There’s a soggy Mother’s Day weekend ahead of us, but don’t let that stop you. Trout fishing remains good and can actually be better when the water is high, stained, and cool rather than low, clear, and warm. Our unsettled weather pattern continues, so last Friday’s report recommendations are still good: bring both your high-flow and low-flow games to your favorite trout waters. Headwaters are great, stocked streams are redosed regularly, tailwaters are icy and best bets, the GA DH season is waning, and our bigger trout streams are better early or late instead of during the warm midday hours. Don’t miss the last of our spring,late-evening aquatic insect hatches. Head north to extend your dry fly season by a couple weeks.
Pond and lake bass and bream fishing is still on fire, while river bass remain a hit in clear water and and a miss in muddy stormflows. Reservoir Stripers are starting to head deep or upriver to find cooler water.
Fresh fishing reports and tips are right here in our blog. It’s new every Friday and will help you boost your own catch rates. Wes’ weekly fly list is always spot-on!
http://blog.angler.management/
(Link in bio)
Stop in either one of our two UO shops for some flies, supplies, and advice.
Helen: 706-878-3083. Open 8-5 daily.
Clarkesville: 706-754-0203. Open 8-5 from Monday thru Saturday.
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
www.unicoioutfitters.com
Wes’ Hot Fly List:
Dries: parachute Adams, parachute light Cahill, 409 Yeager yellow, yellow stimulator, chubby Chernobyl, hard body ant.
Nymphs & Wets:
Stockers: Squirminator, mop, slush egg, frenchie, girdle bug, lightning bug, tungsten redneck.
Mountain streams: micro girdle bugs, black ant, hares ear nymph and soft hackle , soft hackle pheasant tail, improved yallar hammer.
Streamers:
Sparkle minnows, small black and olive buggers for DH streams, mohair leeches, Jiggy Fry, mini shimmer buggers, Thrasher.
(Bass & stripers) clouser minnow,
Feather changer, polar changer, crittermite, crawfish jambalaya, Clydesdale stealth jig.
Headwaters:
They’re low and clear and warming up on sunny afternoons, but most streams are still running below the mid-60’s for daily highs, so the great dry fly bite will continue. Spoilcane was 62F at 1PM today.
During brief storm surges, drop a frenchie, green weenie, or small squirmy worm underneath a buoyant chubby Chernobyl and hi-stick that combo thru soft pockets and stream edges, those flood refuges where the fish relocate to.
UO owner Jimmy: “I spent a wonderful day with friend Josh Holubz chasing wild Brookies. We caught somebody on attractor dries, some on Pheasant Tails, and some on small streamers. The weather was perfect, as was the fishing and the fellowship. It was a fine May day of bluelining in north GA.”
Delayed Harvest Streams:
This is your last weekend for Georgia’s Delayed Harvest season. Our DH streams are starting to warm up with longer days and more intense sunshine on the horizon. Smith DH was 64F at 1PM today and the fish were sulking in or near the shade,
while two groundhogs fought a turf war.
Fish dry/droppers early, before the sun gets high and boosts midday water temps. Hit the midday shade with small bugs on real light tippet for those warm water sulkers. Then fish a dry/emerger combo or double dries during the hour before dark for all of those risers to the evening hatches. Don’t leave home without cahills, caddis, ants, and yellow stimmies (#14) and sallies (16-18). Those last hatches are some of my favorites on the big streams like the Chattooga and Nantahala.
On May 15th, carry a kid and a bucket of red wigglers to the GA DH streams and turn them into avid trouters. Harvest supper before summer’s warm water cooks those trout in the marginal streams.
Rabunite Nanette went north and said: “Rick and I had a guided wade trip this week on the Tuck DH with Sam of Tuckaseegee Fly Shop, as we happily supported their continuing recovery from Helene’s wallop. We got into a bunch of fresh stockers (almost all brookies). We had success with double-dropper rigs under a strike indicator. They were munching eggs and mop lead flies, with zebra midges and duracells as the bottom fly. The brookies were plentiful and really pretty. The river was quite crowded but everyone was polite, courteous and friendly. On our way back to shore at the end of the day, I slipped on a slick rock and got a dunking that would score maybe a 5 on the Rabunite scale. Momentarily lost fly rod, got chin submerged but kept top of head dry and hat on. Upper torso soaked but dry from waist down thanks to my wading belt. The belt works!”
