Unicoi Outfitters Fishing Report - 1/24/25

Let’s call this week’s report, “Rebound.”  Region streams are clear and icy-cold, but are on the verge of a slow warmup over the next week. Fishing has been slow, but a bit better than the slow rates during these last two freezes.  

Your two best friends are your stream thermometer and your watch. Aim for the warmest part of the day (11 to 3PM) and for water temps above the magic 40-degree mark.  Rising water temps, even when cold, will get some fish eating. It’s all about the trend in temperatures, and we want an upward trend right now that can inch up past that 40-degree mark.

Headwaters are icy, clear, and slow fishing, if you can even get to them.  Some forest roads are still closed. DH streams are slowly waking up and worth a try. Tailwaters are good, as they usually are in the winter. Tailwater temps are often warmer near the dam and can cool down farther downstream when air temps are cold and tributary streams are icy.

Small bugs are the name of the winter game. Got some small eggs, pheasant tails, and midges?  First drift ‘em and then twitch ‘em if necessary. If you get bored, slowly strip a streamer fished deep, preferably with a small, soft hackle dropper if they want to nibble and not eat. Split shot are your friends!

Lake stripers staged a small comeback this week and gave us a bit of hope for next week . Don’t leave home without a sinking line to accompany your other rig with an intermediate line.

Main county and state roads are in good shape. Just be watchful of black ice on shaded curves. Some national forest roads are still closed.   Each district office will have the best info on its respective road status. Find the districts here:

https://www.fs.usda.gov/main/conf/about-forest/offices

Catch Wes’ weekly update to his hot fly list and the latest fishing reports from our UO staff and our rabid angling friends, who braved the elements, here:

http://blog.angler.management/

Enjoy this week’s warmup. Get out there and exercise all of the new equipment and supplies you got over the holidays. Just carry a butane lighter in your fly vest and a dry change of clothes in your vehicle, in case of a misstep.  Wade slowly and stay dry and as warm as you can. Fishing is more enjoyable when your teeth are not chattering.  Enjoy the clean air and abundant elbow room of winter fishing. Stop in either UO shop (Helen, Clarkesville) for Wes’ hot winter bugs.

Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.

www.unicoioutfitters.com

Wes’ Winter Fly List:  

Wes said it’s been the same cold weather, so last week’s best bets are still good for another week. 

Dries: Micro chubby Chernobyl,  orange stimulator, parachute Adams, blue wing olive, little black stone.  They’re mainly strike indicators for your nymph droppers.

Nymphs & Wets: 

DH streams: small Frenchie, tungsten baetis, small pheasant tails and hares ears (both soft hackles and nymphs) slush egg, RS2, micro mayfly, root beer and zebra midges.

Mountain streams: Pheasant tails, micro girdle bugs, prince nymphs,  root beer midge.

Streamers:

Olive and black buggers, sparkle minnows, CDC squirrel leech, bank robber sculpin.

(Bass & stripers) Somethin’ else, Clouser minnow, micro changer, jerk changer.

Headwaters: 

They’re real clear and real cold. Spoilcane  was only 37F at 10AM today. 

Action will likely be very slow until we get a decent warmup. Plus, numerous USFS roads are still closed due to snow and ice. Sydney said the Dicks Creek road was still closed earlier this week. I drove above Spoilcane  this morning and found the upper gate to the Hooch River Road still closed.  

Headwaters to the north of us are still frozen, too. Check out these Smokies reports:

https://randrflyfishing.com/2025/01/13/real-winter-in-the-smokies/

https://littleriveroutfitters.com/pages/fishing/report.htm

Bottom line: stay downhill and hunt for warmer water and safer, open roads. For forest road updates, try the Chatt Forest Ranger District offices: Example: Tallulah Falls RD:  706-754-6221. 

UO guide Sydney had cabin fever and hit a local headwater just before the last Arctic blast.  She landed one small, icy, wild bow on a mighty may Sloan baetis nymph. She said one sure beats zero, and it was nice  just getting outside.

Delayed Harvest Streams:

They’re super-clear and cold and flowing at normal winter levels.

