The fish are moving toward their summer patterns, but so are the afternoon thunderstorms.
You can usually get a morning half-day trip in before the boomers start, but pay attention to the skies and radar.
The bites have been really good this week. The rivers are getting good in some areas, but some are still too high for a peak bite.
River gauges Thursday, May 29 were:
• Clyo on the Savannah River – 11.5 feet and falling
• Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 7.7 feet and rising
• Doctortown on the Altamaha – 8.7 feet and falling
• Waycross on the Satilla – 6.4 feet and falling
• Atkinson on the Satilla – 8.2 feet and falling
• Statenville on the Alapaha – 3.0 feet and falling
• Macclenny on the St. Marys – 2.4 feet and falling
• Fargo on the Suwannee – 5.5 feet and rising
Alapaha River – Stan Rhodes and David McGlamry fished the middle river and had a great bite. They caught redbreasts, bluegills, crappie and catfish.
The redbreasts were not tearing it up, but the crappie were. They brought home 42 fish with 23 being crappie.
They caught their fish on both live bait (crawdads and crickets) and artificials (Satilla Spins and crappie jigs). The jigs worked best for their crappie, and crawdads were the deal for the catfish.
Okefenokee Swamp – I fished the east side and caught 61 fish. I released everything except eight warmouth for my parent’s supper.
I fished for warmouth most of the time and pitched popsicle, crawfish and a prototype color Warmouth Whacker Jigs. I caught warmouth, pickerel and bowfin everywhere I tried. I spent a half-hour casting and trolling Dura-Spins and picked up about a dozen fish on crawfish-brass blade.
I was testing a couple rods I built specifically for that lure, and they worked superbly. Right before I headed in I met Charles Burch and his buddy Clayden.
They were catching bowfin and pickerel on jackfish and fire tiger Dura-Spins. They ended up with 27 fish (including three warmouth). Their biggest was about 4 1/2 pounds.
The most recent water level on the Folkston side was 120.59 feet.
Local Ponds – Joshua Barber caught and released the biggest bass I heard of this week. He fooled it with a black SPRO topwater frog.
It was a great story, as he broke the fish off on the hookset and then was able to hand-line it in. He was meant to catch the 9-lb., 10-oz. monster.
During the trip he caught a half-dozen other bass on plastics rigged on Swimbait Heads.
Bobby Thompson fished with his daughter, Tara Williams, in a Montgomery County pond. They caught “plenty” of bass, but more importantly enjoyed the time together. Their best bait was a topwater frog.
Saltwater (Ga. Coast) – Capt. Tim Cutting said he had two charters and caught about a half-dozen keeper trout each day. They also added three flounder the first day and two the second.
Shrimp under Harper Super Striker Floats produced all but a couple fish. Those couple ate plastics. Capt. Tim said the water was moving pretty hard.
Ladyfish and shark are biting well. There are a few tarpon showing up, but they are scattered.
Keaton Beach, Fla.
– Capt. Pat McGriff had a great week. Both black sea bass and trout chewed.
Each charter caught around a dozen keeper trout and a couple dozen black sea bass. They caught most of their fish in the 8- to 10-foot range while bouncing Assassin Pink Ghost and Stinky Pink 5-inch Shads.
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/.
Capt. Bert Deener guides fishing trips in the Okefenokee Swamp and other southeast Georgia systems and 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, you can download it from his website at bertsjigsandthings.co m or e-mail him (bertdeener@ yahoo.com).
