Toccoa Tailwater 6/6/09

John Browning, one of our guides, reports on the Toccoa River tailwater this past weekend:

The Toccoa Tailwater fished as well today as I’ve seen in a good while. We were on the water early and picked up a few trout while we let the fog burn off. Once the fog was gone the water came alive. Fish were steadily rising for a good hour and a half after the fog lifted and we saw rises all day, even in the hot part after lunch. Cahills in sizes 14 and 16 with little sulfur emergers dropped off in the film produced the majority of the fish in the morning. Later on, when the number of rises dropped off, we put the same emergers about 18” down and had success. As the sun became more direct we switched to a swing caddis dropped about 2-3’ below a big dry to support the weight and really started crossing their eyes. I was surprised at the amount of takes we had on the size 12 Royal Wulff and size 14 Orange Stimulator. I just wanted a big, stable, highly visible fly, to support the caddis through the choppy water and was not expecting to really catch fish on them but the fish were aggressive and absolutely let the big dries have it. We hooked only one large fish and we failed to get it to the boat. It was a 16-18” brown that finally spit the fly. All the other fish were in the 9-13” range with a few a little bigger and a few a little smaller. The size of the fish was average but the numbers made up for the lack of size. As always, the nervous water below shoals was the most productive, but we found several pods of rising fish in slow water. Each pod was good for 1 or 2 fish before they got put down, if we didn’t slap the water too bad. The water had some color to it and I think that helped us a lot. They did not seem to be finicky at all (for a change) which made for an excellent day. After today, I can’t wait to get back!

Really makes you want to get out on the water, eh?