Southeast Georgia Fishing Reports With Capt. Bert Deener – May 30, 2025

The fish are moving toward their summer patterns, but so are the afternoon thunderstorms. You can usually get a morning half-day trip in before the boomers start, but pay attention to the skies and radar. The bites have been really good this week. The rivers are getting good in some areas, but some are still too high for a peak bite.

Alapaha River: Stan Rhodes and David McGlamry fished the middle river on Saturday and had a great bite. They caught redbreast, bluegill, crappie and catfish. The redbreast were not tearing it up, but the crappie were. They brought home 42 fish, and 23 of them were crappie. They caught their fish on both live bait (crawdads and crickets) and artificials (Satilla Spins and crappie jigs). The jigs worked best for their crappie, and crawdads were the deal for the catfish.

St. Marys River: The second Bream Reapers Bream Tournament of the year was held on Saturday out of Temple Landing. There was plenty of traffic on the holiday weekend, but the fish still bit. Charles, Brittany, and Laylan won first place for the heaviest weight with 3.37 pounds. Bo and Brittany had big fish with a 0.92-lb. crappie. Check the Bream Reapers Bream Tournament Trail out on Facebook for more information.

Okefenokee Swamp: I fished the east side on Thursday morning from 7-11:30 a.m. and caught 61 fish by myself. I released everything except eight warmouth for my parent’s supper. I fished for warmouth most of the time and pitched popsicle, crawfish and a prototype color Warmouth Whacker Jigs and caught warmouth, pickerel and bowfin everywhere I tried. I spent a half-hour casting and trolling Dura-Spins and picked up about a dozen fish on crawfish-brass blade. It worked well enough that I didn’t even switch colors. I was testing a couple rods I built specifically for that lure, and they worked superbly. Right before I headed in, I met Charles Burch and his buddy Clayden. They were catching bowfin and pickerel on jackfish and firetiger Dura-Spins. They ended up with 27 fish total (including three warmouth), with their biggest about 4 1/2 pounds. The most recent water level on the Folkston side was 120.59 feet.

Tara Williams caught this bass while fishing in a pond with her dad, Bobby Thompson. It ate a topwater frog.

Local Ponds: Joshua Barber caught and released the biggest bass I heard of this week. He fooled it with a black SPRO topwater frog. It was a great story, as he broke the fish off on the hookset and then was able to hand-line it in, working it around, over and through lily pads. He was meant to catch the 9-lb., 10-oz. monster! It’s hard to keep big fish hooked when all of your equipment works—let alone hand-lining it! During the trip, he caught a half-dozen other bass on plastics rigged on Swimbait Heads.

Bobby Thompson fished with his daughter, Tara Williams, on Monday in a Montgomery County pond. They caught “plenty” of bass, but more importantly enjoyed the time together. Their best bait was a topwater frog.

Saltwater (Georgia Coast): A local captain said that he had charters Wednesday and Thursday and caught about a half-dozen keeper trout each day. They also added three flounder Wednesday and two on Thursday to their creel. Shrimp under Harper Super Striker Floats produced all but a couple fish. Those couple ate plastics. The water was moving pretty hard this week. Ladyfish and sharks are biting well, and there are a few tarpon showing up, but they are scattered.

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.

Keaton Beach, Florida: Capt. Pat McGriff of One More Cast Guide Service had a great week. Both black sea bass and trout chewed. Each charter caught around a dozen keeper trout and a couple dozen black sea bass (some of the best eating fish in the Gulf!). They caught most of their fish in the 8- to 10-foot range while bouncing Assassin Pink Ghost and Stinky Pink 5-inch Shads.

River gages on May 29 were:
Clyo on the Savannah River – 11.5 feet and falling
Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 7.7 feet and rising
Doctortown on the Altamaha – 8.7 feet and falling
Waycross on the Satilla – 6.4 feet and falling
Atkinson on the Satilla – 8.2 feet and falling
Statenville on the Alapaha – 3.0 feet and falling
Macclenny on the St. Marys – 2.4 feet and falling
Fargo on the Suwannee – 5.5 feet and rising

First quarter moon is June 2.

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/.

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].