Fish are moving toward their summer patterns. Summertime saltwater fish like tarpon, big jack crevalle and sharks are around now.
Some big bass are nailing topwaters, and bowfin in the Okefenokee Swamp are chewing. Most of the southeast Georgia rivers are back into the floodplain with the rains the last couple of weeks.
River gauges Thursday, June 19th were:
• Clyo on the Savannah River – 10.9 feet and falling
• Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 9.7 feet and rising
• Doctortown on the Altamaha – 10.1 feet and falling
• Waycross on the Satilla – 12.2 feet and rising
• Atkinson on the Satilla – 9.9 feet and rising
• Statenville on the Alapaha
– 3.8 feet and falling
• Macclenny on the St Marys – 4.1 feet and steady
• Fargo on the Suwannee – 5.9 feet and falling
Satilla River – The main river is way out in the floodplain with the almost daily rains.
A Blackshear angler fished some small tributaries to the Satilla River and had a blast. He pitched orange #10 Okefenokee Swamp Sallies and caught 25 fliers and three bluegills.
Okefenokee Swamp – Brantley Wester fished with me. We caught lots of bowfin and a half-dozen pickerel - 26 total. Brantley cast Dura-Spins, and I flung a prototype fly.
I fooled our biggest fish (7-lb., 8-oz. bowfin) with a jackfish -colored (red/yellow/ white) fly. Crawfishbrass blade Dura-Spins fooled most of the pickerel, while bowfin ate the lemon-lime, jackfish, and crawfish-brass blade versions.
Seth Carter and Van Palmer fished the east side and caught dozens of bowfin and a few pickerel. They tried to keep count but kept losing track. They fooled them with the highdollar Jackall vibrating jigs and Bull Shads and caught the majority of their fish on Dura-Spins. Their biggest bowfin was six pounds.
Harvey and Micah came over from Douglas to fish with me on a 2-hour trip. They caught a total of 33 fish (all bowfin) and had a couple pickerel pull off. They had 4 “doubles”.
I flung a prototype fly on a long rod and caught seven bowfin. The two best flies were jackfish (red/yellow/ white) and pink/white colors.
Another angler said that he caught seven bowfin and 13 pickerel. He didn’t say what he caught them with.
The most recent water level on the Folkston side was 120.84 feet.
Local Ponds – Miles Zachary fished a Hazlehurst area pond and caught a bunch of bass. He was flinging several different colors of BDD Buzzbaits rigged with Down South Plastics creatures and toads.
Chad Lee fished an Alma-area pond and caught several bass. His biggest was a 4 1/2pounder, and it inhaled a shad-colored swimbait.
Joshua Barber and Billy Lee fished an area pond and caught about a dozen solid bass. Their biggest was Joshua’s 7-lb., 4-oz.
Jimmy Zinker caught three fish – two of them bass. They weren’t quite to the 7-pound mark. He fooled them with his signature black Jitterbug.
Saltwater (Ga. Coast) – Tommy Sweeney fished the Cumberland Beach and the creeks near the sounds and caught a couple dozen throwbacks and four keeper trout.
Their bigger fish came on the last of the incoming on live shrimp. Their keepers were 16 to 18 inches.
Todd Kennedy had trouble with redfish hammering his topwater and pulling off. A day later he figured out the magic combination landing five (both slot fish and oversized) by flinging a pearl Gulp 5inch Jerk Shad rigged on a 3/16-oz. rootbeer crackle Zombie Eye Jighead.
Some good flounder reports came in from several places along the coast from Tybee to St. Marys.
