Unicoi Outfitters Fishing Report - 5/31/24

Welcome to summer and the more limited fishing opportunities that this season gives us. We’ll give you realistic reports and keep pointing y’all toward your best chances of success.

Right now our brief cool spell, complete with downright chilly nights, has rejuvenated the trout bite. Try to go tomorrow morning if you can, since the heat and humidity are just around the corner.

We also celebrate National Fishing and Boating Week. It’s a great time to introduce a friend or family member to fishing. Per GAWRD:

“Free Fishing Days: Georgia offers two FREE fishing days (Sat., June 1 and Sat., June 8, 2024) during this special week. On these days, Georgia residents do not need a fishing license, trout license or Lands Pass to fish.”

River bass action is picking up when the rivers aren’t muddy after storms. The cicada bite is over unless you head north quickly to TN.

Check out our detailed intel in our full report here:

http://blog.angler.management/

(Link in bio)

Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.

www.unicoioutfitters.com

Wes’ Hot Fly List:  

Dries: chubby Chernobyl, yellow stimulator, 409 Yager yellow, parachute Adams, light cahill, para black ant, deckers yellow sally.

Pics: headwater bugs today.

Nymphs & Wets: 

Yellow soft hackle, gold ribbed hares ear, pheasant tail nymph and soft hackle, Drowned ant, tungsten micro rubberleg stone,  green weenie, mop fly. 

Streamers & warm water:

(Trout) Squirrely bugger, sparkle yummy, bank robber sculpin, and mini shimmer buggers for stockers. (bass & stripers) polar changer, stealth jig, wiggle minnow, craw changer, dungeon.

(Panfish) amnesia bug, bluegill spider, donkey kong hopper.

(Carp) Gorgan craw, squirmy hybrid. 

Headwaters: 

Local headwaters are running crystal clear, slightly low, and cool right now due to the chilly overnight temperatures. At 10 AM today Spoilcane was 60F and Smith was 58 above  Unicoi Lake and 66 below it.  Morning action should continue to be good on dries and maybe short droppers when the spooky wild fish are refusing the dries. Try downsizing your dry and tippet a bit if the fish are finicky. Hopefully that will save you from having to fish subsurface.

UO buddy Coop hit some headwaters last weekend and said:  “ There were yellow caddis (I think) hatching like crazy at dusk.   I took a friend and he caught his first trout on the fly. We tossed a yellow caddis with an emerger dropper, swung the rig, and crushed the fish.”

UO buddy Spangler: “Hi Dredger, a little intel for the fishing report which includes a proud papa moment:   Jason and I hit a high elevation stream above Helen this morning; he told me recently he wants to complete the GA trout slam so he can get a sticker like mine.  Just needed a Brookie and as you can see I think he found a specimen! Stream ran low clear and cold (I didn’t bother to check the temp since he kept telling me his feet were freezing, that’s a good sign!). We shook hands with close to double digits but only landed 3 between us; the foliage canopy made swinging them to the net a little harder so there were some tree-based quick releases this morning. I caught all mine on a little yellow stimulator and he caught his on a mini Trout Magnet jig.”

Delayed Harvest: 

The NC Delayed Harvest season ends tonite and the harvest season kicks in tomorrow morning.

https://www.eregulations.com/northcarolina/fishing/general-mountain-trout-regulations

There will still be a decent number of fish left in those DH streams for another week or two, so don’t abandon them yet.

Three Rabunites and their photographer did a DH last call on Nantahala  last night and had a great time. Nan, Rick, and Bluejay met riverside at 3PM and enjoyed an early supper of fried chicken, tater salad, baked beans and brownies in the shade, while they waited for the shadows to fall. They were entertained by the streamside mating dances of some tiny mayfly swarms.

Around 4PM they couldn’t wait any longer to wet a line, so they tossed dry/long dropper combos in a shady pool. On one of his first casts, Bluejay hit a homer with a 17-inch brown that ate his copper john dropper.  Nan followed that with two brookies and a little wild bow that ate her dropper nymphs.

The gang moved upstream as dusk started to settle in around 6. Some yellow and lime sallies and small cahills began to dance above the stream. There weren’t enough landing on the water and getting eaten, but there were enough to have fish looking up. 

Each of the trio scored a handful of trout on their double dry combos of a yellow stimulator lead fly and smaller yellow sally dropper.  Most were stocker brookies and browns, with a few small wild rainbows tossed in.  Refusals outnumbered takes by 4:1, but all the surface action was fun. About three trout were caught on the upstream skitter for every one that succumbed to the downstream dead drift.  A perfect farewell evening on the Nan was topped off with a black bear sighting on the late-nite drive home over the mountain, just above Helen.

