Early Summer Bite on the Savannah: Reds, Trout, and Flounder at Dawn and Dusk

Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your Savannah River fishing report. We’ve got a classic early‑summer pattern setting up on the Savannah. Warm, muggy mornings, light breeze, and building heat by midday. Think mid to upper 80s this afternoon, low 70s at daybreak, with humidity hanging on and only a slight chance of a pop‑up thunder shower. Winds are generally light out of the southwest, just enough to ruffle the surface but not enough to blow you off your spot. Sunrise is right around a quarter after six, with sunset close to eight‑thirty in the evening. That gives you a long low‑light window, and that’s when the bite’s best right now. Midday has been slow and picky unless you tuck up in shade or deep structure. On tides, around Savannah you’re looking at a morning incoming rolling through the first half of the day, then easing to high and flipping to an afternoon falling tide. On that incoming, the river’s got some stain but not chocolate milk, and the marsh drains are pulling just enough bait to get fish fired up. The evening falling tide around the creek mouths has been prime for the last couple of hours of light. Fish activity’s been solid at daybreak and the last two hours before dark. In the brackish stretches and lower river, folks have been picking up slot redfish, speckled trout, and a few flounder around shell points, dock pilings, and feeder creeks. Reds have been cruising the grass edges on the top half of the incoming; trout are hanging on current seams and drop‑offs. Flounder are laid up on those sandy patches below docks and along the edges of rock and riprap. Farther upriver in the fresher water, anglers are still into largemouth bass, white perch, and some catfish. Bass are hitting at first light on laydowns and outside bends, then sliding deeper once the sun gets up. Channel cats and blues are steady on the bottom as long as you bring the stink and find a little current. As for what’s been working: - For reds and trout, 3–4 inch paddle‑tail swimbaits and shrimp‑style plastics on 1/8 to 1/4 ounce jigheads in new penny, natural mullet, and opening‑night colors. Under a popping cork, live shrimp are hard to beat. Cut mullet or menhaden will sniff out the bigger reds along the bottom on that falling tide. - For flounder, white or chartreuse curly‑tail grubs slowly bumped along the bottom, or mud minnows and finger mullet on a Carolina rig. - For bass upriver, topwaters like a walking bait or buzzbait right at first light around wood and grass, then switching to Texas‑rigged worms in green pumpkin, black/blue jigs, or crankbaits in shad and craw colors along channel swings. - For catfish, fresh cut shad, bream heads, or chicken livers on a simple bottom rig in 15–25 feet of water near bends and deep holes. A couple of local hotspots to put on the list: - Down around the Talmadge Memorial Bridge and the shipping channel edges: good for trout, reds, and the occasional flounder, especially working the pilings and rock with live shrimp or paddle‑tails on the moving tide. - The mouths of Back River and St. Augustine Creek: excellent late‑day falling‑tide spots, with reds and trout sitting right where that creek water dumps into the main flow. - Upriver bends and laydowns near the New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam and similar structure: solid action on largemouth and catfish when you put your bait tight to cover. That’s your on‑the‑water rundown from Artificial Lure. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss the next report. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn