In this fishing report 11/15/2024 Sea Island and St. Simons Island we Will discuss more about the estuary and what has happened in late summer and early fall.
Cause and Effect
We had one of the toughest summers in my almost 30 years of guiding tarpon this season. Relentless winds, unbelievable amounts of rain, and a lack of bait were the recipe for disaster.
Disaster may be a strong word, but from a guide’s point of view it’s perfect for describing the worst season I’ve had. After a strong start to the season in early May I should’ve known then not to get my hopes up.
I started the season this year earlier than normal with some regular clients who said “what do you think?” Should we go look for some tarpon. It was May 9 water temperature was 81° so how could I resist. As we rode the beach bouncing from Bait pod to bait pod we saw some big schools of jacks before ultimately finding the mother load of Tarpon for that time of year. Strange thing was they were all smaller fish in the 10 to 30 pound range and there were hundreds of them!
After working through some big redfish and a few jacks, we hooked our first tarpon and landed it. That day turned into a 3 for 5 day and the excitement of tarpon season set in.
Not realizing the significance of this amazing day we had just experienced. (it was the earliest I had ever caught tarpon in coastal Georgia)
I unfortunately got my hopes up for what turned out to be a quick beginning to an even faster end. Within just a short period say maybe two weeks the beach went from having an abundants life full of bait pods, jacks, sharks, and tarpon to a desert.
Cause
An early season low pressure drove us off the water with winds blowing out of the east at over 20 knots for a week straight. This was not the way we like to start our summer season. The system was never named but spun up and was just a few miles an hour off from becoming a named tropical storm before making landfall just north of Darien Georgia.
When conditions settled in the ocean I ventured out with some clients to take a peek. That’s when I realized everything had vanished. There was no bait, and there was no life. In normal circumstances this does generally happen, but within a few days, everything returns to normal. What we didn’t realize was there was nothing normal about an early season, low pressure for our area, which seemed to push everything north and it all happened during what we generally consider the prime migration of pelagic species.
Effect
The effects from this low pressure and several others was not one I had seen in my guiding career. Water tempature skyrocketed into the upper 80’s and low 90’s for the better part of June and July. It was nothing we had seen and not something I had experienced. See our predominant wind direction in the summer is Southwest in the morning, calm midday, Southeast in the afternoon but it kept blowing east northeast.
As I look back on it, I realize that all the east/northeast wind was just holding water in and not allowing the precious circulation of deeper offshore waters to move inland. After a lot of deep thought and a lot of afternoon cocktails I realized that there was no upwelling in Florida like years past for the most part. You see an upwelling is when the wind blows out of the west for extended periods of time and causes a turnover of the water. Water temperatures can drop on the beaches into the upper 60s and low 70s along Florida’s coast in the summer months. Our water temperatures generally stay around the low 80s, which is Prime for Tarpon
The thing I couldn’t understand was why were there fish in creeks and inshore flats but not in the ocean. This question still haunts me and I still think about it daily. You see water temperatures inshore were in the upper 80s and low 90s almost everywhere. There were not as many tarpon inshore as normal years, but they were there earlier and pretty consistent where the ocean was a complete desert for the most part. I wish I knew the answer to this one question. Why were they inshore in blazing hot water but not on the beaches?
Outcome
I know a lot of guides probably say this, but I have some of the most dedicated clients I could ever ask for. Sure I canceled some trip. Some because weather and some because I just couldn’t bring myself to tell client to come from thousands of miles away to fish in the conditions I was being dealt. The saying I have always had is “If I’m wouldn’t be willing to pay someone to go then why shouldn’t feel comfortable about charging someone to go”. Everyone was understanding and some ever refused to cancel saying we wont catch them unless we try.
They were right. More days than not we brought great attitudes to ok fishing but when everything came together, it was so damn bittersweet that the memories made this past season will overcome those of previous seasons of greatness.
All in all Tarpon were caught, tarpon were lost, and some days tarpon were not even seen but on some of the worst days smiles and laughs were had and memories of a lifetime were made. (Thank you to all our amazing clients for those days)
What has come of it all?
Over 50 inches of rain have fallen in Southeastern Georgia since August 1. I’m not exactly sure what fell in May, June, and July but it was a lot. We didn’t keep track of those months but I know it was a lot and enough to make us start tracking it starting around August 1.
Rivers were flooring and overwhelming their bank. Georgia’s small coast of just under 100 miles has 5 major rivers that were dumping an unmeasurable amount of freshwater into our estuaries and ocean.
During several offshore kingfish tournaments I heard stories of brown freshwater out 30 miles into the ocean. I felt defeated and more than anything I felt I had a lot of my customers down.
Not to my surprise, was the cause of all this freshwater. Several tropical systems to had dumped not inches but feet of water on interior coastal Georgia. The effects of this were severe for some species, but seemed to create a bottleneck effect on others.
It wasn’t until I canceled a few tarpon trips and picked up a couple inshore trips last minute in the heat of summer that I realized what was going on. All that freshwater had pushed countless numbers of trout, redfish, flounder, black drum, and more from interior estuaries to coastal waters were salinity levels were acceptable for life.
Sweet ending.
I wrote an earlier post about a few days of awesome inshore fishing titled “beating the heat “beating the heat” where I didn’t at the time realize what I was witnessing.
What I was witnessing was a congregation of species along our coastal estuaries I hadn’t seen in years. It seemed like there were trout, redfish, flounder, and black drum at old drops I hadn’t caught them at in years.
This amazing bite has continued into late summer, fall, and early winter and turned into something great. Who would have known all those tough summer days had an ending so sweet. Not me and until next time. Keep those lines wet and tight. Good luck out on the water.
Capt Scott Owens
912-270-7300
Guided light tackle and fly fishing charters in Coastal Georgia’s St. Simons Island, Jekyll Island, and Sea Island.