Smith DH was gin-clear and 40 degrees at my 10AM check today. Plenty of fish were finning in the pool. Zoom in and count them!  

Only one vehicle was in the parking lot.

That water temp gives us hope!  I’m sure the other DH streams to our north are running a bit cooler, but should hopefully break that magic 40-degree mark on the warmer afternoons ahead of us. Tune into the gauges!

https://waterdata.usgs.gov/ga/nwis/uv?site_no=02176930

Rabunite Bluejay checked in: “Good day at Smith DH yesterday (23rd).  The good thing about fishing when it’s cold is that there were only three cars in the parking lot. The bad thing about fishing when it’s cold:  It’s COLD!

  

I landed a 9-fish mix of browns and rainbows on an elk hair caddis for the indicator and a nymph or a zebra midge dropper. Caught one on top and the rest on the dropper. Also caught a couple on a small egg pattern, but had no luck with a. soft hackle.”

UGA 5Rivers Club VP Cooper checked in:

“I had a busy but fun weekend in the mountains.  First I helped TU’s Jeff Wright with a speck passage project in Rabun County. Learned a lot yesterday and had a great time. 

Then I fished Smith DH with some buddies. The fish were pretty smart. I caught 3  rainbows on a tiny pheasant tail (no beadhead) fished deep.”

UO buddy Myles: “ I braved the cold temps on Tuesday and fished the Toccoa DH for about 30 minutes, managing to catch one trout before my leader and flies froze up on me. 

There was lots of ice on the river which was very cool, considering I've never seen rivers partially iced over.  In this screenshot from the video I took, amongst the floating ice chunks, you can see a pod of trout stacked in this one pool.  There was just one small patch of ice on Aska Road but my route there was not a problem.”

Private Waters:

The winter weather held us back from most trips, but Como was able to slip out to the Soque and put his clients on some nice fish. He said a slowly bottom-bumped, black micro girdle bug was the favor of choice this week .

Are you planning your private waters action for 2025? Give us a call at 706-878-3083 to book your own trips this year with our UO guides. Call soon, as those prime spring weekends book quickly.

Tailwaters:

UO buddy Mo:  “Kurt and I fished the tailwater below Lanier last Sat. We needed a fix before the arctic winter moved in. Fish were reasonably active with quite a few rises on top.  We both caught a good handful in about 4hrs on the river. We had a nice mix of bows and browns to hand. A double, small nymph euro rig drifted low and slow was most productive method on this typical winter day on the tailwater.”

Lakes:

UO guide Joseph: “ I was finally able to get out on the lake late last week. We fished from mid-morning to mid-afternoon. Most of the fish we saw were in big groups suspended over a 45-60 foot bottom in creek arms. For these fish somethin else’s on sinking lines seemed to be the ticket. Even when the fish push the bait near the surface I have found that using the countdown method is still best at this time of year. When a few more boats found those fish, we rode around looking for more happy fish accompanied by birds and fewer boats. We ended up fishing a decent school of fish in the very back of a creek but they only gave us a few chances. Overall fishing this time of year can be a ton of fun and yield some great numbers days. To book a trip call the Helen shop at (706)-878-3083!”

Learn more about Joseph here:

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19pR2Xyk72/?

UO buddy AJ: “I got out on the pond Saturday and Tuesday last week. I had really high hopes for Saturday, but it was pretty much a letdown. I covered a lot of water and put in a lot of time. I managed just 2 spots and was finally able to put 1 striper in the boat around 4:30pm. I knew of several other fly fishing boats out and heard similar reports, basically everyone was happy to kick into one fish. I did have one buddy who hit the jackpot and found a small group shallow in a pocket under a loon. He was able to get 3 stripers on the fly... Right place, right time! Tuesday I had a little more action and was able to feed 3 stripers before the snow started falling and everything shut down. 

Fish are deep but good electronics, a sinking line, and a Cowen Somethin' Else can still get it done! 

