Here comes the heat! For trouters, your critical supplies this week are a good pair of hiking boots and a $15 stream thermometer. Hunt cold water way uphill or below a big dam and you’ll find eager trout. Headwaters are in good shape, stockers are plentiful and cooperative in the mornings, tailwaters are cold and fishy, NC’s higher mountains will extend our trouting season, local pond bass and bream are a best bet, and reservoir bass and carp are now providing good opportunities for boat anglers.
Check out all of our detailed intel at our blog. It’s new every Friday and will help you boost your own catch rates.
http://blog.angler.management/
Stop in either one of our two UO shops for some flies, supplies, and advice. Have fun this summer!
Helen: 706-878-3083. Open 8-5 daily.
Clarkesville: 706-754-0203. Open 8-5 from Monday thru Saturday.
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
www.unicoioutfitters.com
Wes’ Hot Fly List:
Dries: parachute Adams, tan elk hair caddis, parachute and hard body ants, small yellow stimulator, micro chubby Chernobyl.
Nymphs & Wets:
Stockers: red squirmy worm, peach egg, micro girdle bug, black woolly bugger, tan and olive mops, pink tag jig.
Mountain streams: hares ear, drowned ant, pheasant tail nymph and soft hackle, green weenie, prince nymph.
Streamers:
Sparkle minnows, small black and olive buggers, bank robber sculpin, micro dungeon.
(Bass & stripers) Boogle popper, wiggle minnow, polar changer, yard sale, crittermite, con man.
(Panfish) mini stealth bomber, Boogle popper #8, Amnesia bug, brim reaper, girdle bug.
(Carp) squirmy hybrid, carp bitters, Detroit city mop.
Headwaters:
They’re clear and warming and will take a hit with this week’s heat. Flows are pretty good, but they’ll drop quickly as next week looks a lot drier. Aim for mornings, higher elevations, and north slope streams (which catch less sun) for the best action as hotter weather rolls in.
Hot days and bright sunshine heat the streams. Warm nights then prevent them from recovering by morning. To assess warm air impacts, I did my stream recons yesterday at 2PM. Spoilcane was 67F,
the Hooch at the lower WMA boundary was 68F,
and a high Hooch trib was already 65F.
Try the usual dries (Adams, caddis, Yeager, ant) and add a pheasant tail or ant dropper if the fish are hesitant to take the dry or if a sudden storm boosts flows. Downsize your tippet, too, if flows are low and fish have extra time to study your bugs. To be safe, quit fishing for wild fish when temps hit about 66F.
UO-Helen manager Wes: “I did a morning guide trip on a national forest stream with David & Lacy. We fished dry dropper rigs with a small chubby Chernobyl up top and a micro girdle bug off the back. Most of our fish came on the girdle bug but we did have a few fish smack the chubby up top.”
Stockers:
The heavy spring stocking season will wind down with the July 4th holiday, so go soon for stockers. After that, stocking subsides (by design) due to warming waters and decreased fishing pressure. And the vacant hatchery raceways (rearing troughs) are restocked with 4-inch fingerlings that will be next spring’s crop of stockers.
Stocker fishing is still good in the mornings, before water temps hit about 68 or 70F. Beyond that the bite slows, so get up early or aim for a shady stream higher up the mountain. Stockers are intended for harvest, so don’t feel bad about fishing for them at higher temps if you intend to take them home. Squirmies, eggs, fluffy chubbies, and small buggers will put your new fly fisher on some stockers.
Today’s weekly stocking list should be posted here around 3 or 4PM:
https://georgiawildlife.com/Fishing/Trout
3PM update:
Private Waters:
We are winding down our spring season with a few morning trips when water temperatures allow. Feel free to call our shop now to reserve some prime fall weekend dates after October 15, a rough estimate for our reopening of private trout water opportunities.
Reminder:
We are offering flyfishing only striper trips at Nacoochee Bend. Call the Helen shop at 706-878-3083 for details and to make your reservation. Our midweek clients had some luck, hooking two and landing one on, of all things, an orange Clouser. Evidently the rising water from an afternoon storm turned on the bite.
Tailwaters:
The Hooch, Toccoa, and rivers north of GA remain a best bet during the summer as they release cold winter waters. Watch the generation schedules and get out there early, while the sun is still below the tree line. While the fish are cold all day, you’ll be a lot more comfortable in the lower light.
UO buddy RonW: “The fellas and I used our Father's Day passes to sneak out to Buford Dam for a few hours of much needed hydrotherapy.
I started off with a dry dropper setup, with a large parachute Adams up top and a PT variant hanging off the bend on about 5' of 6.5x flouro. Within the first few casts, I had a nice brown smash my Adams only to come unbuttoned when my dropper snagged on a rock.
A quick nymph change to #20 brown nymph with copper bead produced my first fish and only rainbow of the day, from the same spot. I landed a brown on same nymph on the very next cast just a few feet upstream.
After that, things slowed down for a few minutes and a few fly changes. I put on a price nymph and caught a nice brown on the first cast. A dozen more casts and it was time to change again. That was the theme of the morning for me.
The herons and ospreys were out, the weather was nice and company was even better. What a great morning and a nice way to spend the first part of Father's Day!”
UO buddy Hillis: “Hi Jeff, I had a good day fishing the Hooch below the dam recently. Caught several that were 14/15 inches, similar to the one in the pic below, and several that were smaller. All caught on a small black midge fished under a strike indicator.”