Stocked Waters:

Bob took his grandson trout fishing this morning and they had a lot of fun on lower Smith Creek. They learned that small hooks, light line, and natural baits can convince picky stockers to strike in the warming waters of June.  Several nice browns came to the net. A few hit on their powerbait doughballs, but more fell for freshly captured red wigglers scraped from moist, streambank leaf packs.

They learned about the internet gold mine of Georgia trouting intel and said they were going to upgrade their trout fishing gear. I believe they are hooked!

https://georgiawildlife.com/Fishing/Trout

Rabunite trouting addict Nan phoned in a report from this morning’s trip. She got up early and met some of her GA Women Flyfishers on the Tallulah this morning.  She stuck with dries and caught plenty of stocked browns and little wild rainbows on yellow stimmies, yellow sallies, and light cahills. Buddy Nita did her usual deepwater dredging and scored big with rubberleg stones and green weenies.

Rabunite “Bluejay” said: “My son Matt from the ATL metro area enjoyed the holiday weekend here in the mountains. Fishing at a local stream with a micro chubby, he landed about 20 trout, including  two doubles!”

Private Waters: 

Our private waters season is quickly winding down due to increasing stream temperatures.  The recent cold nights have briefly recharged the lethargic fish and given our clients some really nice mornings.  If water temps hold out a bit longer, this is a great time for our Gilligan Special trips, where new fly fishers learn how to trout fish via a 3-hour instream “tour” with our UO guide. The key is starting and ending early in the day, when stream temperatures are lowest.

https://waterdata.usgs.gov/ga/nwis/uv?site_no=02330450

UO manager Jake guided several Gilligan trips this week at Nacoochee Bend on the Hooch and said his guests had a big time with the smaller, eager trout in the river. They caught fish on dry/dropper combos of a micro chubby Chernobyl dry and either a duracell nymph or tungsten micro stonefly as the dropper.

UO guide Caleb:” I got rained out of my trip on Monday but did guide the Orvis 301 class last Saturday. While we did experience a rain delay, fishing was excellent in between storms. The participants did excellent and we landed a ton of fish on dry dropper rigs.   Most fish were caught on the dropper, which was a mix between a yellow soft hackle and a large hares ear.

Caleb also phoned in at lunch today and said that today’s 3 clients at Rainbow Point on the Soque had a great morning on dry/dropper combos. Some fish ate the small chubby Chernobyl dries while more ate the submerged droppers of either a perdigon nymph, squirminator, or tiny tungsten beaded rubberleg stone.

Warm Rivers:

UO-Helen shop manager Wes: “I love late spring and summer fishing in our area due to the variety of angling opportunities available. Caleb and I got out one evening for a few hours to sightfish for Longnose Gar. Big native 40”+ fish in clear water that jump! What’s not to love about that? 

There are plenty of options and species to target this time of year. Don't overlook the unique opportunities close to home.”

UO buddy Landon invites y’all down to Sweetwater Creek next weekend for a spotted bass roundup to save the native shoalies. Details here:

https://www.exploregeorgia.org/lithia-springs/events/fishing-hunting/spotted-bass-roundup-with-the-native-fish-coalition

UO buddies Sam and Seth went south of Atlanta and got spoiled on some late spring shoalies. No details beyond the pics were provided by the two secretive river bassers.

Reservoirs:

UO-Helen manager Wes: “Jimmy, Atticus, and I fished over the holiday weekend and caught the tail end of the 13-year periodical Cicada madness here in Georgia. The lake was eerily quiet compared to the preceding weeks,  as most of the bugs had died. However, we were still able to find a few cruising fish looking for the last remaining bugs on the water. 

For anglers still looking to take advantage of the amazing cicada fishing, head north to Tennessee and scout apps like Cicada Safari to to find water with fish keyed in on cicadas. There will probably be another week of cicada action up there. “

That’s the latest from our wide radius around Helen, GA. Take advantage of the cold night and cold water while we still have it. After that, it’s high mountain hikes for trout or pond and river floats for bass. Do your last trout river trips ASAP and then break out your 6-8 weight bass rods and your tiny blueline trout outfits for the summer action to come.  Don’t miss our daily intel on Instagram and Facebook. Better yet, stop in either UO shop and pick our brains for more tips. It’s easy pickins. Good luck and don’t forget the two free days this week for your angler-wannabe’s!

Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.

www.unicoioutfitters.com

Unicoi Outfitters Fishing Report - 5/24/24

 

Welcome to the UO holiday fishing report. This week’s theme is “the early riser gets the trout.”  The recent hot, sunny days and warm, humid nights are boosting trout stream temperatures. Your best bet is to fish from dawn til noon, or in the stained flows following an afternoon thunderstorm that cools the water. Give the fish a rest when water temps creep past 66F.

Ponds are still a best bet, while lake surface temps are forcing stripers deep or upstream to summer thermal refuges. The bass bite on these flat waters is still very good.

Warm rivers are starting to hit their summer stride. Just avoid the muddy stormflows and then aim for resident bass, newly vacationing stripers, and spawning gar that have just begun their brief upstream migrations. 

Check out our detailed intel in our full report here:

http://blog.angler.management/

(Link in bio)

Good luck dodging storms and hunting cooler waters this weekend. May we all take time on Monday to remember our fallen service members who sacrificed themselves for our freedom. Have a safe and thankful holiday respite, everyone.

Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.

www.unicoioutfitters.com

Wes’ Hot Fly List:  

Wes said last week’s list is still spot-on for this week’s action, so here’s the rerun:

Dries: chubby Chernobyl, yellow simulator, 409 Yager yellow, parachute Adams, light cahill, or black ant, deckers yellow sally, green drake, coffin fly.

Nymphs & Wets: 

Yellow soft hackle, gold ribbed hares ear, pheasant tail nymph and soft hackle, greenie weenie,  and red squirmy worm and brown pats rubberlegs for stained water and stockers.

Streamers & warm water:

(Trout) Squirrely bugger, sparkle yummy, bank robber sculpin, and mini shimmer buggers for stockers. (bass & stripers) Cowens somethin’ else, gray/white clouser minnow, finesse changer, polar changer, crittermite, jiggy craw.

Headwaters:  

Most streams in our region were spared from yesterday’s storms, which did hit the Smokies and blew out those streams.   Our creeks are low, clear, and warm. 

At 9AM today Spoilcane was 62F and Smith was 62 above the lake and 66 in the DH section below it. Mornings will be better than afternoons due to water temps.  

https://waterdata.usgs.gov/ga/nwis/uv?site_no=02330450

High floating parachutes and chubbies should draw plenty of strikes, but don’t ignore a small dropper if the surface bite is slow. Wes said very few wild headwater bows ate his client’s dry fly during a midweek trip into the forest, but they slammed the little pheasant tail nymph dropped a foot below the dry.

Ian at R and R Flyfishing just gave us a fresh Smokies report:

https://randrflyfishing.com/2024/05/22/a-wet-may-sets-up-the-smokies-for-good-water-conditions-in-june/

UO buddy RSquared: “Monday I fished the Cohutta WMA. I was rewarded with some nice wild Rainbows, all of which were looking up in the gin clear water and took a size 14 Parachute Adams. I love this time of year!”

UO buddy, Rabunite Nanette, reported: “Trout were looking up early and often on the Chattooga this week, as we took advantage of the pre-holiday weekend peace and quiet to fish the upper river.  As late afternoon turned to evening, more trout rose to take our #16 Adams parachutes, caddis and yellow sallies, and the action continued until the full moon rose. The fish we caught weren’t big but they were plentiful. Using my new 7.5 foot, 3-wt rod on the fresh rainbows gave my arm a workout!”

Delayed Harvest: 

Georgia DH streams may have a few fish left, but they’re warming quickly due to the wide stream channel that catches too much sunshine. Hit them early and cover a lot of ground with dry/dropper combos.

The NC Delayed Harvest season ends next week, so go soon.  Those streams are at higher elevations and are a bit cooler, so you have a good shot at fish through the day and maybe some Dark-30 hatch-matching for the last  bugs of spring: yellow sallies, stray Cahills and caddis, midges, and some drakes or coffins if you’re lucky enough to find them.  Light tippets and small nymph droppers will solicit more strikes in the low, clear water. Toss some squirmies if a storm rolls through and colors-up the water.

https://www.eregulations.com/northcarolina/fishing/general-mountain-trout-regulations

Recall our post earlier this week about extending your DH season:

See page ATL-1:

https://issuu.com/coastalanglermagazine/docs/atl_2860d4cc650989

UO buddy CDB: “On private waters Monday after rain, eggs were a surprise hit. By Tuesday and Wednesday, perhaps because of the clearer water, fish weren’t really paying attention to eggs. However, smaller mottled brown and black rubber legs with gold legs were on fire! Size 8-12 worked particularly well, fished deep. 

