Welcome to “summer reruns” as we put up with one more round of hot weather this weekend. Hopefully fall will truly show up next week and get that seasonal bite going.
That last big storm really missed our area, and we only received about a half-inch of rain. As a result, region rivers and streams remain super-low and crystal clear. The good news is that headwaters are slightly cooler, so you’ll still have a shot at little wild trout before lunch.
Bigger rivers are clear and bassin’ should be good. That’s true for small lakes, too. The best news is that the mountain lakes have started cooling off and the surface bite has begun. Read Jake’s breaking lake bass news and all other fresh fishing reports from our UO gang here:
http://blog.angler.management/
One-clickers who just open this brief post will just enjoy the pics. But double-clickers who hit that blog link will catch all that prime intel and cash in this week. The choice is yours. Good luck as we tolerate one more shot of summer while enjoying several great hints of fall. Stop in either UO shop in Helen or Clarkesville for the flies and lures that are hot right now.
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
Wes’ Hot Fly List:
Dries: micro chubby Chernobyl, yellow stimulator, parachute Adams, parachute black ant, tan elk hair caddis.
Nymphs & Wets:
Hares ear, pheasant tail, prince nymph, drowned ant, copper John, zebra midge, mop fly.
Streamers:
Sparkle minnow, buggers & leeches, micro dungeon.
(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:
They are super-low and super-clear. The good news is that they’re a bit cooler than in August and will fish well before lunch, and maybe into the afternoon on the shadiest creeks. Spoilcane was 62F at 8AM today.
Just use that stream thermometer when you start and also when you break for lunch. Let it tell you how long you can be tossing your dries.
Skinny water makes fish spooky and also forces them into drought refuges. Skip the riffles, sneak up on the pools and runs with adequate depth, and see if you can pull multiple bows and specks out of each refuge before the rest of the pool residents spook. There’s a lot of food competition in these drought refuges, so take advantage of that hunger. Just scale down tippets and flies for soft landings.
UO buddy Spangler: ”Knowing I have been outsmarted by salmonoids with brains the size of my pinky nail keeps me up at night, so I hit the same headwater stream for a few hours on Wednesday - after rearming with some prime intel from the UO guys.
Temps on the stream never showed above 62 at any point, I think partly because of a cool night and some spotty rain, and I really pushed up into the headwaters of this stream at about 2700’ elevation. I brought in 6 to the net and missed about that many. The difference this time was downsizing my flies to size 18-20. Orange and yellow stimmy, a tan elk hair caddis, and a sunken ant all took fish. I also got one on a little kebari style wet fly I came up with for my tenkara outfit: a 6’ 3wt rod with a 6’ leader, with 5X to my first fly and 6X to the dropper. The most important thing I had with me was some desiccant to dry my flies out. They seemed to get water logged easier than usual so I had to use it about every other cast (partly too because they were getting eaten!). It was a successful rematch high in the headwaters above Helen.”
GT 5Rivers prez Will M weighed in:
“I hit a high GA mountain stream for specks last weekend and did well. My hot fly was your favorite, a tan EHC. Fish weren’t that picky as long as you moved slow and stayed hidden. I even hooked one or two almost underneath my rod tip when using the bushes for cover. Also did pretty well on wild bows a bit farther down on the mainstream, using a walt’s worm with a cdc collar for some leggy movement.”
UGA 5Rivers clubber Connor said his carpool hit the Smokies for specks: “We were catching them on stimulators and micro chubbies. Yellow and orange were the colors that were working. Saw a few bears too!”
Dredger had a Dink Day last Sunday in NC. He started with an early afternoon shot at Nantahala DH. Since the sun was high, he tried his Euro rig to dredge the shady depths- when he could find some. Little wild bows and a few browns hit his Frenchie anchor fly and ant dropper, on 6X, about equally. Nothing bigger than 7 inches came to hand, so he didn’t bother with pics. He quit around suppertime and headed toward Plan B, described below.
Stocked Waters: Folks covering lots of water are still picking off some leftover Labor Day stockers, mainly browns. They’re getting mighty skinny since their departure from hatchery raceways and all-u-can-eat trout chow. Try some small chubbies for dries and ants or tiny buggers or leeches when you need to go subsurface.
Tailwaters: No recent reports.
Private Waters:
We will re-open our private water opportunities in October and are now taking reservations for fall, winter, and spring fishing trips. We are at 706-878-3083. Art at Smithgall (706-878-3087) said Dukes will open angling to reservation holders on 10/2. Call soon to reserve your slots for prime fall dates.
Warm Rivers:
UO buddy Jay: “Last night after work in Athens I was able to fool a few local river bass on my favorite homemade streamers.”
UGA 5R clubber Matt: Went fishing on a larger river near Clark’s Hill Lake and did great on some largemouth/spotted bass. Primarily was using a black/blue baitfish pattern but also used some ultra flashy white to try and get the fishes’ attention.
