jekyll island this weekend

[brookiegrass]

I'm heading down to Jekyll Island this weekend with a group of friends so obviously I plan on doing some fishing. The thing is I have never fished the Georgia coast. All my saltwater fishing has been done down in Florida. I will not have a boat so I was trying to figure out the best places to fish from the land. I've been reading about trout and reds down there and it sounds like good fishing if you know what you're doing, which I don't really. I'm excited as this will be my introduction to fishing the Georgia coast and I'm looking forward to learning about this region. Any information will be appreciated. Thanks, and I'll let you know how it goes.

[scooby]

There probably won't be many reds off the beach, they usually run the beaches summer into fall. Big ones tend to go offshore but there will be puppy drum and trout in the tidal rivers and creeks. Without a boat it may be hard to get to prime holes. Will you be fly fishing or bait fishing? If you can get to a dock on a creek or river to cast from you may be able to get into some fish, you can collect fiddler crabs and jig for sheepshead right off of a dock, they tend to hang out eating barnacles off of structure. For trout or reds a popping rig with a live shrimp can be effective inshore this time of year.

Check out the tide chart, depending on where you are on the coast of GA the tide times can fluctuate quite a bit. The moon is waning right now so the tides shouldn't be too springy this weekend. You'll want to hit moving water, either incoming or outgoing tide, as dead still water typically isn't very productive in Georgia. All of this is even more important if you're going to try and fly fish, as a really springy tide can pull in a lot of water and with it mud, thereby decreasing visibility for the fish. I looked at the St. Simons tide chart and it looks like 5-6 foot tides this weekend which is very good for Georgia.

Last, you might want to check with one of the local guide services to see what's working lure or bait-wise. I don't know any guides around Jekyll so I can't recommend one but you can probably Google one.

[AM]

There is a public fshing pier on the river side of the island. Pick up an island map from the folks working the toll booth as you go onto the island. It will show you where the pier is located. As you cross the bridge onto the island there is a marina on the right. You could probably find info on guides there. To get to it, take the first right after the toll booth.

[Guit_fishN]

There are some guys on http://www.georgiakayakfishing.com who live on or close to Jekyll and fish the area regularly. You should make a post there. Membership is not limited to those owning kayaks.

Additionally, searching for "Jekyll" will turn up a lot of info.

[THE EG]

The previous info is spot on. I'll add a bit since I grew up in that area.

If you are from Florida you may be disappointed because the shallow water on Georgia's coast usually is brown and has a visibility of about 4 inches. That's due to all the nutrients coming out of the decomposing marshe grass as well as the red clay coming out of the rivers from up state. That's a good thing from a ecosystem standpoint but bad news if you are a sight fishermen. Winter is better because the "rot" slows down due to the cold and stream flow is pretty low right now. The water clears up a bit. It still won't be what you are used to though.

What this means is most fish are attracted by scent or vibration. So either fish bait or if fly fishing go with big flashy, noisy whatever will make a fish go "what was that". Look for wakes because for the most part you won't see the fish even if they are right below the surface.

It's a pretty poor fishery unless you have a boat to move around. Jekyll is not my home waters so I don't know them too well but two well know places to try with a fly rod are; on the north end, the feeder creek just to the right if you pull into the Jekyll pier parking lot. And on the south end, the beach and feeder creek that can be accessed from the public park. If you are adventurous, you can hike out into some of the marshes and try for fish in the creeks. Stay on sand though and out of the mud because you may never get out. At this time of year the sea trout tend to be hunkered down in the deeper water on the outside bends of the creeks. Usually in water 10 feet or deeper so a sink tip would probably be preferred. Let the fly bounce off the bottom and strip it as slow as you possibly can. If you are spin fishing, rubber grubs, DOA shrimp and curly tails work well. If you want to use bait, dead shrimp is good but the best bait although expensive is probably live shrimp if you want to catch something. If the sun is out the reds will come up to the surface in the shallows at the edges of the creeks because the black mud will warm the water.

Good luck and let us know if you caught anything.