Savannah River Fishing Report: Big October Tides, Changing Weather, and Hot Lures for Reds, Trout, and More

Savannah River anglers, it’s Artificial Lure on deck with your fishing report for Wednesday, October 8, 2025. The weather’s mild this morning—high pressure is holding, but keep your eye out as a cold front’s coming late tonight. Right now, winds are east around 5 to 10 knots on the river, seas running about 3 to 4 feet out past the bar, with some chop showing up as gusts pick up tonight. Expect clouds with a slight shot at a stray shower. Sunrise hit at 7:23, and sunset’s swinging around 7:00 p.m. If you’re early-birding it, use low-light colors and topwaters in the morning creeks. On the tides, it’s a big October swing. According to Tides4Fishing, right now the water’s headed out, bottoming out near 4:00 a.m. at -0.7 feet and charging back in with a very high morning tide—over 10 feet at 10:06 a.m. That heavy solunar activity means good current for reds, trout, and even stripers nosing up near drop-offs and marsh edges. This week, local folks are slinging soft plastics and live shrimp and seeing tight lines. Z-Man's ElaZtech paddletails are the top pick for a reason—they’re tough, have great action, and keep working through oyster beds without tearing up. Pink or ‘Electric Chicken’ colors have drawn hits from flounder and spotted seatrout. Down deeper, gulp shrimp on a jighead have scored sheepshead off dock pilings. Redfish are still chewing on mud minnows and cut menhaden, but plastics fished slow in the grass at high tide are tempting slot fish. At the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, reports came in of largemouth running shallow early and feeding on shad—white spinnerbaits and small crankbaits are clutch. Recent catches: Sheepshead have been hot on fiddler crab off the shipping channel rocks; speckled trout are banging up in St. Augustine Creek and Turner’s Creek, mostly on the falling tide with MirrOlure suspending twitchbaits and chartreuse paddletails. Flounder—some up to 3 pounds—showed in the Back River using live mullet on Carolina rigs. Stripers are picking up on deeper snags, especially up near the Abercorn boat ramp—try bucktail jigs in white with trailer grubs. If you want numbers, Turner’s Creek and Moon River have been particularly active. Stacks of speckled trout and a few legal reds were landed just yesterday on the morning flood. The upper Savannah up toward the Effingham County line produced some nice stringers of catfish on cut bluegill and chicken livers—big channel cats to boot. Best baits: Live shrimp, mud minnows, and finger mullet are still king on Savannah River, especially near grass lines and shell beds. If you’re casting lures, go with Z-Man paddletails, MirrOlure suspending jerkbaits, and anything pink or chartreuse. Upstream freshwater stretch, it’s spinnerbaits and shallow cranks for bass and panfish. Couple of hot spots to check today: - **Turner’s Creek:** On the falling tide; trout and flounder strong near the docks and marsh edges. - **Savannah National Wildlife Refuge (up river):** Early largemouth b This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.