Warm Rivers:
They’re on and off, based on water clarity. Bassin’ should improve as we get past our rainy spring and the rivers drop and clear for extended periods. Is your yak or canoe ready to go for the summer floating season? Have some bottom bouncers, some mid-column streamers, and some poppers and stealth bombers for the topwater bite that should take off in the coming weeks. Don’t forget some small bream poppers in case the bass bite is a bit slow, especially at midday. Stop by our Helen shop to resupply.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DLFb9opsiFi/?igsh=d2c1dDg4cDhwY2Jp
Ponds & Lakes:
Ponds remains a best bet, while Lanier is waking up and featuring a summer topwater bite. I saw redbreast and bluegill still on their beds during my Unicoi Lake hikes this week.
Athens MD checked back in: “As the first day of summer approaches, there's plenty of time after work to hit local lakes around Athens. A couple of us launched our kayaks at a favorite lake about 6:30pm, and although the impending full moon didn't exactly have the fish fired up, we had a great time around dusk pulling in some nice topwater bass and chubby bluegill on black or chartreuse poppers with marabou tails. Some beautiful shellcracker made things interesting as well (yes at least one eagerly took a small popper). The full moon didn't crest the trees until well past 11pm, and by that time we decided to call it a night.”
UO guide Israel:
Fished the Wednesday night bass tournament. Got a few Spots on Jerkbaits and flukes. Got a bonus striper!
UO-Helen manager Wes: “Israel, Jackson, and I got out on the flats on a north Georgia lake for some carp fishing one afternoon this week. The sight fishing was not easy with all the variable light conditions but we were able to catch a couple of fish. It’s always rewarding sight casting to spooky fish in shallow water.”
Hank the Yank is back in the game and said Lanier’s summer topwater bite is heating up. Spots and small stripers are setting up on offshore points and ambushing blueback schools that wander by. His two guests had a big time yesterday. They used spinning tackle, but Henry said the fish could have been caught on fly tackle, too.
UO guide Joseph agrees with Mr. Cowen: “Lanier has been fishing well over the past week or two for topwater bass! We’ve had lots of good groups of fish on the surface eating blueback herring. Most fish are set up on main lake points and humps to ambush herring as they swim by. Walking baits and serpentine swim baits have been treating us well on the conventional side. As for flies game changers, standard sized clousers, and various other 3-4 inch baitfish patterns have been the ticket on intermediate lines. Check out these pictures from a recent trip this past Sunday. If you’d like to get out on the water give the Helen shop a holler at (706)-878-3083.”
Afar:
UO buddy Bert has been tearing up the fish in the Okeefenokee. Spinning has been the best bet, but he’s just got into flyfishing and landed this 7.5 lb bowfin on a flyfishing outfit from our shop. His rendition of Cowen’s Coyote is getting chewed up! For more info on Bert’s lures and guide service,
see: https://bertsjigsandthings.com/
UO owner Jimmy spent a couple of days chasing Guadalupe Bass near Bandera, TX. Water was high with little visibility so the fishing was tough. He did hook into a giant gar that took a Cowen’s Coyote but those teeth were too much for his 8 lb. tippet. His fishing buddy Steven did bring in a beautiful Rio Grande Cyclid and broke off a couple of nice carp. All in all, it was a fun couple of days.”
The Smokies are still fishing well in the mornings, thanks to taller mountains and frequent rains. Note that a storm just washed out Interstate 40 again and it’s closed between NC and TN.
https://www.wyff4.com/article/i-40-rockslide-closure-north-carolina-tennessee/65114110
Ian and Charity at R&R Flyfishing just provided a park fishing update.
https://randrflyfishing.com/the-fishing-report/
Catch some daily park stream conditions and angling tips here, thanks to our friends at LRO:
https://littleriveroutfitters.com/
Kudos:
Mentoring Kudos to Athens Jay and all of his volunteers. He said:
“We had another successful day at the 2025 Steve Harvey Young Men Mentoring Camp. Special thanks to all of our 34 volunteers who came out that day to help. Thank you Aubrey Pawlikowski of UGA Warnell for all the great photos.
-UGA Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources
-GA DNR
-Atlanta Fly Fishing Club
-Oxbow Meadows Environmental Learning Center
-US Fish and Wildlife Service
-Georgia Trout Unlimited.”
Congrats to the US Forest Service, GAWRD, and two TU chapters for a mighty fine Tallulah River kids fishing rodeo last Saturday. Story and more pics:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19HFn5qT92/?mibextid=wwXIfr
News:
OUCH!!!
The US Senate is still proposing the sale of millions of acres of YOUR federal lands in the budget reconciliation process. Check out this timely message from NM’s flyfishing senator:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLGjRX4CnVV/?igsh=Y280NWo1M2gyMjg0
If you share our view that this should NOT happen, then contact your US senators NOW and voice your opposition. It’s easy. Just open TU’s draft letter,
https://www.tu.org/conservation/action-center/
edit it with your own thoughts, and it will be automatically sent to your two senators. If all of us don’t speak up, we can lose a lot of public land and water!
Welcome to our hot, steamy Georgia summer. Avoid the sun and aim for the right targets in the shade or the shadows of dawn and dusk and you’ll still have a lot of fun. Stop in either UO shop and we’ll help you find some good options for your summer angling exploits. Good luck!
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
www.unicoioutfitters.com
