Hello fellow anglers of South Georgia. I’m excited to tell you I will be the new writer of the Fishing Report, now called Southern Waters Fishing Report.
First off, I would like to commend my good friend Capt. Bert Deener on his 17 years of writing the report. I want to thank him for all the hard work and effort that he invested in it over the years.
He is truly a fisherman at heart and has spent much time gathering and sharing angling reports with all of us who love this wonderful sport.
Now, let’s get down to business. Saltwater and the rivers produced some good reports this past chilly week. The warm December weather coming up next week should fire the fishing up.
River gauges as of December 18:
• Doctortown on the Altamaha – 4.9 feet and falling
• Clyo on the Savannah – 4.5 feet and slowly rising
• Statenville on the Alapaha – 2.5 feet and rising
• Waycross on the Satilla – 7.1 feet and steady
• Atkinson on the Satilla – 4.1 feet and steady
• Fargo on the Suwannee – 4.7 feet and steady
• Macclenny on the Saint Marys – 2.1 feet and steady
Altamaha River – The only report I have was of two Waycross area anglers who fished the lower river. They caught a small mess of bass and a bowfin on soft plastics.
They had to fish slowly in the cool water temperatures. Bass is what I would target in the river with the warm trend approaching.
Saint Marys River – Craig James had two good trips on the upper river. He fished with swamp spiders and caught around a dozen fish each trip. Redbreast were the primary catch, but he also caught some bluegill and bass too.
Lakes/Ponds – Jimmy Zinker and a friend fished a Valdosta area pond for a few hours and caught five bass (up to 2 ½ lbs.) and a few jackfish. They caught them on a gold color Rapala jointed minnow and swimbaits.
Jimmy also went to a farm pond and hung a big bass on a jointed minnow.
A Waycross area angler fished a farm pond during the windy cold front. He managed to catch around 10 bass, a few panfish and a bowfin on Zoom plastic lizards and live bait.
Okefenokee Swamp – I fished the east side of the Swamp and caught a dozen fish (five jackfish and seven bowfin). I caught them by trolling and casting crawdad and chartreuse colored Dura-Spins.
Capt. Bert Deener offers guided fishing trips in the Okefenokee. To book a trip with him, go to his website bertsjigsandthings. com.
The latest water level on the east side was 120.36 feet.
Saltwater (Ga. Coast) – Scott Smith and his cousin Will fished in the Brunswick area and caught 25 small trout, 15 redfish (all keeper sized), seven black drum, two flounder and a sheepshead on live shrimp and paddle tail jigs.
