Welcome to our holiday fishing report. We hope you’ll find some time this Christmas week to wet a line. Trout waters are clear and flows are good - seasonal averages. Water temps have been great this week due to the warm days, but they’ll drop with the chilly nights ahead of us.
Be ready to drift your double nymph rigs slowly along pool bottoms or strip streamers slowly in soft pockets for your best chance of success. Aim for the winter window of 11AM to 3PM to catch the highest daily water temps and most cooperative trout.
On the lake front, the Lanier stripers are still playing peekaboo. Some days are great, with a hundred gulls diving and dozens of fish busting the surface. Other days are slow, with the baitfish and predators sulking at 20-40 feet deep and gulls aiming for French fries in the McDonald’s parking lot. You don’t know unless you go, so burn some boat gas to find some shallow ten-pounders.
Catch Wes’ weekly update to his hot fly list and the latest fishing reports from our UO staff and friends here:
http://blog.angler.management/
Stop in either UO shop for your last minute supplies, gifts, and those coveted gift certificates.
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
Wes’ Hot Fly List:
Dries: Micro chubby Chernobyl, orange stimulator, parachute Adams, elk hair caddis, blue wing olive. Griffith’s gnat.
Nymphs & Wets:
DH streams: Rainbow Warrior, twister egg, micro mayfly, gold ribbed hares ear, Girdle Bug, duracell, Ruby midge, frenchie.
Mountain streams: Pheasant tails, micro girdle bugs, prince nymphs, root beer midge.
Streamers:
Olive buggers, micro dungeon, sparkle minnows, CDC squirrel leech.
(Bass & stripers) Somethin’ else, Clouser minnow, micro changer, jerk changer.
Headwaters:
They are clear and flowing at seasonal norms.
They warmed up a bit at midweek and even offered some decent dry fly shots.
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/ga/nwis/uv?site_no=02330450
But they’ll cool off once again with the colder weather ahead, so stick to your dry/dropper rigs in the headwaters. On larger wild trout streams, egg/small nymph combos are still a winter go-to.
Virginia vacationer Brett and his accomplice prospected for some Georgia specks and had some success on dries. They caught enough to now aim for some wild rainbows. I haven’t heard yet about the results from their rainbow adventures.
UO buddy Myles: “Last Sunday the Hartley brothers fished some of our favorite north georgia water. Myles managed to catch about 35 fish total, with the 2 fish pictures included being his biggest of the trip. Myles also caught plenty of little wild trout ranging from 3-10 inches. Most fish ate a pink egg, but he was able to get a few bites on a size 20, silver beaded pheasant tail. In the beginning of the trip the stream was low and clear, but by the end, the heavy rain had the stained river and risen it about 6 inches. This turned the fish on and made them willing to eat more. Ryan was thrilled to get his decent wild bow on a stonefly nymph after missing his shot at a big fish early in the trip and running out of egg flies. Some NC adventures are next!”
UGA Five Rivers club VP Cooper took his first trip to Smithgall on Wednesday and started paying his Dukes dues: “The few fish I caught on Dukes and the upper Hooch only ate a tiny soft hackle pheasant tail, fished very deep with a lot of weight.”
Delayed Harvest Streams:
Rumor has it that some and maybe all of the Georgia DH streams got redosed just in time for your holiday vacations. We should know for sure by about 4PM on Friday, when WRD posts its weekly stocking list on the weeks that they do stock trout.
3PM update:
Look what just popped up in our In box:
If that’s the case, aim for the fresh fish with movement, color, and/or a buggy profile. That means buggers, eggs, squirmies, and rubberleg stones. Twitch the bugs if your dead drifts are ignored.
Earlier stockers, now veterans of angler encounters, will demand thinner tippet and small, dark bugs to imitate the real insects in the drift. Walts worms, frenchies, pheasant tails, hares ears, and midges will score. Winter is prime time for Euronymphing soft pockets in boulder fields, so have that ten-foot rod at the ready.
Here’s a nice refresher to read before your next trip to DH waters. Turn to “DH University” in here:
https://issuu.com/coastalanglermagazine/docs/atlanta_f6cbb10e171441
Also, see the two techniques in our private waters paragraph, below. Pay attention to water temps!
