St. Marys River Fishing Report: April 14, 2025

The St. Marys River is all but on fire this week, and as long as you have enough gas in the tank to get there, I wouldn’t worry about having enough to come back home! All jokes aside, here’s a breakdown of where to go and what to throw this week on the blackwater.

Focus your efforts around the St. George section of the river. As I’m beginning to type this, the current water level at the Macclenny gauge is 3.93 feet, and this is the magic level where you can still get around good in a small jonboat, but it will also fish really well with a kayak. Keep in mind when you drop in that there’s no need to make a long run up or down river as there are plenty of fish in close proximity to the boat ramp.

Redbreast and Bluegill: Anglers did well last week on the river fishing GA Boy Lures Swamp Spiders for big bream, and I expect the trend to continue this week as no rain and plenty of sunshine is forecasted.

Focus your efforts anywhere the current breaks, and be sure to pitch your bug a foot or so upriver of your intended target and let the current bring it to the fish. A twitch-twitch-pause is a good cadence, and most strikes will occur about a second after your spider goes motionless. If a fish misses, don’t give up on him too quickly, as most can be coaxed into biting again with a few more casts to the same general area. Pink lady, rotten banana and Granny’s menthol have been the colors I’ve received the most reports from successful anglers last week.

Twenty-five to 30 fish in the late afternoon has been the average catch I’ve heard from folks I’ve talked to, and many of those fish have been in the 9- to 10-foot range. I made a trip with my wife, Brandy, yesterday during the middle of the afternoon, and the midday sun did little to slow the fish down.

We managed 30 or so fish, fishing a rotten banana Swamp Spider and a new prototype color I’ve been working on.

Alisha Forsythe fished with her husband,Josh, last week on the river. The pair caught nearly 30 fish in a couple of hours fishing topwater bugs.

Catfish: The catfish bite is in full swing, and anglers can expect yellow bullheads (butter cats), white catfish and channel catfish to all be biting. Limblines are your best bet to fill the cooler in a hurry, and both shrimp and live shiners have been producing as of late. If you’re not in a hurry to get home, set up on a deep bend just before dark and set a few lines out on the bottom. This is a productive way to really get on the butter cats in particular.

Bass: I didn’t receive any bass reports this week, but I suspect anglers will do well fishing weightless worms around the mouths of oxbows, especially ones that have structure adjacent to them. As far as color is concerned, white, black and bubblegum are favorites among local anglers. Buzzbaits are also a good bet this time of year, and they will enable you to cover a bunch of water in a hurry. You can’t go wrong with any color buzzbait on the river, as long as it’s black with a gold blade.

Hope y’all have a safe and productive trip to river this week, and make sure you’re ready to clean a cooler full of fish when you get back home! God bless and hope to see y’all out on the water!