Saltwater was great with the stable weather and doable winds. The Okefenokee Swamp produced some great catches, as well.
River gauges Thursday, November 6 were:
• Clyo on the Savannah River – 3.9 feet and falling
• Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 2.7 feet and falling
• Doctortown on the Altamaha – 6.5 feet and falling
• Waycross on the Satilla – 4.8 feet and falling
• Atkinson on the Satilla – 3.6 feet and falling
• Statenville on the Alapaha – 1.7 feet and falling
• Macclenny on the St. Marys – 2.0 feet and steady
• Fargo on the Suwannee – 1.6 feet and falling
Altamaha/Ocmulgee Rivers – The Altamaha came up due to releases from Lake Sinclair and the Ocmulgee rose from Piedmont rains. Both are falling out again and should produce some great bass fishing again this week.
Richard Young and a buddy fished the lower river and caught nine bass. They didn’t have any monsters, but everything was over two pounds. Their top five bass weighed right at 12 pounds.
A couple of Waycross anglers fished the lower river with worms on the bottom and caught catfish and bream.
Satilla River – The level is back down in the range where paddle crafts are the most effective. With the cooler mornings, expect the bass or crappie bites to be best, but panfish should be chewing in the warm afternoons this week.
Okefenokee Swamp – My wife, Teresa, fished with me for a few hours after church on the east side. We poked around looking at stuff for the first hour then checked some spots for the next hour and a half – both casting and trolling Dura-Spins.
We caught four bowfin and a pickerel on lemonlime and crawfish-brass Dura-Spins. The last halfhour I was able to fool six bowfin with a fly rod and a fire tiger bladed fly.
Ryan, Cathy and Conrad from New Jersey fished with me on the west side. They caught 59 fish on a half-day charter. Most were bowfin, but they had about a halfdozen pickerel up to 19 inches (Ryan had the biggest pickerel) and four fliers.
Conrad caught the biggest bowfin (6-lb., 11oz.) while casting a fire tiger-silver blade Dura-Spin. They caught about a dozen bowfin and a pickerel by casting cut flier on a 1/16-oz Mirage Jig Magnum, but the vast majority were on the in-line spinner.
Curtis Hazel fished with Brad Reed on the east side. They caught eight fish total (six bowfin and two pickerel) by trolling Dura-Spins in the canal. Their largest bowfin pulled the scales down to five pounds.
The most recent water level on the Folkston side was 120.30 feet. On the west side, the level on Thursday was 3.72 feet.
Ocmulgee Public Fishing Area (near Hawkinsville) – Ken Burke fished the area and caught three bass in just over five hours of fishing. They weighed 5.1, 2.67, and 1.1 pounds. He caught them all on crankbaits in 8 to 22 feet of water.
The water temperature was 64 degrees in the middle of the day.
Local Ponds – Chad Lee fished an Alma-area pond and caught a great mess of crappie, bluegill, and flier. He kept 19 that he fooled with live minnows. The biggest crappie was pushing 1 1/2 pounds.
Joshua Barber fished a Tifton area pond in the cold temperatures and had three bass (one keeper). Plastic worms were the ticket.
The crappie bite has fired off in several places. Fish minnows or jigs in your favorite pond that has the tasty panfish. They will probably slow down early next week if the strong cold snap materializes.
Saltwater (Ga. Coast) – The fish bit well last week despite the increasing tides.
I had several folks report catching lots of trout in the Brunswick area. One angler used hard plugs and topwaters to catch and release some really nice trout.
Wyatt Crews fished with me in the Brunswick area in the wind. We did great on redfish and black drum. We had a total of 54 fish (released all but three reds, a black drum, and a trout).
Our biggest trout was 17 inches, and biggest redfish was 25 inches (we had a half-dozen oversized redfish). Live shrimp rigged on 3/16-oz. Redfish Wrecker Jigheads was the ticket.
Capt. Tim Cutting had great trips despite the growing full-moon tides. They had lots of trout and reds on Fourseven plastics. They also mixed in a MirrOLip L30 for some of their bigger fish.
Keaton Beach, Fla.
– Don Harrison, Rob Weller, Bill Janowsky, Bryan,and Mike fished the Keaton Beach flats for a few days and whacked some nice fish.
They ended up with 19 keeper trout and a redfish between two boats the first day. They did best with a pink slick jerkbait.
The bite was a little slower the next day. Their biggest trout was Rob’s 25-incher and Don had a 22-inch redfish. They had a dozen keepers that day.
They went off in deeper water to some rocks on the third day and caught a bunch of black sea bass, but most were undersized.
Capt. Pat McGriff had some excellent trips in the Gulf. Trout and black sea bass topped the catches, but they also had some redfish mixed in when they went shallow.
Live pinfish under floats worked best, but they also caught them on Assassin 5-inch Shads in pink hues.
Last quarter moon is today (Wednesday, November 12). To monitor all the Georgia river levels, visit the USGS website (waterdata.usgs.gov/ga/n wis/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 or e-mail him (bertdeener@ yahoo.com).
