“Greater hope” is this week’s report theme. Recent, cooler nights have slightly knocked down trout stream temperatures. North slope streams will fish well for wild trout, while stockers should finally have better appetites at high elevation streams under 70 degrees. We’re seeing mostly browns in recent releases.
Lake bass are deep and tough, but river bassin’ has been excellent, IF the water’s clear. Watch those river gauges or call our Helen shop for local conditions. While stream turbidity is bad for bass, it can turn on trout and our vacationing stripers. See our intel.
All details and more fishy pics and videos are in today’s full fishing report here:
http://blog.angler.management/
(Link in bio)
Good luck this week as we welcome cooler air and water temps and maybe even some rain!
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no=02330450&legacy=1
Use that water temp and turbidity info to direct your own treks toward some fine fishing in the days ahead. Good luck!
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
Wes’ Hot Fly List:
Dries: micro chubby Chernobyl, olive stimulator, parachute black ant, tan elk hair caddis.
Nymphs & Wets:
Hard body ant, gold ribbed hares ear, Quasimodo pheasant tail, zebra midge, lightning bug.
Streamers:
Squirrely bugger, and mini shimmer buggers for stockers.
(Bass) jerk changer, Con man, wiggle minnow, boogle bug popper, Kent’s stealth bomber.
(Panfish) amnesia bug, small chubby Chernobyl, bluegill spider, dry and wet ants
(Carp) headstand, squirmy hybrid.
Headwaters:
Area trout waters remained low and clear this morning. The good news is that they are a degree or two cooler this week, and should drop more with next week’s favorable mountain forecast that shows overnight lows in the low 60’s. Midmorning water temps today were: high Hooch headwaters 65F,
upper Smith 66,
Spoilcane and Hooch at WMA boundary 68.
We need a few more cool nights to knock down these south slope stream temperatures. While we wait and give south slopes a break, get your wild trout fixes on north slope bluelines in Rabun, Towns, or Union Counties and on the higher NC mountains.
UO buddy JT: “I visited two streams early last week: one popular stocked and the other a high elevation wild. Here’s some notes from each, in reverse order.
First, I arrived at the wild stream around 9:00AM, looking to check out some brookies in a new environment. The sun was already taking its toll on the water temps. I had decent luck with an orange stimulator with white legs (sz 18). Eventually, the dry dropper with a weightless greenie or hot head midge with some sparkle. Once the sun was really high, the 7x tippet helped as they were very, very timid. Unfortunately, the catches were limited to mostly wild bows.
Second, I showed up to the other stream at around 1:30. The stocked stream trout were very uninterested in just about anything floating or sinking, regardless of presentation or tippet. Mostly holed up in deep, slow spots in the heat of the day. However, a micro-streamer (black with flash) through the groups excited just enough a feeding response to land a nice sized rainbow, despite many an angler noticing the same refusals for any dries or nymphs.”
Stocked Waters:
The good news is that many stocked waters have cooled off a few degrees and should now fish better for morning anglers. However, we are closer to the end of stocking season and fewer fish usually hit the water at this time of year. The new stocking list just got posted:
https://georgiawildlife.com/Fishing/Trout
Recent stockings have been heavy on browns, so plan accordingly (worms, crickets, spinners, chubbies, and small buggers). One customer caught a nice handful of browns on Thursday afternoon via a small Mepps spinner. He did better on the colder of two streams visited. The first one had plenty of stockers, but they were too hot to have an appetite.
Tailwaters:
Athens Jay: “Streamers at sunrise on the tailwater. I was lucky enough to win a fundraiser trip provided by Chris Scalley of River Through Atlanta. Casting big streamers early, before the sun hits the water, is very effective in getting bigger trout to eat.
The trip was made even better because I was able to bring former student Josh Kim along. Josh grew up along the river and has fished it all his life, but never from a drift boat.
A big thank you to Chris Scalley and Jimmy Harris (Unicoi Outfitters) for their trip donations to support the Georgia Chapter of the American Fisheries Society, the professional organization that serves all our fisheries managers across our state.”
Private Waters:
Just about all waters managed by GA’s private operators remain closed for the summer to protect their heat-stressed trout. Same goes for Dukes at Smithgall Woods.
Warm Rivers:
An early Thursday cloud camped out at the White/Habersham line, dumped an inch of rain, and muddied the Hooch. That’s bad for bass, but good for Helen stripers! Read on.
The Hooch at Hwy 115 was YooHoo at midmorning today, and the low water clarity should knock out river bassing for a few days up here.
The good news is that it was an isolated storm and other region rivers should still be clear, at least right now. We’ll have to see what tonite’s storm front brings. Check those USGS river gauges before heading out with your bass rods, yaks and canoes.
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no=02331000&legacy=1
UO-Helen manager Wes: “The Redeye Bass Fishing has been great lately. Topwater is the deal. I fished Wednesday morning for a couple of hours and caught around 10 Bartram's bass all on a stealth bomber.”
(Editors note: don’t forget Wes’ redeye bass contest! See our prior social media posts this week. Free entries for some nice prizes)
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/mcKTjdqTEettbYTE/?
“I also did a guided trip with Ray and David late last week. The bite was pretty solid throughout the day. A good number of shoal bass with some nice spots mixed in as well. The topwater fishing was good early but the key to getting bites later in the day was fishing baitfish patterns fast. “
Dredger and Athens Jay migrated north of the border on Sunday evening in search of smallies. It was slow, with only a handful of bass up to 12 inches inhaling their stealth bombers. Luckily, resident rock bass added some extra numbers to their total catch.
While Helen’s Thursday storm was bad for bass, it provided a shot at stripers. UO staff saw that muddy Hooch on their way to the shop and tossed a gift at our regular reporter, Athens Jay. He pounced on our invitation for a dusk striper trip.
He and an accomplice had a good time in the stained water as dusk grew to darkness. They batted 3 for 4 on strikes to their game changer streamers.
While the real big boys weren’t interested, the two best fish netted were still a respectable 26-27 inches or so, providing plenty of pulls on their 8-weight rods.
Watch the weather and river gauge and time a trip to Nacoochee Bend to catch that muddy water. Call the shop at 706-878-3083 for your own reservation for stripers on the fly.
Ponds:
No recent reports. Dawn and dusk should still produce bass and bream along shaded banks.
Reservoirs:
They’re still warm and full of boaters and skiers. Fish deep, like Jake, who is finding a nice bunch of largemouth and spots on the mountain lakes by fishing “deep, slow, and near the brush.” Jake has started booking some lake bass trips, so call our Helen shop if you want to give reservoir bass a shot on conventional gear..
More Great Lake intel from our GAWRD friends here:
https://georgiawildlife.blog/2024/08/16/georgia-fishing-report-august-16-2024/
Those temp/DO profiles are your keys to summer success!
Afar:
Dredger’s buddy, Michigan Mike, booked a trip with his friend, a Lake Michigan charter guide. Mike and his two sons had one fine morning of trolling, bringing 8 kings to 23 pounds to the boat. Smoked salmon, anyone?
That’s the scoop as we welcome a little rain and a slight drop in air and water temperatures. Maybe this is our first true hint of fall. It’s sure looking good for late next week, so have some hope as you pull your fly rod and flies out of summer storage. If it’s clear, bang those river bass. If it’s stained, sling for stripers or headwater trout. Enjoy these wet-wading opportunities while we still have them. Stop in either UO shop for the flies, supplies, and intel to enhance your own success.
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
No comments:
Post a Comment