Not the most exciting way to fish, but it is definitely effective.  Water temps were hovering around 43-44 Tues afternoon. Hoping for some warmer weather and some shallower fish this coming week.  I'm booking for February now, which can be great out there. Give me a shout if you want to get out there!

Alex Jaume

Lanier on the Fly

www.Lanieronthefly.com

IG - @lanier_on_the_fly

Afar:

UO buddy RSquared wasn’t intimidated by the weather. He just returned to post this report:

“SoHo Bass:

This past weekend, I ventured north of the state line to Bristol Tennessee. I had heard about the wintertime smallmouth fishing, and I wanted to check it out for myself. The weather was frigid and at this latitude, there was still plenty of snow and ice left from the storm earlier that week. A warmwater discharge from an industrial complex drew the fish to this area and held them in a two mile stretch of river. We used a white "Wiggle Minnow" that was tied to our leaders with a loop knot to give it more action.  A short strip or two would make it do a shallow dive with life-like action and then I would let it float to the top like a wounded shad. We finished the day with several Smallies brought to net and a couple of bonus Largemouths.

SoHo Trout:

Among fly anglers, the South Holston is known for trout, small flies, and consistent hatches. The cold temperatures did not seem to be a problem. In the hour before sunset, the fish would rise to feed on surface bugs. I was throwing a size 20 parachute Bluewing Olive that I could barely see in the waning light. However, it drew very little attention from the rising trout. they were feeding on something much smaller: Midges in the size 26 range. The following day, we fished a much lower section of the river from a drift boat. We knew we would not have great numbers, but the trout we would catch would be large ones. My fishing partner, Jim, proved this point when after a long battle, he landed his personal best which measured 26.5" on the tape. After a quick measure and a couple of pictures, he released the long and slender rainbow hen back into her watery home. Good times in NE Tennessee!”

Upcoming Events:

THE FLY SHOW!

Jan 31 to Feb 2 : Atlanta Fly Fishing Show at Gas South Convention Center in Duluth. Stop by our UO booth and swap fish stories.  We are back at booth #436, next to Pond A, once again.

https://flyfishingshow.com/atlanta/

Feb 20: Soque River Watershed “fly fishing trip auction” and prime rib dinner in Clarkesville. Details:

https://soque.org/

Ongoing: Dream Trip ticket sales. Win a week of fishing in Yellowstone for just ten bucks, or one of a dozen great runnerup prizes.  Drawing in mid-March. Details here:

https://georgiatu.org/

Enjoy the thaw and take advantage of rising stream temps and renewed trot appetites. It won’t be as good as April, but the catching will be a heckuva lot better that it’s been the last two weeks. Got a thermometer? Fish the midday sun!

Good luck. Stop in one of our shops for some hot winter bugs, wool gloves, and hand warmers! See y’all at the Fly Show next weekend!

Where?

BOOTH 436!

Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.

www.unicoioutfitters.com

Unicoi Outfitters Fishing Report - 1/17/25

 

Brrrr.

Region streams are clear and icy-cold. At least they’ve been a bit warmer for the last few days, but will drop back down to 40F or lower when this next Arctic blast hits us on Sunday night.  . Rivers are flowing at seasonal norms, while headwaters are just a bit skinny.  Plan your leaders and flies to match those water conditions.

https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/02330450/#dataTypeId=continuous-00065-0&period=P7D&showMedian=false

Main county and state roads are fine, but some shaded back roads up here in the mountains are still icy, especially in the mornings. I called my Chattahoochee Forest friends yesterday and they said the WMA road closures on the east side are still in effect:

https://www.fs.usda.gov/alerts/conf/alerts-notices/?aid=45343

Each district office will have the best info on its respective road status. Find the districts here:

https://www.fs.usda.gov/main/conf/about-forest/offices

Trout fishing should be good (for the winter) now, with these warmer afternoons and then will die with the water temps next week.  Fish will be sluggish and hunkered down on the bottom. Saturday’s rain may lead many anglers toward indoor events like the Rabun Rendezvous. Catch rates will drop once again with next week’s arctic blast that arrives on Monday.

