Southeast Georgia Fishing Reports With Capt. Bert Deener – Sept. 15, 2023

Jason Andrick, of Little Orleans, Maryland, visited the Okefenokee Swamp this week and had a fun fishing trip with a friend. He caught this nice pickerel while flinging a catalpa-colored Okefenokee Swamp Sally with a fly rod.

The fall transition has started, and it’s not long before some of the best fishing of the year will fire up.

Okefenokee Swamp: Jason Andrick visited the Okefenokee Swamp mid-week and fished the east side. He and a friend caught 50 bowfin and pickerel (mostly bowfin) and 11 fliers. They fooled the pickerel and bowfin by trolling Dura-Spins (lemon-lime and crawfish-brass blade were the best colors). The fliers came by flinging catalpa Okefenokee Swamp Sallies on a fly rod and pitching yellow sallies under a float on a bream buster. Jason had a nice 16-inch pickerel on the little fly, also. Josh Ward fished the west side out of Stephen C. Foster State Park this week and caught about 30 bowfin, with four of them over 5 pounds. Their best setup was a crawfish Dura-Spin. Catfish fishing on the west side was good, with folks who put shrimp or worms on the bottom catching the most. The most recent water level (Folkston side) was 120.50 feet.

Local Ponds: Jimmy Zinker night-fished a Valdosta area pond on Saturday night and caught a 7-lb., 3-oz. bass on a black Capt. Bert’s Buzzbait (quad-blade). He also lost another monster fish. Tripp fished a Guyton area pond over the weekend and had a good morning catching several 2- to 3-lb. bass on green-pumpkin 4-inch Zoom Dead Ringer worms.

Saltwater (GA Coast): Jay Turner fished the Savannah area on Saturday and caught a bunch of redfish from too small to too big. About half of his smaller fish were barely keepers and half were still throwbacks. There is another big year class of redfish right at the minimum size. He had a few trout and nice flounder mixed in, as well. He used a red Zombie Eye jig head and perch-colored Keitech swimbaits for his fish. Tommy Sweeney fished the Brunswick area over the weekend and caught 19 trout and nine redfish (six keepers). He fooled them with a 3/16-oz. Zombie Eye jig head and green plastics. Capt. Greg Hildreth (georgiacharterfishing.com) said that the tarpon fishing slowed some this week, but the seatrout bite has picked up. His charters also caught a few tripletail this week. Flounder fishing was good this week on the St. Simons Pier. Several folks caught flounder at or over 16 inches, and the biggest I heard of was 22 inches. If you’re interested in flounder fishing, check out the Flat Fish Fanatics Facebook page. Ed Zmarzly fished a Brunswick area dock on Monday night and caught a few nice seatrout under the lights while casting a hard minnow plug. The new bait shop in Brunswick named Wat-a-melon Bait and Tackle is opening this Friday. They plan to be open each week Friday through Sunday from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. They will have plenty of lively shrimp and have both live and dead bait for both freshwater and saltwater. 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.

New Moon is Sept. 15. 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 Sept. 14 were:
Clyo on the Savannah River –  7.2 feet and rising
Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 2.3 feet and falling
Doctortown on the Altamaha – 7.1 feet and falling
Waycross on the Satilla – 13.0 feet and falling
Atkinson on the Satilla – 14.5 feet and falling
Statenville on the Alapaha – 5.9 feet and falling
Macclenny on the St Marys – 4.0 feet and falling
Fargo on the Suwannee – 4.4 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].