Stockers:
The GA stocking program is in full swing. Try the bigger streams, but walk downstream a couple hundred yards before getting in and then fish back up to your vehicle. You’ll find the wash-downs in small pockets that most anglers stepped over to get to the bridge pool. Try downtown Helen, too, for the leftover stockers from last Saturday’s church tourney.
GAWRD’s Friday stocking lists are always here:
https://georgiawildlife.com/Fishing/Trout
Private Waters:
UO-Helen manager Wes: “Emergers on the swing have been the name of the game for me on private water this past week. My go-to patterns were an emerger caddis and a Drymerger green drake. We also occasionally picked up fish on a #12 black & tan girdle bug, especially during higher flows.”
UO guide Israel: “ Our private water residents are still feeding really well. The best patterns depend on the day and how much rain we’ve had to boost flows and stain the water. My clients this week have taken some nice trout on a wide range of bugs, from squirmies to emergers.”
Unicoi Outfitters was again honored to host 14 ladies from Casting for Recovery-Georgia’s spring retreat last Sunday. We held our breath and were relieved that only an inch of rain fell Saturday night. While Nacoochee Bend was high and stained on Sunday morning, it was still fishable.
Thanks to our volunteer guides, nearly all of these 14 rookie fly anglers hooked and fought trout in the challenging flows, and several fish were landed on squirmies, eggs, and rubberleg stones. Most importantly, our guests experienced the joys of flyfishing and the “hydrotherapy” that a couple hours of wading brings to us all. Smiles abounded!
Enjoy some great pics from one of the event’s two awesome volunteer photographers, Glenn Whittington.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Ax8kr5yLv/?
More on Glenn here:
To apply for the next CFR retreat, purchase some great CFR swag, or to donate to the program, visit:
https://castingforrecovery.org/retreats/
Tailwaters:
UO buddy RonW: “Kurt and I fished Buford Dam last Saturday morning before the release and it didn't disappoint. We had boots in the water by 9am and fished til about 11:30. Both of us fished a dry/dropper all day. Small black and olive Nymphs worked best for us. I netted 8-9 fish and Kurt was north of 2 dozen on the day. All in all, it was a great little jaunt to the river for some much needed hydrotherapy.”
Warm Rivers:
UO guide Joseph: “The river fished a little tough on our UO staff fishing day but Jake was still able to find us a few big ones. The best tactic we found was bottom bouncing baits on conventional gear, although there were a few fish caught on flies between the six of us. For fly gear, game changers and small popping bugs worked the best.”
Ponds & Lakes:
UO buddy Athens Jay: “I invited a few graduating seniors from our UGA 5 Rivers Club to fish a local pond for a few hours this week. As you see, a great time was had and fish were cooperative. Bass were cruising close to the shoreline, and around structure. We had the most luck slowly stripping a jig-style articulated streamer tied mostly of rabbit fur. The fly has a football style tungsten bead head so it sinks pretty quickly.”
Afar:
UO buddy CDB: Well Jeff, after 4 states, 12 bodies of water, 10 species ( including subspecies), some beautiful new country and epic sunrise/sunsets, two turkeys in the pot, two broken rods and an accidental steelhead, I’m told I have to come home.
Wyoming was typical springtime Wyoming. Anywhere from 30° to 70°, and the only consistency was high winds. We had sunshine, rain, sleet, hail, and thunder snow! Not many fish in the boat, but the handful we landed were nice ones. My friend Gene’s fish was the biggest.
On the way back, I brought out the Wand of Darkness and met up with my friend, the Dark Lord of the Sith, to try my hand at euronymphing on some new waters. The scenery was spectacular, lots of wildlife such as moose and Goldeneyes. The fish were all over any sort of quill body nymph fished deep - size 18 Spanish bullets, Halo Points, and Higa’s SOS worked exceptionally well. Our timing was perfect, as the rising temperatures have accelerated the snow melt, and as of today, everything is fairly unfishable.
I sure hope someone showed up and mowed my Georgia lawn while I was out yonder. I’m about to find out…”
News and Events:
Protect YOUR public lands from being sold off by Congress!
Take action here:
https://www.backcountryhunters.org/take_action
Enjoy these cooler, wetter days while they last. They’ve extended our spring trout season via the cooler water temps and given those fish bigger appetites in the stained flows. Don’t miss the pond action, either. It’s still prime among the banks. Come by either UO store and we’ll point your gang toward success! Of course, that’s before or after treating Mom like a queen on Sunday. Good luck and happy Mothers Day, everyone!
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
www.unicoioutfitters.com
