College of Coastal Georgia

College Ambassador: William Gross

Species

Redfish: Our number one fish around here, catch them any size, anywhere. From docks and structure to flood tide tailers these fish are everywhere and southeast Georgia/northeast Florida number one fun fish.

Sheepshead: If you don’t like being frustrated just skip this species. Every piece of structure from savannah to Daytona has one of these convicts hanging around.

Tarpon: When summer rolls around head to the beaches and inlets to chase 100+ pound fish in the pogey and mullet pods.

Flounder: Often overlooked, this area has a great flounder fishery, easy to catch on artificial and live bait especially in the summer months.

Other Inshore Stuff: Black drum, pompano, tripletail, seatrout, jacks, Spanish Macks, you never know what’s hanging around in our dirty water.

Pelagics: Be prepared to run, 70 miles minimum… Walk the docks, make friends, and find your way onto a boat. Head down towards Jacksonville and the ledge is a shorter ride.  Wintertime wahoo fishing is off the charts. March-June we have a good amount of mahi and blackfin hanging around. Find the right captain and the right boat and you can get to the yellowfins.

Bottom Fish: More red snapper than you could ever want, but run past them and that’s where the fun begins. 70+ miles out of Brunswick, St. Marys, Mayport, or St. Augustine gets you to the ledge.  Huge black bellies, muttons, mangroves, red grouper, scamp, all the great bottom fish are here and in big numbers.

Accessibility

Brunswick and Coastal Islands: A boat helps, tons of water around here, and a bunch of boat ramps.  Run out at low tide and look around, you will find structure and the fish. No boat, no problem, with some help from google maps and some learning you will find places to fish quickly. Salt ponds are a local secret, slip in between the golfers and find some giants lurking in the salt ponds.

St. Mary's: 30 minutes south of the campus you will find the small town. Launching at downtown will put you behind Cumberland Island in minutes.  This area has tons of flood tide potential and shallow water inshore fishing. On the way out take a look at the wild horses and the beautiful sights Cumberland Island offers.

Jacksonville: About an hour from the college this is the place to be to get offshore or to hangout on the weekends.  Mayport offers the perfect half car ride half boat ride trip to the ledge. If its blowing and getting offshore isn’t a possibility head to the ft George sandbar or Huguenot if you don’t have a boat and enjoy the water and sand.

Community

This is a small school, near a ton of water. Most people would think there would be a big fishing community, there isn’t.  Everyone says they fish, and they love fishing, but only a few truly do it because they love it. You will be able to find five or six kids to fish with through the school and social media and such.  Finding friends to wake up at 4am to go is going to be tough though. Don’t be afraid to look to other surrounding schools and hangouts to find more kids to fish with, Jacksonville is an hour’s ride or less and has a huge fishing community.  Message me through my charter company or social media and I will give you the local rundown and help get you on the water, I usually know who is around and is looking for people to vibe and fish with.

Hangouts/Shops

This is where things in this area get tough, not a ton of places that fall into this category. St Simmons pier is one, but usually only during the fall months as the sounds fill up with bull reds.  The beaches are huge so finding groups to hangout with or meet can be tough if solely looking for fishing buddies. Huguenot in Jax is a good start if you have four-wheel drive.  If you fly fish the local go to is On the Fly Outfitters in Brunswick.  Strike Zone in Jacksonville for conventional tackle and a one stop shop for everything you could need. Right next door is Black Fly, they have everything you could need to chase muddy water tailers.