We are drying out and heating back up once again this week. That’s bad news for area trout fans, but good news for river bassers as our bigger streams drop and clear. Your best bets this week are morning blueline wild trout on GA’s north mountain slopes or higher NC mountains, stocked trout in tailwaters or highest elevation streams, pond bream and bass, resident river bass as the water clears, and a plane ticket to some Rockies trout nirvana.
A lot of our regular reporters returned to their favorite waters this week, so don’t miss today’s hefty fishing report here:
http://blog.angler.management/
(Link in bio)
From Wes’ hot fly list to some great pics and vids, we’ve got it all there for you.
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
Wes’ Hot Fly List:
Dries: micro chubby Chernobyl, yellow stimulator, parachute black ant, tan elk hair caddis.
Nymphs & Wets:
Hard body ant, gold ribbed hares ear, pheasant tail nymph, zebra midge, squirmy worm in muddy water.
Streamers & warm water:
(Trout) Squirrely bugger, and mini shimmer buggers for stockers.
(Bass & stripers) jerk changer, Con man, boogle bug popper, Kent’s stealth bomber.
(Panfish) amnesia bug, small chubby Chernobyl, bluegill spider, dry and wet ants
(Carp) headstand, squirmy hybrid.
Headwaters:
Our local waters have decent flow, but they are clear and very warm due to hot days and very warm, muggy nights.
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no=02330450&legacy=1
Given the hot week ahead, you might choose to give the south slope wild trout populations a break. The Hooch tribs around Helen all ran 68 degrees at mid-morning today. We’ll need some cooler nights to restore our ability to safely release those wild trout after their catch.
Go over the mountain to north slope streams or drive a bit farther to NC, where 5,000-foot mountains shed colder water into those headwater creeks. Topwater speck and bow fishing has been great for folks who can find that cold water in the mornings. Bring a stream thermometer, some yellow stimmies, and some black ants to up your odds for a great day up high, in the shade.
https://shoponline.unicoioutfitters.com/orvis-stream-thermometer.html
UO buddy Athens Jay: “I headed up to find shade and cool water at higher elevations in north Georgia. That meant doing some bushwhacking and rock climbing. I found some fat wild rainbows that were eager to take a dry fly.
Then, after managing to find my way around some big boulders, I was rewarded with some beautiful wild specks.
It was a very good day for the #16 Yellow Stimulator. I’m not getting any better at tying them but the fish don’t seem to mind. Some of the brookies were too shy to eat a dry fly, but they seemed to like a sparse size 18 midge with a tiny bead head tied as a dropper behind the Stimulator.”
Stocked Waters:
GAWRD is still pumping out a decent list of streams for you stocker fans. Fish the mornings for the coolest water and most cooperative fish. Light lines, small (size 10 or 12) hooks, and small baits or lures will bring the highest success in warm, clear flows.
Here is today’s updated list:
https://georgiawildlife.com/sites/default/files/wrd/pdf/trout/Weekly_Stocking_Report.pdf
Tailwaters:
They’ve got the coldest water in north GA. Just know the flows before you go and check those TVA and COE dam discharge schedules carefully. Be safe!
UO friend Hillis: “My fishing buddies and I fished the tailwater below Buford Dam yesterday. I wanted to start out fishing the same hole that was productive a couple of weeks ago, in the section we call the triangle, but it was already occupied so I made my way downstream to a hole along the bank that I like to fish, which we call the deep hole. I could not see the bank because the fog was so bad, so it took me a while to find the hole, but I found it. Only one other person was fishing near there, a teenager, friendly kid, talked to me the whole time we shared that section of the river. He was spinning, fishing with PowerBait and catching some nice fish. He showed me his hook and said it was the only hook he had and he was afraid it was too big. I told him I only had flies or I would give him a smaller hook if I had one. I told him if he was catching fish, as he was, it sure seemed to me that his hook was ok. LOL! As for me I started out high sticking it, no strike indicator, drifting a small black midge with a red midge underneath. No luck. After a while I switched out the black midge with a black wooly and the red midge still trailing, drifting, swinging, and stripping, and caught several on the wooly, none on the midge. Funny, a couple of weeks ago I caught several on a red midge while the fish wouldn’t have anything to do with the black wooly. Go figure! I finished the morning fishing in the triangle, but did not have any luck. Here is a pic of my best catch of the day. “
Private Waters:
Just about all waters managed by GA’s private operators are shut down for the summer to protect their heat-stressed trout.
