By Capt. Bert Deener
The number of reports declined with most school systems starting back this week. Fishing is a great way to relax.
River gages Thursday, August 4 were:
• Clyo on the Savannah River – 5.6 feet and falling
• Abbeville on the Ocmulgee – 3.7 feet and rising
• Doctortown on the Altamaha – 5.9 feet and rising
• Waycross on the Satilla – 5.6 feet and falling (86 degrees)
• Atkinson on the Satilla – 5.5 feet and falling
• Macclenny on the St Marys – 4.1 feet and falling
Satilla River – The river is fishable and the upper reaches are getting low for getting a motorboat around well.
I heard of folks catching up to a dozen panfish per trip last week. It’s gonna get good again soon if it keeps dropping – just in time for most folks to head to the woods.
Catfishing is the best option in the middle and lower river this weekend.
Okefenokee Swamp – The best catch this week was by Thomas Powell, who fooled a chunky bass with a white curly-tail grub while fishing in the boat basin on the Folkston side. He released the bass.
Okefenokee Adventures staff said that a few fliers, warmouth, and bowfin were caught from the boat basin last week on the east side.
The latest water level (Folkston side) was 121.18 feet.
Local Ponds – Anglers from Blackshear and Waycross fished a local pond and trolled up three nice crappie using 1/32-oz. heads and 2-inch Keitech swimbaits (sight flash, chartreuse back pearl, and electric shad worked best).
They also caught a dozen bluegills up to almost nine inches by trolling. They cast at some fish they graphed and caught a crappie quickly and thought they had them dialed in. That was the only crappie they caught casting.
I heard of bass up to eight pounds being caught this week from local ponds.
Saltwater (Ga. Coast) – Robert and Deana Bringolf came down from the Athens area and fished the St. Marys Jetties with a friend.
Robert had the hot hand, boating three bull redfish over 30 inches on a 5/8-oz., electric chicken Capt. Bert’s Bucktail Jig bounced around the rocks. They also had a beautiful 21-inch flounder on the same colored bucktail.
Don Harrison and a friend fished the St. Marys Jetties as well. They pitched bucktail jigs to the rocks during the morning and had a nice flounder, a pair of ladyfish and a bunch of bottom fish. The big redfish eluded them that day.
The guides fishing around them weren’t doing anything on live bait either – as in they didn’t see any fish (other than a sting ray) caught during the morning. The tarpon showed up at high tide, and a boat jumped a 120-pound class fish on a swimbait.
Inshore, folks reported catching some flounder on mudminnows. The trout reports I received were mediocre. Folks caught a few per trip, but some didn’t have any keepers.
Full Moon is Friday, August 12. 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/.
Capt. Bert Deener 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, call him at 912-288-3022 or e-mail him (bertdeener@yahoo.com). For a 20% discount on some really comfortable fishing shoes (the Miami style is my favorite style of Skuze Shoes…), use the CAPTBERT20 discount code at checkout on their website skuzeshoes.com.