UO friend CDB: “Bronze seemed to be the ticket this week. Scooted out and hit Georgia DH and NC public waters this week. The rain made for some nice solitude and seemed to make the fish more active.
My favorite leech pattern worked well in bronze and black. But the hot tickets were size 16-18 pheasant tails or a 16-18 bronze nymph with orange or dark red collar and no hackle. Fish it on the bottom. An extra size 4 or 1 sinker helps.”
Private Waters:
The private water bite picked up last week along with the warming streams. Two techniques worked best. The first was swinging and stripping a streamer and/or soft hackle wet, especially on warmer afternoons. The second was the ole winter reliable: a small egg with a dark nymph dropper. Dropping water temps in the week ahead will likely curtail the streamer bite, so be ready to dredge the bottom with your double-nymph rigs. Two keys to winter success are your stream thermometer and your late start to fish the “winter window” of 11AM to 3PM, when the water is warmest.
UO manager Wes: “Private waters fished great last weekend with the bump in flows from rain! Micro eggs, stonefly nymphs, hares ears with no bead and streamers were my top producers.”
UGA Five Rivers flyfishing club members Isabella and Anna were treated to a freebie after donating their Saturday morning to the Hooch-Hardman buffer restoration project. They tagged along with a UO staffer and perfected their streamer-stripping and nymph-drifting games at Nacoochee Bend. They had a bunch of follows, four hookups, three heartbreaks, and one nice rainbow fondled during their late afternoon shift on the Hooch. They vowed a rematch!
UO buddy Athens Jay had his hands full with hefty Nacoochee Bend rainbows Wednesday afternoon. His recipe for success was: “Tungsten bead Mop fly and soft hackle pheasant tail ended up working best! Also caught a couple on a chenille egg. Also caught a couple on a red San Juan worm. And a couple on a CDC soft hackle purple haze. But I think my real key to success was my new, lucky hat that I bought before hitting the water!”
Give us a call at 706-878-3083 to book your own trips now and in the new year. Or grab a trip gift certificate online here:
https://shoponline.unicoioutfitters.com/gift-certificates/
Tailwaters: No recent reports. The Lanier Tailwater should turn crystal clear in a matter of days, if it hasn’t already. Lanier turnover is imminent.
https://georgiawildlife.com/lake-lanier-turnover-facts
That means easier wading (we can see the bottom once again), but pickier fish, so downsize your stonefly nymphs, midges, and tippets.
Lakes:
UO guide Joseph: “Lanier has been slow the past week. We are still seeing good groups of fish near the creek channels or near the river channel. Most fish are staying deep and moving fast but some are still surfacing long enough to catch.
One tip I’d give is to look for bids diving. Even if you don’t see splashes under the birds they are usually accompanied by stripers or loons. Hopefully the next moon will have the fish eager to eat! I still have dates available for late December and January. I am also starting to book for February as well so call the shop at 706-878-3083 to book a trip!.
UO buddy AJ: “ Lanier has been pretty tough this past week. I’m not sure if it was the 2+ inches of rain or the full moon, but something has most of the fish and bait 30+ feet deep.
You may be able to get lucky and find some fish feeding on top, but that is a lot less likely than finding fish on the graph. The problem with those deep fish right now is that 30ft is about as deep as we can fly fish effectively with fast sinking lines and these fish are moving quickly. By the time you count your line down, the fish are most likely no longer around. Hopefully things get back to where they were early last week. Until then, cover water and cast to any gulls and loons that are diving. You still have a shot at ten pound and larger stripers, so one cast can make your day!”
And there are still some spots on points and humps, but it sounds like the ditch bite is where a lot of folks are focusing.
Alex Jaume
Lanier on the Fly
www.Lanieronthefly.com
IG - @lanier_on_the_fly
There’s more good lake and trout fodder in today’s WRD fishing report,here:
https://georgiawildlife.blog/category/fishing/
We hope this intel is a great stocking stuffer and helps your own holiday exploits. Come see us at either UO store and take advantage of our intel, gifts, and gift certificates. Merry Christmas and happy holidays, everyone!
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
