Well, I knew this day would come at some point, and now is that time. I will need to spend the time I use on the report each week caring for my parents who both fell on Thanksgiving Day.
I never thought when Dickie Winge talked me into doing the report back in March 2009 that I would be doing it for almost 17 years. But, it’s been great getting folks fired up about going fishing!.
The report is only as good as the information I receive each week, and I thank each of you for providing excellent information and photos. Also, thank you to each of you who shared words of encouragement the report has helped you in your angling.
Some of the kids in those early reports now have boats and take their own families fishing. What a neat cycle I’ve been blessed to have been a part of.
I pray everyone has a safe and fun angling life, but more importantly have a very rich life in Jesus Christ.
I’ll still be fishing, guiding and making rods and fishing lures as much as I can, but I’ll be stopping with the weekly reports. You can see individual trip reports on my Facebook page at Bert’s Jigs and Things if you are interested.
River gauges Thursday, December 4 were:
• Clyo on the Savannah River – 4.9 feet and rising
• Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 3.4 feet and rising
• Doctortown on the Altamaha – 4.1 feet and rising
• Waycross on the Satilla – 4.8 feet and rising
• Atkinson on the Satilla – 3.3 feet and falling
• Statenville on the Alapaha – 1.6 feet and falling
• Macclenny on the St Marys – 2.0 feet and rising
• Fargo on the Suwannee
– 1.4 feet and rising
Altamaha/Ocmulgee Rivers – Blake Yarbrough fished the middle Ocmulgee River for a few hours and caught a pair of 3-pound bass and a 12-incher. Plastic worms fooled them.
John Hillis fished the lower Altamaha and caught a bunch of small bass and bluegills up in the oxbow lakes.
I had another report of an angler in the upper Altamaha catching several quality bass on Chatterbaits and glide baits.
The rivers are probably going to rise with the forecasted rains over the weekend.
Savannah River – Tyler Finch continued his wintertime onslaught on the panfish with a Perch Hounder Spinnerbait.
He takes the small, white 3/16-oz. spinnerbait and tips it with a cricket then slow-rolls it for lots of panfish. In two days of fishing he caught 92 bluegills, 19 big crappie (averaging a pound apiece). He also went to a small tributary creek and caught some redfin pickerel.
Okefenokee Swamp – I had a great guide trip with David, Jacqueline, Otis and Audria on the west side.
The kids (Otis and Audria) each caught angler award-sized fliers in the boat basin before we headed out. They were pitching pink Okefenokee Swamp Sallies on Tenkara poles and bream busters.
We did a bunch of sightseeing then trolled Dura-Spins for a bunch of bowfin and a pickerel. The best colors were jackfish, fire tiger – chartreuse blade, and crawfish-brass blade.
After a quick break for lunch, David went out with me and flung one of my electric chicken bladed flies on his 8-weight fly rod. He fooled a pair of pickerel on the fly and had three other pickerel slash at it (and two barely hooked up) in an hour.
It took a couple dozen fish, but Audria (top photo) finally caught an angler award-sized bowfin by trolling a jackfish-colored Dura-Spin. Luana dos Santos and Johnny Evans (bottom photo) doubled up on redfish fishing with Capt. Duane Harris in the Brunswick area.
The last hour, Audria joined her dad in the boat, and we returned to trolling. She was able to catch a bowfin bigger than the minimum for a youth angler award. She also fooled a warmouth on the big spinner, and it earned her a THIRD youth angler award for the day.
The family ended up catching 31 fish (three fliers, a half-dozen pickerel, a warmouth, and the rest bowfin up to 3 1/2 pounds).
Matthew Gobbi, who has taken to bowfin fishing since he started working at Okefenokee Adventures, fished the docks in the boat basin. He fooled a 24-inch bowfin weighing approximately six pounds with a chartreuse spoon.
The water level on the west side Friday was 3.60 feet. The latest water level on the east side was 120.00 feet.
Local Ponds – Jimmy Zinker fished some south Georgia and north Florida ponds and caught a couple bass at night on a Jitterbug.
During the daytime, he fooled them with brokenback Rapala minnows. His biggest bass was about 4 pounds.
Joshua Barber fished a pond for a few hours and caught a couple bass up to 2 1/2 pounds. He fooled them with plastics.
I got a good report for crappie. A couple Waycross anglers fooled 30 good eating-sized fish with 2- and 3-inch Keitech swimbaits, and his wife fooled them with live minnows.
Saltwater (Ga. Coast) – Scott Smith and a couple of friends fished in the Brunswick area and caught 30 small trout and seven keepers.
They also had 13 redfish, three black drum and a flounder. Their trout ate jigs and the other species inhaled live shrimp.
Capt. Tim Cutting had some great trips this week. Skip Vinton fished with him and caught a limit of trout and redfish. That was the best numbers day of the week.
He then fished three days with Todd Finnegan catching reds and trout on plastics the first two days. The third day they looked for stripers the first part of the day and did not get on them. Todd caught and released everything during those three days.
Capt. Greg Hildreth had a great trip in the wind. They caught a bunch of trout on live shrimp fished under slip floats back in the creeks.
Luana dos Santos, a Rotary student from Brazil, fished with Johnny Evans and Capt. Duane Harris in the Brunswick area. They caught 29 redfish and a black drum in just two hours of fishing.
The water cooled 10 degrees in just four days. The redfish were chewing.
Will Ellis fished a dock in the Brunswick area for just a short time and caught a 24-inch redfish on a pink 5/16-oz. Wobble Head Jighead and pearl-colored fluke.
Keaton Beach, Fla. – Capt. Pat McGriff of One More Cast Guide Service caught 13 keeper black sea bass by bouncing Assassin 5-inch Shads in 8-10 feet of water.
Generally the pinks (stinky pink, pink ghost, etc.) are tops for him when bouncing, but he didn’t specify.
Last quarter moon is December 11th. To monitor all the Georgia river levels, visit the USGS website (waterdata. usgs.gov/ga/nwis/r t). 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 or his website at bertsjigsandthings. com