Warm Rivers:
The Hooch at Highway 115 was dropping and clearing to about 3 feet of visibility at midmorning today. If the storms stay away, some bassing float trips will be a weekend best bet. See Wes’ hot fly list for tips. Toss your poppers and streamers toward the shade of boulders,ledges, and especially overhanging streambank trees.
Our summer vacationers are still hanging out in Helen. There are some true brutes in that striper school.
Feel free to call our Helen shop (706-878-3083) if you want to book an opportunity to wade out and catch one on the fly. Check your long range forecasts for Helen and try to time your trip for post-shower stained water, which disguises your streamer. Bring fresh, stout tippet, too, to avoid tears and gnashing of teeth.
Ponds:
They’re still a best bet. Just go when the sun is low or hidden by clouds, and cast toward heavy cover. You have a lot of water to choose from here in northeast Georgia, so give small lakes like Russsell, Unicoi, Black Rock, Seed, Vogel, Winfield Scott, and Zwerner a try before they cool off this fall. Find them with GAWRD’s interactive fishing area map:
https://georgiawildlife.com/locations/fishing
Athens Jay: “That same evening after my blueline adventure, I found myself on the bank of a local pond, still with my 3-wt rod and the same Stimulator-dropper rig I had used for wild trout. I’m happy to report that it was equally effective on bluegill in warmwater. “
UGA 5Rivers buddy Matt spoke of his club’s tourney success: “We went to some local ponds near Athens to fish for some largemouth for our TU 5 rivers national bass fishing tournament. Hey, we took the silver medal!
We enjoyed great success using top water conventional lures like a whopper plopper. The bite turned on when it started to rain, so make sure to bring your rain jacket and don’t be afraid to get wet! We were also having good luck using a slower baitfish presentation such as a weightless fluke or a slow chatter bait retrieve. With these hot days sunrise and sunset are key and watch the weather. Rain is your friend!”
Reservoirs:
They’re still warm and full of boaters and skiers. Go at dawn or after dark to avoid those crowds and wakes. Check out GAWRD’s fresh fishing report today for sone very good lake intel:
https://georgiawildlife.blog/2024/08/02/georgia-fishing-report-august-2-2024/
UO guide Israel: “Got on the carp flats before the sun set, then hit the kitties after dark. The Carp ate a leech pattern on the flats, while the cats ate cutbait on a main lake point coming up to a 15’ deep flat.”
Afar:
A bunch of Georgians have beat the dog days here and cashed in on western gold. Enjoy their stories.
Rabunites Nan and Rick drove up to the Smokies on Wednesday morning, but found the flows on their favorite streams too high for their safe wading. They still enjoyed hiking and watching the local elk herd.
Rabunite Bluejay and his son did better in lower water on Monday during a guided trip in the Smokies. The rain and stain had the browns on the prowl. Squirmy worms matched the current hatch.
NOTE: find yourselves some more fishing buddies by joining TU. You can even join for free via a new, trial membership offer:
UGA 5Rivers clubber Lucky celebrated his first western trout trip: “Had a great time exploring Montana and Wyoming and catching some fish a few days ago. We wore them out on caddis flies and chubbies, as well as catching a few on woolly buggers. Because of the heat, we really focused on darker pools and watched several fish come off the bottom to strike dry flies several feet above. We would also throw weighted streamers into heavy current then swing through the pools, then strip back with short, rapid pulls and watch the strikes in the clear water. It was a great experience. We all had a lot of fun, and it was a great first western fishing trip for a couple of us.”
UO buddy CDB just returned from CO and said: “Returned to my old waters on the South Platte last two weeks. The scenery is always inspiring and the fishing ranged from good to fantastic. A couple of days we did the long hike into the top of Cheesman, the rest of time I spent fishing Eleven Mile Canyon.
Fishing was best in the AM from about 7:30 - 11:30, with very active fish feeding on tiny stuff. Two of the days in Eleven Mile, the fish were targeting tiny trico spinners on top even though the hatches were mediocre. The action was fantastic, although those flies are hard to see! The biggest fish of the trip were caught on those tiny dries. On the mornings that the fish were feeding, but not rising, double nymph rigs with Quill body perdigons as a bottom fly and either RS-2, tiny copper wound midges clear bead head, pheasant tails with a clear bead head and tiny juju baetis were particularly effective. Mostly size 20 - 24. However, the further down into cheesman you go, the fly sizes can go up and occasionally we were using flies as large as a 16 or 18.
