Southeast Georgia Fishing Reports With Capt. Bert Deener – Oct. 27, 2023

Bob (left) and Chip Lafferty, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., had a great trip in the Okefenokee on Monday afternoon, Oct. 23. Bob caught his first pickerel and bowfin while casting and trolling Dura-Spins.

Fishing has been good during the few trips I heard about this week. The swamp bite has been very good, and the rivers are getting in much better shape. Saltwater tides are ramping up with the upcoming full moon Saturday.

Okefenokee Swamp:  Bob and Chip Lafferty fished with a friend on the east side of the Swamp on Monday afternoon and caught a bunch of fish. They pitched a chartreuse Sally and caught a flier in a few minutes just to see what they looked like, and then spent the rest of their time casting and trolling for pickerel (jackfish) and bowfin. They caught a few pickerel by casting jackfish-colored Dura-Spins and trolled for most of their bowfin. The best colors on the trip were firetiger-chartreuse blade, jackfish and lemon-lime. Their biggest jackfish was 18 inches, and their biggest bowfin was 7-lbs., 11-ozs. The most recent water level (Folkston side) was 120.76 feet.

Local Ponds: A Waycross angler fished a local lake and trolled for crappie on Saturday afternoon in celebration of opening day of deer season. He ended up catching 16 fish on 1/32-oz. Zombie Eye Jigheads and 2-inch Keitech swimbaits. He caught mostly 8- to 11-inch crappie, but he also had a 4-lb. bass inhale the little swimbait. He caught the fish in the upper end (shallow) of the pond while trolling at 1.0 to 1.3 miles per hour. The best swimbait colors were chartreuse-pearl, sexy shad and bluegill flash. Chad Lee and Daniel Johnson fished an Alma area pond for a few hours over the weekend and caught four bass about 2 pounds apiece on stick worms and hollow-bodied frogs.

Saltwater (GA Coast): Capt. Greg Hildreth (georgiacharterfishing.com) has been on the bull reds all week. He filmed with Mark Davis of Big Water Adventure TV show and got several catches of big bulls on film. Look for the show to air in the near future. His charters this week were all about big bull redfish in the sounds and bars. Jay Turner fished the Savannah area on Tuesday and had a great day. He had a bunch of trout and redfish and kept about a dozen total and a big flounder. He also fooled 25- and 29-inch stripers (released them). All of his fish came on Zombie Eye Jigheads and plastics. Capt. Tim Cutting (fishthegeorgiacoast.com) said that the tides were great for inshore fishing all week, and the winds cooperated for the most part. His charters boated LOTS of slot redfish this week—catching a limit each day. They had some oversized reds mixed in each day, as well. They also caught big sheepshead when they targeted them on hard cover. Monday was an especially great trip, as they caught tons of reds, 10 good sheepshead and 10 good trout to go with them. The stripers have started showing up in their catch, as well. He fished live shrimp under Harper Super Striker Floats all week. The new bait shop in Brunswick named Wat-a-melon Bait and Tackle is now 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 in the same location as the previous J&P Bait and Tackle. For the latest information, contact them at 912.-223.1379.

Full Moon is Oct. 28. 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 Oct. 26 were:
Clyo on the Savannah River –  4.1 feet and falling
Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 1.6 feet and falling
Doctortown on the Altamaha – 5.5 feet and falling
Waycross on the Satilla – 7.8 feet and falling
Atkinson on the Satilla – 9.0 feet and falling
Statenville on the Alapaha – 2.9 feet and falling
Macclenny on the St Marys – 2.9 feet and falling
Fargo on the Suwannee – 8.6 feet and falling

Capt. Bert Deener 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].