Welcome to March,the unofficial start of our spring fishing season! We’ve got some new info and some old info to benefit y’all, but the best info is the weather forecast. Warmer days ahead will increase water temps and fire up the fish. They may even convince a few spring bugs to emerge earlier than normal, so remember your dry fly boxes, too.
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no=02330450&legacy=1
The new info is that we’ve hung some nice, new signs outside our Sautee shop so y’all don’t miss us. In case your drive too fast and indeed pass us by, our same old phone number(706-878-3083) now works at the new shop, and we’ll steer you back to Sautee.
Several folks took advantage of warmer water in mountain streams and on the lakes. Blueline, bass, and striper stories are in our full weekly fishing report, here:
http://blog.angler.management/
(Link in bio)
Stop in either UO store soon to celebrate spring’s start and to grab your hot March bugs.
Sautee: 706-878-3083. Open 8-5 daily. (2454 GA Hwy 17, Sautee-Nacoochee.)
Clarkesville: 706-754-0203. Open 8-5 from Monday thru Saturday.
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
Wes’ Hot Fly List:
Dries:
Black elk hair caddis, grey elk hair caddis, griffiths gnat, Parachute Adams, indicator flies for dry droppers (micro chubby) (stimulator)
Nymphs & Wets:
DH Stockers: twister egg, pheasant tail (nymph, soft hackle) or Frenchie, small sexy Walts worm, zebra midge, rainbow warrior.
Mountain streams: zebra midge, soft hackles, prince nymph, frenchie or pheasant tail.
Streamers:
UV polar jig, jiggy fry, sparkle minnow, bank robber sculpin.
Reservoir Bass & Stripers:
Cowen’s somethin else, low fat minnow.
River bass:
Dead Ned, crittermite, clouser minnows.
Headwaters:
Mountain streams continue to run very low and clear as any rainfall runs off quickly. The good news is that they are much warmer! Dukes at Smithgall ran 55F at 4PM today.
Wow! No, that’s not a typo. It was warm. Keep throwing your favorite blueline dry/dropper combos, but expect more rises to your dry with these warm afternoons ahead.
UO guide Syd had some blueline fun on her dry/dropper rig during an off-day this week.
UO buddy RSquared is coming off the Disabled List. Here’s his first report in quite a while: “My Orthopedic Surgeon would cringe if he knew I was fishing in remote, slippery, high elevation streams for small wild trout. However, my growing need for some hydrotherapy far outweighed my fear of reinjuring my shoulder. Saturday, I ventured north for the first time since rotator cuff surgery in November. I was fishing a small stream in Fannin County known for its beautiful, cascading waterfalls. My Superfine 2wt was rigged with a dry/dropper. I had a tan never-sink caddis, and I was dropping various flies off of that. I had one refusal on the caddis. All of my wild rainbows that day were caught with the dropper. Size 16 bead head Pheasent tails and size 18 caddis pupae with an olive collar and pink body were the droppers that brought fish to hand. Georgia Tech 5 Rivers, UGA 5 Rivers, & Trout Unlimited: Cohutta Chapter #242 were all camping on the stream this weekend. I love to see so many smart young adults fly fishing & learning about coldwater conservation!”
Delayed Harvest:
There are still good numbers of winter-stocked fish in the GA DH streams. Flows are receding after an inch of midweek rain. Smith was back to low and clear today, but was much cooler (48F) than mountain streams due to the winter waters of the lake.
DH stockers are smarter now after being caught and released a bunch, so smaller egg and nymph patterns will usually be preferred over big, bright bugs. That may change after next week, when those streams might see their March restockings. Change patterns often to show them something they haven’t already seen and been hooked on.
Hint: come in mid-afternoon and stay late to outlast the crowds. It’s not dark until 6:45 and those fish are more gullible when the shadows fall, as long as water temps don’t dive along with the sun. Warm days will slow the evening cooling of streams, so you don’t have to quit at 4PM like you did for the last three months.
UO guide Sydney: “I did a 180 on Smith DH and enticed this nice brown with a white sparkle minnow. Normally I would throw real small, dark Euronymphs in the low, clear water, but I tried something different and it worked on this brown.”
Stockers:
Stockers remain slim. Your best bets are the two tailwaters for summer/fall holdovers and just outside the DH stream boundaries to find the wash-downs. Fishing public waters above or below private trophy waters might fetch you a straying brute or two. It’s Rainbow Romance season and some bows may swim upstream in search of clean gravel.
Private Waters:
Our trips were sparse but the action picked up slightly with the warming water. Our Nacoochee Bend guests caught some nice fish, but had to work hard for them in the low, clear water.
Tailwaters:
No recent reports. I’d expect the Toccoa’s black caddis hatch to still be in full swing. The local fly shops over there can help you target that hatch.
Warm Bass Rivers:
No news, other than they aren’t very warm and those fish probably aren’t very hungry.
Ponds:
No recent news. Bass should hit the Warmer shallows. Just use Jay’s advice in last week’s report to target them.
Lakes:
Lanier is slowly awakening from its winter sleep. GAWRD has some hot walleye and striper intel in its most recent weekly blog:
https://georgiawildlife.blog/category/fishing/
UO guide Joseph: “Fishing on Lanier is starting to pick up with rising water temps!
Had the pleasure of fishing with our favorite Ram, Nate Landman, last week. We landed a mixed bag of stripers and dotted bass utilizing intermediate lines with small clousers and somethin else’s. Most stripers we found were moving fast, in small groups, over open water.
Spring fishing is just around the corner and it wont be long until our striped friends are busting shad schools in the stained shallows.
I still have some prime spring dates available, although they are going quickly. To book a trip with me, call the Sautee store at (706)878-3083 or visit my website at www.josephclarkflyfishing.com
UO guide Israel has been bassin’ on our area’s mountain lakes and said: “some bass are shallow, while others are still deep.”
Afar:
Capt Bert is still scoring on his swamp bowfin. He reported yesterday: “Had 16 on the fly in 2 1/2hrs today. Had 4 times that many hits - they were biting weird - not taking it well. Caught this one on a new pattern I tied with a dragon tail. It’s going to be great for bass - too big for bowfin but caught one in less than 5 minutes on it. My new Bladed Fly pattern was the ticket on the other fish. “
If you wanna get after some Bowfin in Georgia, give Capt. Bert a call.
https://bertsjigsandthings.com/
Events:
Feb 28:
Women’s Fly Casting Clinic in Johns Creek. Sponsored by the GA Women Fly Fishers:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DUPI3wSjGa_/?igsh=MTU3MmU5b2tjNnkwdg==
March 5:
Dredger has taken his spring trouting show on the road. His “Spring Dries and Droppers” PowerPoint program was well-received by the Upper Chattahoochee TU chapter last Tuesday night. Next up is one fine bunch of vets at that their March 5th meeting of Project Healing Waters in Blue Ridge. He’ll give another repeat performance to the Atlanta Flyfishing Club on April 11. AFFC welcomes all guests,so metro ATL folks, mark your calendars to net some fine Rabunite intel.
https://atlantaflyfishingclub.org/
March 8
UO’s own Wes McElroy provides the low-down on north GA river bass at the Orvis-Atlanta event to benefit Flint Riverkeeper.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DbQbbsayR/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Get out there soon to enjoy an early dose of spring. And be sure to stop in our “new and improved” Sautee shop. We’ve good some pretty new signs and the good ole phone number (706-878-3083), so you’ll be sure to find us. Now go dig out that box of dry flies from your winter storage. You just might need them soon!
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