On my favorite DH water, my experience was the same, mottled brown and black rubber legs out-fished almost every other alternative by at least 5:1. Small black leech patterns with a red bead head and black jig head bugger patterns (size 12 ) with a little red in them were also very effective, but still not quite as hot as the rubber legs. 

Unfortunately I did not run into any hatches, but I had to be off the water right about the time things would have been getting good!”

Stocked Waters:

GAWRD will publish a real long list of stocked waters later today, since it’s a holiday weekend. Hit those streams before lunch and the trout will have better appetites in cooler water.

https://georgiawildlife.com/Fishing/Trout

The WRD hatchery staffs were out in force today, providing us with plenty of gifts for the weekend (50,000 fish according  to their weekly report).  I ran into a Burton Hatchery duo spicing up Smith Creek and the Hooch this morning. Grab your kids and a bucket of worms and have a blast.

For flyrodders, stockers are suckers for drifted eggs, squirmies and rubberleg stones and small streamers twitched often while slowly stripped back upstream. Put your rod tip just a few inches off the water surface during the retrieve and you’ll hook more streamer eaters.

Tailwaters:

UO buddy RonW: “Kurt and I fished the Dam last Saturday from about 8:15 -11:15.  There were only 2 other anglers on the water despite there being several cars in the parking lot. It was pre-frontal conditions, with zero wind and overcast skies.  We both started off with a dry dropper set up as usual. 

I hooked up pretty quickly on my #20 Freedom fly dropper. With nothing doing after that, I switched to a hares ear and that netted me 3 more.  It was the same theme all morning, change flies until something hit.  Fly of the day for me ended up being a #20 Frenchie on 6.5x, which landed me a 7 fish.  I ended the day with a cool baker's dozen in 3 hours of fishing.  I even hooked and  relocated a few small wild browns on my #22 dry (bass hook sets) 

It was another great day on the water getting my much needed weekly dose of hydrotherapy!”

Private Waters: 

UO guide Israel said his clients’ Soque River success really waned this week due to warming water temps.  Mornings were much better.  The rainbows were not keyed in on any particular fly pattern. He had to cycle through his fly box to maintain the action.

UO guide Caleb: “Fishing at Nacoochee Bend was excellent yesterday morning. I believe an early start paired with an overcast day was the key to success this late in the season. Almost all fish were landed on a size 12 March brown dry fly!”

Hooch conditions this morning:

Warm Rivers:

We published the results of GAWRD’s Tuesday meeting on bass regulation changes here:

http://blog.angler.management/2024/05/update-on-ga-black-bass-regs-proposal.html

UO staff is seeing more Lanier stripers running up the tributary rivers. They’ve also seen gar starting their spawning runs, too. Got a sturdy 8-weight outfit and some big streamers?

Reservoirs:

UO guides Joseph and Wes: “ The cicada hatch is really on the downswing here in eastern Georgia.  Check out apps like “Cicada Safari” and get out and explore to find fish keyed in on the few remaining bugs. As the Georgia emergence winds down, catch up to the hatch by driving north of our border.”

UO buddy AJ: “Only fished Lanier once this past week, last Friday AM. Topwater bass fishing was phenomenal, with everything coming on an Ima Little Stik in herring off points and reef markers. Had one or two blow ups that may have a striper, but didn't connect. 

My buddy Bruce took me hunting for Cicadas on Thursday and we had a great day. Boated 36 carp and missed/dropped at least half that many. He said there weren't as many bugs on water as last week, but fish are still looking up for now. My first time chasing the Cicada hatch was a blast!”

-Alex Jaume

Lanier on the Fly

https://www.instagram.com/p/C4k7uy7OH4P/?igsh=MXMxb2cyODMydDEycw==

Road Trip -Chapter 2

UO buddy Athens Jay’s   May-mester class entitled, “Georgia Fishes Field Course” traveled to north Georgia this past week and sampled stream fish communities in both the mountains and in the Ridge and Valley region. They even found a few spare hours in the evenings to wet a line.

That’s the latest from our UO staff and fishing friends. Nanette reminds everyone to store their camping groceries in safe spots to deter uninvited  supper guests!

Enjoy the weekend, while taking a Monday moment to remember our fallen heroes. Good luck during your three-day break.

https://www.defense.gov/News/Feature-Stories/Story/Article/3782916/arlington-national-cemetery-honors-fallen-with-flowers-of-remembrance/

Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.

www.unicoioutfitters.com