Lake stripers and their prey remain cold and sullen. They’ve been deep and slow, with some rare surface action. The shallow water bite will likely be slow for a while as Lanier temps slide downward through the forties.  

Catch Wes’ weekly update to his hot fly list and the latest fishing reports from our UO staff and avid angling friends here:

http://blog.angler.management/

Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.

www.unicoioutfitters.com

Wes’ Winter Fly List:  

Dries: Micro chubby Chernobyl,  orange stimulator, parachute Adams, blue wing olive, little black stone.  They’re mainly strike indicators for your nymph droppers.

Nymphs & Wets: 

DH streams: small Frenchie, tungsten baetis, small pheasant tails and hares ears (both soft hackles and nymphs) slush egg, RS2, micro mayfly, diamond and zebra midges.

Mountain streams: Pheasant tails, micro girdle bugs, prince nymphs,  root beer midge.

Streamers:

Olive and black buggers, sparkle minnows, CDC squirrel leech, bank robber sculpin.

(Bass & stripers) Somethin’ else, Clouser minnow, micro changer, jerk changer.

Headwaters: 

They’re clear and real cold. Many national forest roads are still snow covered and icy, so many bluelines are not easily accessed.  Honestly, the cold winter water from freezing overnight air temps will kill the bite. You’ll do better with trout on bigger, warmer streams at lower elevations. 

Delayed Harvest Streams:

They’re clear and cold and flowing at normal winter levels. Unfortunately staffer Sydney said that Smith DH was 44F  at 3PM yesterday.  Fish are cold to the touch and sluggish, but they’ll still eat on warm afternoons. Don’t expect the high catch rates you found in the fall. But you won’t find the crowds, either. Divide your fall catch rate by 2 or 3 and consider that new winter tally to be a good day. 

Hit the winter refuges of deep, slow pools and dredge your double nymph rigs  during the winter window of 11AM to 3PM for a few nice fish at the daily high water temps. A tractor-trailer rig is most effective. Put your larger attractor fly (pats rubberlegs, egg, sexy walts or leech) a foot behind your split shot. Then drop a tiny fly (pheasant tail, rainbow warrior, frenchie, or midge of choice) a foot off the back of that first fly.  

Prospect those pools with deep, bottom-bumping drifts.  Winter fish won’t move more than a few inches to intercept your nymphs, so cast just a foot apart to cover the entire width of each pool.  Hits are subtle, so strike with any small hesitation of your strike indicator or sighter.

A second technique with winter promise is swinging and twitching small streamers and/or soft hackle wet flies - deep! Use a sink tip line, a poly leader, or a long, light tippet with multiple split shot to get your bugs down to those fish hugging the bottom. 

Pick some streams near your parked car so you can retreat to that car heater and thaw frozen toes and fingers. You might even have a thermos of hot soup or chili tucked in the back seat.   (Mom used to boil hot dogs and put them and the water in a wide mouth thermos for our hot lunch as fishing kids).

Good choices are Toccoa, Smith, Ami at 53 and Steel Bridge, Nantahala, and Tuckaseegee. Tougher folks can hike into the Chattooga, beautiful and uncrowded in the winter. Trout pod up in the deep, slow pools.  Just beware the shaded, curvy, black-iced mountain roads (Warwoman and Hwy 28) to get there!

On the 15th three Rabunites hit Smith DH. Bluejay went early and picked up four fish on a slush egg. Dredger and Ospreydawg went in the afternoon and did pretty well on tractor-trailer rigs (bugger with a small soft hackle dropper)via two techniques. The first was a downstream cast with a swing and then a slow twitch back upstream. No hits were counted until two extra split shot were added, then it was game on.

The second method was an upstream cast and a downstream drift with twitches.  On both techniques, the soft hackles (#16, 18 pheasant tails and hares ears) were strongly preferred over the #12 bugger.

UO staffer Sydney: “I started out Thursday on some small, wild streams midday, but with the north slope water temps too darn cold, I couldn’t get anything to eat.

