St. Marys River Float, Fish And Camp

The St. Marys River has long stood as the blackwater boundary line that separates southeast Georgia from northeast Florida. Flowing from its headwaters in the Okefenokee Swamp, it twists and turns as it makes its way toward the ocean, separating north and south, and keeping the Bulldogs and Gators on their respective sides of the river.

Over the past year, the St. Marys has quickly become my favorite river, and I’m convinced it very well could be the best redbreast fishery in the world. Other than possibly the Canoochee, I can’t think of another river out there with both the numbers and quality of fish that are present in the St. Marys.

When I first received the assignment for this story a few months back, I knew immediately that I wanted to do something different and more adventurous than I’ve done while working on previous GON articles on the river.

So after a couple of months of pondering, I loaded up my kayak and camping gear, talked my wife into coming along, and we headed for the St. Marys River at the Macclenny Bridge at Highway 121 at lunchtime two days before the deadline for this story.

There’s a turnoff to the left-hand side at the bridge, and that’s where we parked the truck. Then the real work began, as we unloaded all of our gear and toted it the 150 yards or so to the river. It’s mostly a downhill journey, but the thought did cross my mind that I would have to come back uphill the next day. Nevertheless, the thought of giant redbreast swimming in the backwater below the bridge encouraged me to trudge on as the 90-plus degree weather did its best to stop me in my tracks.

After roughly 20 or 30 minutes, and what seemed like some sort of twisted redneck CrossFit workout, we were finally able to get everything down to the river. I chugged a bottle of ice-cold water and spent a few minutes catching my breath, all the while wondering if the work would somehow be worth the reward.

We got into my two-man Crescent Crew kayak, pushed off the bank and began to paddle down river. Despite the midday sun, we decided to take a topwater approach and opted to throw a lure we produce known as a GA BOY LURES Swamp Spider. Working our way downriver, we pitched the floating bug to shady spots and other areas that looked like fish would hold in.

It didn’t take long for Brandy to hook up with the first good fish of the day, one that I may or may not have knocked off of the hook as I swung it up to the side of the kayak… Despite that error, a few minutes later, her spider disappeared in an explosion of bright red as a big rooster erupted and disappeared into the tannic black water. After a short but tense struggle, she swung the fish my way and this time I made the catch. Knowing fish was on the dinner menu, we tossed it in the cooler and got back to work. Over the next couple of hours, we repeated that same process at least 20 or so times, keeping a total of five fish that would later become used for Po Boys at supper time.

Around 3 o’clock, with the 95-degree temperatures taking their toll, we decided to beach the kayak and go into cool-down mode, and I can tell you right now that there isn’t a swimming pool in America that feels as good as the blackwater did at that very moment.

After 30 to 45 minutes of a wonderful dip in the 75 degree water, we climbed back into the kayak and continued to fish as we worked our way downriver. At about 5 o’clock, we decided to set up camp on a small sandbar that fronted a deep stretch of slow-moving water.

Over the next hour or two, we set up the tent, gathered firewood and prepared to spend the night on our newly discovered waterfront property.

After filleting the fish on the water’s edge, I hit them with some Everglades seasoning and sent them into the fish fry mix. A few shakes of the bag later and they headed for a three-minute swim in Lake Crisco, before finally making their way to a hoagie roll where they were topped with some lettuce and mayonnaise. As we sat next to the tent by the water eating, at that moment I don’t think I had ever had a fish sandwich that tasted so good.

These were the main ingredient for the Po Boy sandwiches the author and his wife cooked on a sandbar on the St. Marys River.

Once we finished eating, we climbed back in the kayak to fish some more, catching several fish fairly quickly before the bite all but died. We decided to head back to camp to start a fire before darkness could make itself known. For the next hour or two, we kicked back in our kayak chairs (and by the way they make pretty good camp seats) and relaxed as we watched the river slowly flow past.

Around 10 p.m., we decided to put out some shrimp on the bottom to try our luck at catching catfish. Brandy casted out a couple of lines, and we kicked back and waited. Less than 15 minutes later, a slight tick of the line turned into a harder thump, right before the tip of the pole buried down toward the sand. A few seconds later, Brandy reeled in a 10-inch, perfect-eating-size brown bullhead catfish, but lucky for him, he was late to the fish fry. We quickly released the fish, and spent the next several hours sitting by the fire and keeping a side eye on the fishing poles. I’d say our bite-to-hook-up ratio was probably 50 percent, not bad at all with us not paying full attention as we sat talking by the fire. When we reeled the lines up and decided to call it quits on the fishing, we had managed to catch a half dozen catfish.

The next hour or so was spent playing a little campsite Rummy, a game that I’d probably enjoy more if Brandy would let me win once in a while. To make matters worse, a whip-poor-will seemed to taunt me with every bad hand I played from an adjacent tree.

We ended the night with a moonlight swim to knock the sand off before heading in the tent for the night. Whether this was the best of ideas I don’t know, as there were some very large gator drag marks on the sandbar just upriver from where we were staying. Nevertheless, all’s well that ends well.

After a surprisingly good night of sleep, despite nighttime temperatures being in the high 70s, I fired up my portable stove and whipped up some quick breakfast burritos that consisted of sausage, onion, peppers, eggs, butter and cheese. This combination is nearly impossible to screw up no matter your culinary abilities.

Once we finished breakfast, we packed up our gear and began to fish our way back upriver. Despite the bite being fairly slow, we managed to hook into some nice redbreast and a very impressive 1-lb. bluegill before making our way back to our starting point.

We spent the next 30 minutes or so toting all of our gear and our kayak back uphill to the truck. I will add that the uphill trek surprisingly didn’t seem any worse than the downhill descent had the day before.

In addition to some amazing redbreast fishing, the St. Marys has some bragging-size bluegill, too.

Keep It Simple

I didn’t talk much about gear or techniques in this article, and for good reason. You want to pack light. Bring a small tackle box and tie on something you have confidence in, as these fish aren’t lure shy. Beetle Spins and topwater bugs work well, and for those who take a more organic approach, try a live worm or cricket fished a foot or so under a cork. When night falls, having some frozen shrimp is a good idea. Fish it on the bottom and keep a close eye on your line.

All in all, we had an awesome time fishing and camping on this stretch of river. In closing, I do want to make a couple of key points for those who want to make a trip to this section of the river.

As stated earlier, you have to carry your boat and gear a good distance to the river, so be sure that what you choose to bring you’re able to carry and drag across a distance of roughly 150 yards.

The gauge at Macclenny was roughly 4 feet during our trip. I wouldn’t recommend trying to float a kayak in this stretch if the level is below 3 feet, as the river would be all but dried up. Also, I wouldn’t try to fish here if it was above 5 feet, as the current would be moving too fast. Another important note is to be sure all of your gear is strapped down and in adequate dry storage in case of a turnover. One final note would be to be sure you have a cell phone, and a power bank to charge it, in case of emergency.

If you’ve ever thought about pulling the trigger on a trip like this, but didn’t… now’s the time! Slide over to GON.com or the Georgia Outdoor News YouTube Channel and checkout the quick highlight video from our trip. Then grab your gear and head out to make some memories of your own!