Record Redbreast From Savannah River

There’s a new record redbreast for the Savannah River. Danny Vann, of Hephzibah, was fishing below the New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam in Augusta on May 13 when he caught the redbreast, known locally as redbellies.

It weighed 1-lb., 1-oz on WRD certified scales at the McDuffie Hatchery.

Danny Vann, of Hephzibah, with his Savannah River record redbreast that weighed 1-lb., 1-oz.

Jay Payne, a WRD fisheries biologist who splits time between the Thomson office and the hatchery at McDuffie PFA in east Georgia, verified the species and the weight of the fish.

Danny was fishing with a cricket when the 10-inch redbreast bit. He said he was fishing from a boat with his sister and brother in law.

“My brother-in-law Mike Gooding has fished that river for 50 years. He’s the only one I’d get in a boat with down there, he knows that river,” Danny said.

“We were fishing for shellcracker, but we only caught one. Mike was fishing with worms, and me and my sister were fishing with crickets. We caught 72 fish, a couple of bream and that one shellcracker, majority were redbellies.

“As soon as we caught it, Mike said that was a record fish. He keeps up with all the records.”

The previous Savannah River record for redbreast, was a 12.8-oz. fish caught by Robert Attaway on March 31, 2016. Georgia’s state record is a 1-lb., 11-oz. fish caught from a Coweta County pond in 1998 by Emory Walden.

GON for decades has compiled and kept records for fish on lakes and rivers across the state. The Savannah River records are for the entire run of the river from below Thurmond dam to the coast.

Savannah River Record Fish