinson on the Satilla – 6.8 feet and rising
Statenville on the Alapaha – 5.8 feet and falling
Macclenny on the St Marys – 2.8 feet and steady
Fargo on the Suwannee – 3.7 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].