Was it a good week? a tough week? However your week went…always know that fishing can probably make it better. 

One last friendly reminder that tomorrow, Sat. Sept. 23, Georgia will take part in celebrating National Hunting and Fishing Day. On this day, there will be multiple outdoor-oriented events scheduled across the state. These are a great place to check out new activities or bring a friend that might be new to hunting or fishing. Check out information on National Hunting and Fishing Day HERE and a schedule of statewide events HERE. How about a Free Fishing Day too?

This week, we just have a brief report from Southeast Georgia. Here is to hoping you can get some fishing in this weekend! 

SOUTHEAST GEORGIA

(Fishing report courtesy of Bert Deener, fisheries biologist with Georgia DNR Wildlife Resources Division, with help from Region Staff and Local Experts)

I will be taking teens on one-hour bass fishing excursions in a boat during the Outdoor Adventure Day this coming Saturday (September 23rd) at Paradise Public Fishing Area near Tifton. If you know of a teen (12-16 years old) who would like to sign up for one of the 10 slots and learn the details of bass fishing on a lake that has not been opened to the public before the event (the catch rates should be great), then call the Waycross Office (912-285-6094) to sign up.

Hurricane Irma’s aftermath is still wreaking havoc with the river and saltwater bites. The rivers are all still blown out, so don’t plan to fish them this week. The Okefenokee will be tough probably for the rest of this week as fish push out into the newly-flooded flats and concentrations of fish will be hard to find.

Even though we knew it would be tough, I took Craig James to the St Marys Jetties for a Georgia Outdoor News article he is writing about pitching bucktail jigs and Sea Shads on Jetty Jigs for bull redfish at the rocks. We didn’t catch any bull reds, but we had a keeper red, an 18-inch and a 16-inch trout along with several black sea bass and other species. About half the fish came on bucktails and half on 1/2-oz. Jetty Jigs with Sea Shads (Calcasieu brew, hot chicken, and candy corn worked best). The giant swells crashing over the end of the jetties looked like pure black river water because of the extreme flooding on the St. Marys. It will be probably 2 more weeks before the sounds are actually good fishing again.

Daniel Johnson caught this 7 lb, 10 oz bass from an Alma area pond last month

Pond fishing was the highlight again this week. I took my daughter Ellie to a pond on

Ellie Deener caught this 6 lb bowfin using a white Dura-spin from the east side of the Okefenokee Swamp before Hurricane Irma.

Saturday evening. We caught a couple bass up to 2 pounds by pitching black Texas-rigged worms to wood cover. The biggest bass I heard of being caught this week was a 9-lb., 1-oz. monster that inhaled a frog. Reports from Winge’s Bait and Tackle for Waycross area ponds are that bream have been eating crickets and bass have been hitting topwaters and plastic worms.

Dodge County Public Fishing Area near Eastman has been producing some great crappie catches over the last week. Both jigs and minnows fooled slabs (some around 2 pounds!). Lots of 2 to 5-pound bass were also caught. Plastics produced most of the bass.

First quarter moon is September 27th. To monitor all the Georgia river levels, visit the USGS website HERE. You can monitor the marine forecast HERE.