So I headed over to Smith DH in midafternoon and got some action.  I didn’t have to change flies once.  I did a Chubby dry with a #16 tungsten bead Baetis dropped below it.  Caught a few and lost  a few, but still had some incredible takes! Also spotted a ton of fish still in the crystal-clear creek.  A fellow angler told me that the black or red midges have been working well in the afternoons leading till sundown.”

Private Waters:

Private water trips were scarce this week due to cold temperatures.  Try the Delayed Harvest techniques, above, if you’re heading to private waters this week.

UO buddy CDB:

“Our Veterans Flyfishing organization 

https://veteransflyfishing.org/

had our first outing at Nacoochee Bend Sunday.  The water was only in the high 30’s.  Nevertheless,you can see rods were bent as some good fish made their presence known!  Fortunately, the fish were gentle on our angler’s delicate hands, executing long distance releases so folks wouldn’t have to put their hands in the water.

Monday on private waters small eggs rolled right along the bottom got the best results. As the sun came up and water warmed a bit, fish could be had on small nymph patterns and perdigons with green or blue flash in them as long as they were fished deep. 

Heading off to South Dakota next week (weather permitting) to gather some fly tying supplies for about a week. See y’all in February!”

Are you planning your private waters action for 2025? Give us a call at 706-878-3083 to book your own trips this year with our UO guides. Call soon, as those prime spring weekends book quickly.

Tailwaters:

No recent reports. They should fish better than headwaters because of warmer reservoir discharges.

Lakes:

UO buddy AJ: “I got out Sunday PM, hoping that a little sun and warmer weather would have some fish moving around. Marked some smaller groups of stripers around 30 ft, but could not get any on a sinking line. About an hour before dark, I found a lot of very shallow bait flicking on the surface. The gulls found them too, but the stripers were a no-show to the party. Water temps were between 45-48. Hoping to get out and do a little recon Fri PM and possibly Sat AM for some trips planned next week (barring another ice/snow event) and hoping for a little more active fish.”

Alex Jaume

Lanier on the Fly

www.Lanieronthefly.com

IG - @lanier_on_the_fly

Afar:

UO buddy Athens MD: “Conditions seemed right for shallow water reds this past weekend, so Athens Jamie and I headed to the coast with the Towee in tow. We arrived mid-day to blue-bird skies and near-low tide which made spotting the numerous fish relatively easy. Throwing a small light-brown shrimp pattern on an 8-weight floating line, I hooked (but lost) my first redfish on a fly. Jamie suggested I performed a trout-set, but show me the tape. Huge thanks to my fishing partner who knew the area and poled my large frame around while I cast to reds in a foot of water and landed two over the next couple of hours. I took the pole after a while and pushed the boat in pitiful circles as the tide started to rise. Jamie pulled in a very nice red the next day under overcast skies which made the fish hard to spot. So, all-in-all a great couple days. And it's nice to have a friend with a boat!”

Upcoming Events:

Tomorrow!  January 18: 38th annual Rabun Rendezvous in Clayton. BBQ, Live Bluegrass, raffles, and silent auctions. Yearly fundraiser by the Rabunites.  Check out the prize list that includes two Winston rods, two lodge stays, nice artwork, and plenty more flyfishing goodies. Everyone welcome.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1853SypxRF/?

Jan 31 to Feb 2 : Atlanta Fly Fishing Show at Gas South Convention Center in Duluth. Stop by our UO booth and swap fish stories.  We are back at booth #436, next to Pond A, once again.

https://flyfishingshow.com/atlanta/

Ongoing: Dream Trip ticket sales. Win a week of fishing in Yellowstone for just ten bucks, or one of a dozen great runnerup prizes.  Drawing in mid-March. Details here:

https://georgiatu.org/

Good luck this week. It’s probably a good one to stay indoors, so catch up on your fly tying and equipment cleaning until this next arctic blast passes and streams warm back up a bit.  Better yet, go warm your buns with fishing buddies at tomorrow’s Rabun Rendezvous.  You might just win a Winston rod or a private trout trip!  

Stop in either UO shop if you’re in the neighborhood. The shops are warm and the intel is hot, as always. 

Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.

www.unicoioutfitters.com