The panfish tournament on Saturday out of Jaycees Landing on the Altamaha went well, and that bite is about to bust wide open. The Satilla River level has bounced around with this week’s rains, but the fishing has still been outstanding. Saltwater was slow with the big tides this week, but it should crank up this weekend with better tides. The last quarter moon is June 19th. To monitor all the Georgia river levels, visit the USGS website http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ga/nwis/rt.

Altamaha River – The Altamaha bluegill bite is about to bust wide open. The DNR sampling last fall showed that the highest bluegill population ever recorded headed into the winter, and all the high water will have pushed them to giant size. Over 30 boats participated in the panfish tournament Saturday out of Jaycees Landing. It did not quite take as many pounds as I predicted, but 9.80 pounds (10 fish aggregate) won the tournament. Quite a respectable weight, and it won the $500 first prize. Thanks to Iron Pigs Motorcycle Club for sponsoring the event. Elsewhere on the Altamaha, anglers fishing in the willows out of Wayne County ramps reported catching some giant shellcrackers (pushing 2 pounds) on Saturday. Pink worms fooled them. The river level was 5.2 feet and falling (85 degrees) at the Baxley gage, and 7.8 feet and falling (82 degrees) at the Doctortown gage on Tuesday evening.

Second Baptist Church kids went fishing Tuesday evening at a Waycross pond and whacked the bluegills. Calob caught this nice bluegill and Skylar congratulated him with a choke hold.




Satilla River – Wow, the catches continued to impress this week. Michael Deen and Justin Bythwood fished the Waycross area on Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday evenings and whacked a bunch of fish on Satilla Spins. On Saturday, Scout Carter joined them and caught almost half of their 25 fish (in about 1 1/2 hours) on 1/16-oz. black/yellow. Crawfish boated the other half. On Monday and Tuesday evenings, the pair caught a few on black/yellow and other prototype colors, but crawfish dominated. They boated 51 panfish Monday evening and almost 40 on Tuesday (Tuesday evening produced bigger fish). Both weekday trips lasted only 2 hours each. TJ Cheek moved out of his element this weekend for Father’s Day and fished the river with his father and son, Jackson. It was Jackson’s first real fishing trip, and the trio had a blast. Jackson caught his first fish, a bluegill, during the outing. Way to go Jackson!!!! The DNR folks certified a flier and a redbreast angler award this week (often they do not certify that many in 6 months, but this year fishing has been so good that the river has produced several awards per week). Michael Winge of Winge’s Bait and Tackle (912-283-9400) in Waycross said that the redbreast bite is still excellent. He said that you can catch fish about anywhere in the river right now. The river level on Tuesday at the Waycross gage was 5.6 feet and falling (80 degrees) and at the Atkinson gage was 7.2 feet and falling (82 degrees).

St. Marys River – I did not receive any reports specific to the St. Marys, but the catfish bite should be in full swing on the middle river, and panfish should be tearing it up in the upper river. The river level on Tuesday evening at the MacClenny gage was 6.3 feet and falling.

Local Ponds – Second Baptist Church in Waycross held a kids fishing event on Tuesday evening at a local Waycross pond, and a couple of dozen kids had a blast. It started off slowly while the sun was high, but as the sun dipped, the bite picked up. The bream ate pink worms like crazy for the last hour of daylight, and everyone who was concentrating on fishing caught hand-sized or bigger bluegills and shellcrackers. Kael had the hot hand, catching 7 bluegills in an hour. A few bass were fooled with worms, as well. The trick was to fish the worm just off the bottom. A couple of Waycross anglers fished a local pond this week and caught 19 bass averaging about 4 pounds each. They ate topwaters fished around vegetation. It is about time to start night-fishing for trophy bass, so put that on your radar.