Wintertime Fishing Savannah, Georgia 2025

Fishing this winter has been up and down due mainly a major winter storm impacting the southeast. Some winters the bite is more spring like with a good sea trout throughout. This winter we experiencing a real winter.

We’re mostly fishing for redfish with a few sea trout here and there as well some sheepshead. Since the ice and snow storm we’ve caught only a few sea trout. The sheepshead bite has been inconsistent as well but when fishing is slow sheepshead can be alternative to catch some quality fish.

This winter we like most of the south were locked in ice and snow for about two weeks. The storm hit our area Tuesday January 22nd and pretty much locked down things for a couple of weeks. In Savannah I did not hear of fish kills due to cold but north of us in Charleston there were reports of sea trout kills. Even in Louisiana they experienced sea trouts and mullet kills due to this storms. Although I did not see (or hear of) of stunned or killed fish floating on top of water we were nonetheless impacted. The good news is some fishermen are catching a few sea trout on soft plastics and bait. My favorite wintertime redfish bait is the lowly mud minnow. Mud minnows are a small, durable bait that can catch a variety of fish. It’’s possible to catch more than one redfish on a mud minnow. Sea trout and flounder will take a mud minnow as well. it’s possible to catch striper and and fresh water catfish if you’re fishing brackish water.

Egrets standing on the bank waiting for a bait to pass by could reveal stop to fish. Egrets along a bank could be a good indicator of bait and possibly fish. After another big winter storm several years I grabbed a fly rod and headed up river Savannah River to see if I could find some fish. After veering into the Back River I saw a few egrets standing close to a small gully. Using the trolling motor I motored into range and a few casts later a couple of nice redfish.

My thought was that after the extreme cold front and catching a couple of reds in a few casts the bite was probably going to be ok. One fishing friend, naturalist and outdoor writer Capt. Wild Bill Jarrell said if the bait show up strong in coming spring there will be an explosion of fish. He was right! The following spring nature over compensated with an over abundance bait and fish numbers exploded.


Wintertime fishing can be hit and miss. We’re finding reds on the flats and in the backwaters. On the last fishing trip we caught several reds two were badly damaged by dolphins . I’ve heard one dolphin eats 50 pounds of fish per day. That’s massive! My point is only keep what plan to eat and release the rest.

I hope this report is of interest and help. Hope to see you on the water!

Fish On!

Capt. Jack