The panfish bite has been starting to fire up this week. The saltwater bite has also been improving. Most rivers are VERY low right now but if you can find some deeper areas in them you should get on some fish.
River gauges Thursday, April 16:
• Doctortown on the Altamaha – 5.4 feet and falling
• Lumber City on the Ocmulgee – 2.0 feet and falling
• Clyo on the Savannah – 3.2 feet and steady
• Statenville on the Alapaha – 1.9 feet and steady
• Alapaha on the Alapaha – 2.7 feet and falling
• Waycross on the Satilla – 4.5 feet and falling
• Atkinson on the Satilla – 3.2 feet and falling Quitman on the Withlacoochee – 1.6 feet and falling
• Macclenny on the Saint Marys – 1.8 feet and steady
• Fargo on the Suwannee – 1.0 foot and steady Altamaha/Ocmulgee Rivers – Mark and Sabrina Williams fished at Altamaha Regional Park and caught multiple big shellcrackers while using red worms on the bottom.
An angler caught a bass weighing over seve pounds lon the lower river. I was told an angler landed a bass weighing over 11 pounds last week from the Altamaha.
Another angler reported fishing the Ocmulgee and caught eight nice bass. The biggest weighed around five pounds.
I caught a river tank on the Ocmulgee (didn’t weigh it).
Satilla River – Morris Carter fished the lower river for around 2 ½ hours and caught 17 panfish (redbreasts and bluegill) and two nice-sized channel catfish. He was using worms and pitching them in deep holes on bottom.
Two anglers reported over 100 panfish recently on the river, and another angler caught 50 recently.
Dale Anderson and Chad Day caught a few flathead catfish with the biggest pulling the scales down to 27 pounds.
Saint Marys River – Dale Anderson and Chad Day fished out of Traders Hill for panfish. Dale said that the bite was very slow as they caught 15 panfish and several different species.
Withlacoochee River – Jim O’Conner (The River Expert) went on a 3-½ hour trip and caught 39 fish (20 bream, 18 Suwannee bass, and a largemouth). A karashi bait and a black/blue jig worked the best.
Jim also fished at the creek and landed a 20-plus inch bass on the very first cast. He caught it on a Neko rig.
Lakes and Ponds – Jimmy Zinker fished at a Worth County pond and caught two bass, but they were the ones he was looking for. One weighed almost six pounds and the other was around five pounds. They ate a Zara Spook.
Jimmy went back the following day and caught 10 bass up to five pounds. Nine were caught on a Zara Spook and the other one was on a buzzbait.
An angler recently reported catching a bass weighing around six pounds at Banks Lake.
Danny Cooley fished at Paradise Public Fishing Area and caught five bass up to around five pounds. He went back the next day and the bite was similar. However, he hung one which was around 9-10 pounds that wrapped him up on a limb and pulled off.
Jim O’Conner fished at some Adel area ponds and caught over 20 bass (13-16 inch range). A 4-inch watermelon seed finesse worm fooled them.
Dean Barber reported bass are being caught off structure at the Paradise Public Fishing Area. The bream bite has been hit or miss.
An angler named Jerry caught a bass weighing around 5-6 pounds at Ocmulgee Public Fishing Area lon live bait.
Dodge Public Fishing Area (near Eastman) – Ken Burke caught eight nice bass weighing a combined 15 pounds (big fish weighed 3.25-lbs). He caught them by using a shakey head and a crankbait in less than 10 feet of water.
Steve Eady fished off the pier and caught three crappie and a bluegill while using live minnows.
Okefenokee Swamp – A Homerville area man reported they are smoking the warmouth at Kingfisher Landing.
Dale Anderson and Chad Day fished the eastside and caught 20 warmouth. They also caught some jackfish and mudfish.
Gentry and Chip fished with Captain Bert Deener on the eastside and caught around 30 fish on their half-day trip. Their two biggest bowfin weighed 6-lb., 10-oz. and 6lb., 2-oz.
Chip caught the 6-lb 2-oz. and it earned him a youth angler award from the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division. Lemon-lime and firetiger/chartreuse blade were the best colored Dura-Spins on the trip.
Captain Bert fished with his daughter, Ellie, and her boyfriend, Josh, for a couple hours. They caught and released 43 fliers up to 7-½ inches long. They used tenkara poles and bream busters rigged with chartreuse, pink, and black gnat Okeefenokee Swamp Sallies.
Captain Bert Deener offers guided fishing trips in the Okefenokee. To book a trip with him, visit his website bertsjigsandthings.com. Latest Swamp level (before the recent rain) on the east side was 119.65 feet. Be careful driving your boat with the low water conditions.
Saltwater (Ga. Coast) – Scott Smith fished the Buffalo Creek area and caught around 25 trout. Live shrimp worked best.
Captain Greg Hildreth reported the offshore sheepshead bite has been good, and so has the whiting bite in the sounds.
Steve Hampton caught some nice sized flounder (biggest measured 17 ½ inches long) recently at the Jekyll Island pier. He used mud minnows to fool them.
A Saint Marys area man told me the trout are starting to bite in Crooked River.