It is a trip you should try , especially in the summer. There is almost always good bug action, and because you are fishing above 7,000 even on the hottest days the weather is comfortable, especially if wet wading.
A good guide can help a lot reading the river and its moods (yes it is moody!) and recommending flies and set ups. A couple tips if you try it.
Take little stuff, If you are within a hundred yards or so of either dam, I would suggest a double RS-2 Rig, size 22. One gray, one green.
Mid-river I would use one of the combos I suggested above. Bring trico spinners, parachute tricos, and some PMD's. Or buy them at a local shop. You are going to be using 6X or smaller tippet.
Stealth is important - leave those bright yellows and oranges at home.
The great indicator debate. 90% of the pros will tell you that you must use a yarn or similar indicator when nymphing to be successful. This is BS. Yes they do land much more softly. I have found here and in other highly technical rivers, the fish are far more spooked by movement or shadow. The smallest oros indicators will outfish yarn 5:1 if you can make the cast without blasting the water. I have seen fish move out of the way with a big yarn indicator. I have not had fish move away from a small oros. I have had fish on the Platte, Owyhee, and Snake rivers try to eat my Oros. I have not been able to demonstrate that any one color is more or less effective.
Line management is important. The fish are more tolerant than you might expect of small movements in your subsurface flies, perhaps due to the turbulent nature of the currents. Small movements. If you are having to yank the line around to try to mend, just back out of the run and try a different approach.
WIth dry flies however, they are super fussy. Intolerant of any drag at all, especially with the spinners.
On bright afternoons, the same river that was teeming with movement in the morning, can suddenly look sterile. The fish go into lockdown and can be hard to coax into taking a fly. However, if clouds roll in or a light rain blesses you - well, its game on again and you might catch some nice afternoon hatches.
The hike into Cheesman is rigorous. Where I go I seldom see people or even guides. And it is at altitude, so it is physically demanding. If that is not for you - don't fear. There are a lot of good fish and fishing in the lower canyons and all the way down through Deckers. But there are crowds and lots of guides. Eleven Mile is the least strenuous - you can park streamside. It can be very crowded, especially on weekends, but it is still beautiful.
Dredger’s former coworker, “Deadly” Damer, shared his western trip report: “My Dad, Brother, and I just returned from our annual pilgrimage to western Montana, and it was spectacular. We all flew out on CrowdStrike Doomsday from three different cities on two airlines and, amazingly, we all arrived just a couple hours late into Bozeman with our bags and enough time to catch the evening caddis hatch! We spent the first four nights in Wolf Creek. The main attraction here is the mighty Missouri River below Holter Dam.
This year many other rivers were on “hoot owl” restrictions or closed altogether, which crowded anglers toward the cold, steady flows of the Missouri. Not a problem though, as there are so many fish in this river that you only need a little bit of space to yourself to have a good time. The MO is a huge tailwater, but fishes like a giant spring creek with tremendous mayfly and caddis hatches. Mornings were spent casting small dries at pods of 5 to 30 fish rising to tricos and PMDs. Size 16-18 rusty spinners worked well for us to fool these picky rainbows and browns, as usual. This 23” brown fell victim to my “trusty rusty” and gave me one heck of a fight in an outside bend with heavy current. My knee is still sore today from a fall as I was stumbling downstream along the bank to get line back on the reel! I got a cool underwater shot of this one swimming away after release, as a bonus.
After the trico spinnerfalls, we had a couple truly epic afternoons covered in caddisflies. Hatches were so thick they were tickling under our shirts, flying in our mouths and ears, and climbing around on our glasses, making it tough to see all the rising fish at times. Fish were chasing the lively skittering variety, which can be challenging to imitate, but size 14-16 tan or brown bodied X-caddis fooled enough to make us happy. Leaders of 12-15 feet and tippet at least 5x or thinner are required for success on the MO, as these fish see a TON of angling pressure and cannot be fooled easily. Missouri River rainbows (like the one below) are rocketships, and often run straight into your backing upon hookup, so be ready to palm your reel to slow them down a bit.
Fishing the caddis again in the hours right before and after dark produced great action as well. During slow periods, casting terrrestrials along the banks can be productive too. I spotted a riser sipping occasionally and softly under a large cliff face during the end of the trico spinnerfall. From the small rise form, one might think this was a small fish and pass it by, but my experiences told me otherwise. I crouched low and approached in the shade of the cliff from directly downstream. It took a size 16 black foam beetle on the first cast placed about 4 inches off the rock face, then exploded out into the current before doggedly returning to my net. Another beast of a bull brown stretching to 23”.