Also fished a smaller river closer to Athens and did well using black woolly buggers, topwater poppers, and even a larger black/blue streamer. Was fishing for Bartrams bass and there doesn’t seem to be a fly too big for them to eat!
My big takeaway from the weekend was contrasting my fly and the sky. When the sky was full of white clouds the black/blue worked very well. It also helps to use those dark flies when the water is off-colored slightly. I say that but we did catch good bass on a white flash streamer, so fishy-colored flies are still efficient but you won’t find as many fish with them. We are starting to really get into one of my favorite times of year! Changing leaves, Georgia football, and big fish!! Tight lines y’all!”
Fellow 5R clubber Sophia: “We canoed an Upper Georgia Piedmont river and landed lots of spotted bass up to 19 inches and a few shoal bass. I tossed a 7 wt rod with floating line and worked a hand-tied game changer around wooden structure. We had a blast.”
Ponds:
No reports. They should continue to fish well with this cooler weather on the horizon next weekend.
Reservoirs:
UO manager Jake said fall bassin’ has arrived on our mountain lakes, where surface temperatures have cooled considerably. He called in this report from the lake, where he’s celebrating his birthday today at the expense of all those bass!
He’s catching a lot of shallow spots and largemouths on surface plugs, flukes, and Sebiles. Jake is now offering lake guide trips in his Skeeter. Feel free to call our Helen shop (706-878-3083) if you’d like to book a mountain lake bass trip with Jake.
Bass are also waking up in other area lakes. UO staffer Joseph:”Had a nice afternoon outing on Lanier earlier this week. Stripers still seem a little too deep to play with artificials or flies. The spots on the other hand were feeding aggressively on humps and points adjacent to brush. These two fish were caught on serpentine style swim baits. The water had a nice cooling over the past few days but I’m expecting temps to rise again with the upcoming week. The fall bite seems like it hasn’t quite set in yet but we aren’t far off.”
See today’s GAWRD report for more great reservoir intel.
https://georgiawildlife.blog/2024/09/20/georgia-fishing-report-september-20-2024/
Afar:
Dredger completed his NC Dink Day last weekend with a pit stop at his Smallie river. While size was lacking, numbers were great on top. A bunch of sub-10 inch smallies and a few chunky rock bass, redbreast, and bluegill jumped on his small yellow popper and made his Dark-30 detour a blast.
Rabunite Bluejay: “Our gang of Rabunites recently returned from its annual Alaska jaunt. We had a large time with big (15lb) cohos and a few small bows on the Martin River near Cordova on both fly and spin rigs. The Dali Lama was the hot fly!”
UO buddy CDB: “I just returned from an Oregon/Idaho jaunt. I did take a couple pretty nice rising fish on blue wing olives, but this guy takes the cake. The red midge did him in.
Streamers largely ineffective again. Lots of BWOs and midges, but few risers. Sub-surface was another story, especially with small, red midges. 5.5x - 6x tippet. Spotted this bruiser feeding in an eddy near the shore. The fish are extra fat this year!”
UO buddy Hillis: “Our group had a lot of fun last week fishing Montana and YNP. We waded the Grayling in YNP, Gallatin just outside the park, Soda Butte in the park, DePuy Spring Creek in the Paradise Valley just south of Livingston, Montana, and drifted the Madison and Yellowstone Rivers in Montana. Fishing was slow, but we caught several. Hopper droppers worked best for us. We caught rainbows, browns, and whites.
I caught this nice rainbow on the Madison. We saw it rising in somewhat slow water near the bank. Our guide positioned our boat upstream and suggested I cast to it. I am not the best at casting, but I landed this one near the splash, and when the fish took it I was thrilled, to say the least. It fought like a fish twice its size, and with all the whooping and hollering, our other drift boat thought I had caught a trophy. It was not a trophy, but regardless it was a nice fish and a lot of fun to catch.
My drift boat fishing buddy caught this whitefish on the Yellowstone. We caught a lot of whitefish. They were as much fun to catch as trout
Here is a pic of my best catch of the trip. I caught this brown on the Yellowstone River. Our guide estimated it to be 18 to 19 inches (I’ll round that to 20, HA!). It went around the boat and under the boat. I thought for sure I would lose it. I think our guide was as excited as I was when I landed it.
UO guide Israel:”It seems that green Simms Solar flex is my lucky shirt. Permit ate a Flexo Tequila Twister, Bone ate a Spawning Shrimp. I had a great Caribbean trip with Joseph and his dad a few weeks ago.”
Kudos:
Jay said: “So proud of these two 5 Rivers students from UGA Warnell, Sophia West and Isabella North. The past two weeks they have led two casting clinics at UGA Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources that have been very popular. They have introduced fly fishing to a number of first timers among UGA students who are now ready to get out there and catch something! “
That’s the latest from the service shop, where my Tacoma will be tuned up and ready for fall fishing. How about y’all? Stop in either UO shop and, like ole Spangler, we’ll set you up to succeed, too. Good luck!
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
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