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 gages 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 havewas 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.
Savannah River – Mark Vick and Daniel Rhodes had a great trip on the lower river. They fished for crappie and fliers and kept 30 (and threw back at least that many).
Their biggest crappie of the trip weighed 1-lb. 12oz. The fish were caught on 1/16 oz. Tennessee Shad Specktacular jigs.
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.
Alapaha River – Jim O’Conner went and fished the upper Alapaha for about an hour and a half. He caught a couple nice bass (up to 3 lbs., 1 oz.) on a black and blue flake Trick Worm.
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.
They said the sand gnats were terrible so you may want to bring some repellent with you if you go.
A Waycross angler fished the Brunswick area and caught his limit of redfish, several nice trout and a black drum by fishing with shrimp on bottom.
Capt. Tim Cutting had some great trips in the Saint Simons area. His clients have been catching around 40 fish (trout and reds) per trip. They have been using Fourseven 3.5” swimmers and Berkeley 3.3” power swimmers to catch their fish.
Capt. Chris Ruff put his clients on the fish in the Darien area. They caught 50 trout (all small sized), nine keeper redfish, and two black drum and sheepshead. They were using live shrimp under floats and jigheads around docks and oyster bars.
Kerry Hood and his son, Cooper Hood, fished the creeks around Blythe Island and had a great trip. They caught countless keeper sized redfish (no overslots) and some speckled trout.
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/.
