It’s been a whirlwind couple of weeks for me. The fishing tackle trade show (ICAST) in Orlando was a blast, as usual.
There were lots of unique products, some of the same old stuff, and some that just made you scratch your head. Some of the new stuff headed to the shelves of local tackle shops will really help us catch fish. Check out my videos at Bert’s Jigs and Things on YouTube if you are interested in the details.
There have been some really good reports the last two weeks. The summer pattern is definitely entrenched, so choose your presentations accordingly.
None of the southeast Georgia rivers are flooded, so it’s time to break out the river boats and paddle- crafts – for a change.
River gauges Thursday, July 24 were:
• Clyo on the Savannah River – 6.6 feet and rising
• Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 2.6 feet and falling
• Doctortown on the Altamaha – 5.9 feet and falling
• Waycross on the Satilla – 6.3 feet and falling
• Atkinson on the Satilla – 5.9 feet and falling
• Statenville on the Alapaha – 2.7 feet and falling
• Macclenny on the St Marys – 3.8 feet and falling
• Fargo on the Suwannee – 4.8 feet and rising
Altamaha River – Miles Zachary fished for a few hours and said the bite is heating up. He had eight bass up to about 2 1/2 pounds on BDD buzzbaits rigged with plastics.
The river is finally come down to a good level after being flooded for many months.
Satilla River – It’s time to mobilize the paddle- crafts and start floating the upper and middle river sections. You can still get a boat around most places where trees didn’t fall during Hurricane Helene if you want to fish in comfort.
Okefenokee Swamp – Wayne Vickers and I fished the east side and caught 67 fish of four species. This was his first time fishing the swamp in over 50 years.
Wayne caught a couple nice warmouth before targeting bigger fish. A couple small pickerel inhaled a crawfish Warmouth Whacker Jigs; bowfin and gar ate Dura-Spins both trolling and casting; and, he had about a dozen Florida gar.
Mike Harrell took his grandkids fishing on the east side and they caught about 15 fliers in a few hours of morning fishing.
A family from Virginia fished with me on the west side and caught their first bowfin and most caught their first pickerel, as well. Teddy caught a youth angler award-sized flier and warmouth. We caught mostly pickerel and bowfin.
Some of their pickerel were really big. They caught and released a total of 28 fish.
The water level on the west side was 4.26 feet.
Dodge County Public Fishing Area (near Eastman) – Area staff talked with an angler who caught a great limit (15 fish per person) of redear sunfish (shellcrackers).
The water is hot, so bass fishing has slowed, but you can still catch some around shad schools or fishing deep cover with shad-colored hard baits or plastic worms.
Ocmulgee Public Fishing Area (near Hawkinsville) – Ken Burke fished and had a good big fish bite during the four hours he fished. He used a shaky head worm and caught four bass weighing just over 17 pounds.
Three ranged from 4-6 pounds each, and the dink was a 2-pounder. He caught them from 4- to 20-feet deep. Water temperature was a smoking 90 to 92.4 degrees.
Local Ponds – Chris bought a new Capt. Bert’s rod this week. He took it home and the kids bass fished in their pond that evening.
Ella Kate caught a big bass on her third cast and it ended up being her biggest bass to date. From the photo it looked like a 5- to 6-pounder.
Joshua Barber fished a Waycross area lake and caught a dozen bass with three around 3-lbs. apiece. He fooled them with plastic worms and topwater frogs.
He used the same lures again a day to catch 11 bass up to 3 1/2 pounds.
Saltwater (Ga. Coast) – Don Harrison and Billy Williams fished the St Marys Jetties and caught three keeper flounder and a trout on Capt. Bert’s bucktail jigs and Carolina-rigged mudminnows.
Both produced good flatfish, but Don had the catch of the day – a 100-lb. class tarpon. The tarpon ate a white bucktail jig and two of the keeper flounder bit electric chicken bucktail jigs.
Capt. Teddy Elrod and a friend fished the Brunswick area and caught a tarpon on a hard plug. It was about an 80pounder. Teddy caught and released a 3pound trout on a topwater early in the morning.
Capt. Greg Hildreth said he has been catching a bunch of whiting on the beach still, and some trout on live shrimp under floats on his charters this week.
Snapper season sounded like a big success. Scott Smith and buddies limited out as did Hunter Dean and friends.
First quarter moon is Friday, August 1. 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 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. com.
