Winds were awful again in the brine, but the freshwater bite was very good.
The weather forecast for this week is looking decent at the time of writing this report.
River gauges Thursday, October 9 were:
• Clyo on the Savannah River – 4.8 feet and rising
• Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 1.5 feet and rising
• Doctortown on the Altamaha – 3.8 feet and falling
• Waycross on the Satilla – 4.8 feet and falling
• Atkinson on the Satilla – 3.8 feet and falling
• Statenville on the Alapaha – 2.2 feet and falling
• Macclenny on the St Marys – 2.3 feet and falling
• Fargo on the Suwannee – 2.4 feet and falling
Altamaha/Ocmulgee Rivers – Miles Zachary said the BDD buzzbait bite has still been great (1/4-oz. version has worked best), and the squarebill crankbait and spinnerbait bites have improved.
I fished with Joshua Barber on the lower Altamaha. He was in his boat and I was in mine, but we fished near each other. The bite was pretty good as I caught 17 fish (11 bass) during the day.
A 6-inch black-blue flake Keitech Mad Wag worm produced most of my bass. The biggest (4lb., 15-oz) ate a black Assassin 6-inch curly tail worm, and the second biggest (4-lb., 10-oz.) was fooled with a junebug Gambler paddle-tail worm.
My biggest bowfin was 7-lb., 14-oz. and ate a Keitech Mad Wag worm. Joshua ended up catching seven bass up to 3 1/2 pounds on Texas-rigged worms.
Justin Bythwood and Ed Zmarzly fished the lower river and caught around 20 bass by flipping and pitching plastics to shoreline cover.
A group of guys fished a “friendly” tournament on the lower Altamaha, and it took 12.54 pounds to win, and big fish was 3.70 pounds.
Joshua Barber went back with a friend and caught five bass in about four hours of fishing. He said that the bite was really slow and the wildlife didn’t seem to be active.
Okefenokee Swamp – Unfortunately, the federal government shutdown continued this week. At the time of writing this report the refuge (including Okefenokee Adventures) and SC Foster State Park were open.
Jeff and Cathi Franklin came down from north Georgia and fished with me twice. We did a sunset tour on the east side and caught and released a bunch of fliers.
They stopped at 30 fliers up to 8 inches, then we watched the sun set. The panfish ate yellow, pink and chartreuse Okefenokee Swamp Sallies suspended underneath foam floats.
We fished several hours in the middle of the day a couple of days later on the east side. I flung a fly on a long rod for a few minutes before they arrived and caught a 3-pound bowfin. It ate a gold flash pattern fly with a blade.
We trolled for bowfin and pickerel during the trip, but struck out on the latter. We caught plenty of the former, though, and stopped at catching and releasing 25 of them.
The biggest bowfin was Cathi’s 4-lb., 10-oz. fish, and Jeff’s was 3-lb., 15-oz. The best color Dura-Spin was crawfish-brass blade, but Cathi did well on jackfish. We also caught a few throughout the trip on lemon-lime.
For the latest information about open areas, call Okefenokee Adventures or SC Foster State Park.
The most recent water level on the Folkston side was 120.63 feet.
Local Ponds – Curtis Hazel fished a pond near Folkston for a short time and caught a gar and lost a few fish (two were bowfin and the other was a bass). They hit swimbaits.
Hayden Lee had a great week for bass in an Almaarea pond. He caught his personal-best bass (over five pounds) on a plastic worm. He caught another nice one on a plastic worm. The second one was right at three pounds.
Saltwater (Ga. Coast) – Blake Boyd bought some 1/4-oz. Capt. Bert’s Flashy Jigheads from Satilla Feed and Outdoors and used them rigged with Tennessee Shad Mayor 3-inch swimbaits to catch some redfish and trout in the Brunswick area. His biggest trout looked to be close to 20 inches from the photo.
Lucy Thomas fished with Capt. Duane Harris in the Brunswick area and had a trout and 10 redfish on live shrimp.
Capt. Chris Ruff said that the bull redfish bite is in full-swing when winds allow you to get out to them.