The second half of the trip was spent in and around Dillon. Here, we focused on some smaller and lesser-known spring creeks that flow into the Big Hole and Beaverhead Rivers. The names of these creeks escape my memory right now (hmm…), but the same hatches generally apply on these creeks as mentioned for the MO (tricos in the AM, caddis in the PM). Apparently, Montana FWP and Montana State University tagged a bunch of fish on the Big Hole, Beaverhead, Ruby, and Madison Rivers this spring, and I was lucky enough to catch one during a morning trico hatch. It was a 19.5” brown that had traveled many miles from its tagging location on the Beaverhead to where I hooked it up one of the main tribs. Make sure to look out for tags and report any tagged fish you catch!
My dad and brother had some good luck on the small spring creeks too, landing some quality fish on foam hoppers. The “panty dropper” is our favorite pattern, because it is very lifelike and fools some picky fish.
We only fished the mainstem Big Hole River once this trip. The entire river was on hoot owl restrictions and flows were well below the median, so we had low expectations and could only fish the morning through midday. We fished up near the town of Wise River where water temp started at 62, rising to 66 by the time we got off the river at 1:30pm. Despite the conditions, fish were fat, healthy, and energetic, and we had one of our best days ever on the River, landing over 50 fish between us in only a few hours! The key was the unbelievable spruce moth “hatch”. The spruce moth is often overshadowed by salmonflies, green drakes, etc., but it can rival (or dare I say surpass) those famous hatches in numbers and size of fish rising when conditions are right. Find a great write-up on fishing the spruce moth hatch HERE. Fish were smashing any tan caddis dry fly in size 12-14 on almost every cast. The highlight for me was a 20-inch brown that I found cruising the banks around some boulders. There were so many other moths on the water that it took a while for me to fool him with my tan X-caddis, but when he finally took, he made a short run to the middle of the river, and due to poor line management my fly line snapped up around the reel handle. Luckily, he stopped his run just as this happened, and I was able to quickly untangle before the fish came back toward the bank. He then just started swimming (not running) purposefully upstream toward the boulders, and I just could not stop him even though I was using 4x. So, I chased him upstream through the rocks and finally got him in the net.
Our trio fished “Alfonso’s Place” one afternoon toward the end of the trip. We’ve named this section of spring creek after the former property owner who was out mowing his lawn one day when we stopped and asked for permission to fish. Alfonso has since moved, but the current owner also graciously allows us to fish this 200-yard stretch once (maybe twice) per year. This creek is super weedy, deep, and mucky in places, which makes for tough wading. It also has very few fish in it, and we typically only see about 10-15 fish throughout the property. BUT, those fish are generally huge browns, averaging 20+ inches making it well worth the effort. My brother missed a couple nice heads on a foam hopper to start, then it was my turn. I was disappointed when I reeled in a rare 13-incher as I was approaching the end of the property, and nothing else to show for my efforts. I squeezed the water out of my size-12 foam beetle and placed one last cast near a weed mat on the right bank. Just as I was lifting to bring my fly back to hand, I saw it dip below the surface in a massive gulp. The line pulled tight, and the water exploded. The fish shot upstream first and onto the reel, then back down at my legs as I stripped franticly to keep tension. As he passed me and headed downstream, I got my first good glimpse across his back which was about 4” wide. He was headed for the cover of overhanging limbs and brush, so I had to double over my 3-wt rod to stop him. Lucky I was prepared for battle with 3x tippet, and my brother jumped in downstream to net him as my dad watched the ruckus, smiling from the bank. My brother dug his net into the weeds, and lifted out a beautiful 22” bulldog brown.
We have some great fisheries in Georgia and I’m proud to live and work here, but if you have never been to southwest Montana, you need to go. The vast landscapes and tremendous trout fisheries are truly something special. I can’t wait until next year’s trip!”
John Damer
Fisheries Biologist III
Wildlife Resources Division
Good luck this week as we deal with another heat wave. At least we are inching closer to the cooler nights of September and a hint of the fall season to come. Stop by either UO shop to swap fish stories, travel tales, or hot intel. In the air conditioning!!! We’re open all seven days in Helen and all but Sunday in Clarkesville.
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
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