This week’s theme is “work around the rains.” Streams are just starting to drop from this week’s four inches of rain. Headwaters and midsized WMA streams have already dropped to fishable levels today, while large trout streams and our warm rivers will need more time to recede to safe fishing levels. So head high for your best trout bets.
There’s some hope for tomorrow, while Sunday will likely be blown out by the violent overnight storms in the forecast. Last week’s delayed harvest stockings have spiced up those GA streams, while a new NC DH stocking plan for 2025 gives us hope for a fun spring to our north.
It’s still a bit early for spring runs in our lakes and warmwater rivers, but GAWRD is providing great weekly intel on the status of those runs.
Catch Wes’ weekly update to his hot fly list and the latest fishing reports here:
http://blog.angler.management/
Stop in either UO shop (Helen, Clarkesville) for your February supplies.
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
Wes’ Hot Fly List:
Dries: Micro chubby Chernobyl, orange stimulator, parachute Adams, little black caddis, little black stone.
Nymphs & Wets:
DH streams: squirmy worm, Twister egg, Frenchie, pheasant til, Duracell, micro girdle bug, ruby midge, gold ribbed hares ear.
Mountain streams: Pheasant tails, frenchies, micro girdle bugs, prince nymphs.
Streamers:
Sparkle minnow, Jiggy fry, CDC squirrel leech, muddy buddy.
(Bass & stripers) Somethin’ else, Clouser minnow, micro changer, jerk changer.
Headwaters:
They are still a tad high but very fishable. Spoilcane was high, clear, and 46F at 10am today.
The Hooch on the WMA looked good, too.
Dry/dropper combos should put you on fish. More will hit the dropper until warm afternoons boost stream temps again and get more fish to look up.
Foothills TUer Bob sent me some nice pics and just a few cryptic clues, so I’m surmising that he had a good day at Smithgall during a recent high-flow event, and might have used a leech pattern to fool these beautiful wild bows.
GATech 5Rivers clubber Will: I know I’m too late for today’s report, but I caught a few good fish today (2/7). It started at Smith DH where the fish couldn’t resist a size 20 pheasant tail. There was certainly no shortage of fish, and they were very willing to eat.
Then I headed to a blue line to take advantage of the warmer water temps, and the brookies were certainly munching! I ended up lucky enough to land my personal best southern Appalachian brookie- a 9” male with a humpback and the first signs of a kype. After releasing him, he stayed right next to me recovering while I watched him in awe for a solid minute. What a day!”
Delayed Harvest Streams:
Most fished well before the floods and they should fish well afterward. You’ll just have to wait for flows to drop to fishable levels before getting back on them. Watch those USGS gauges
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/ga/nwis/uv?site_no=02176930
and refer to your smart phone notes taken after your past trips, when you wrote down the flows that you could negotiate.
https://issuu.com/coastalanglermagazine/docs/atllr
The combination of fresh stockers and high, stained water has spelled success for Smith DH anglers yesterday (water temp 50F)
and again this morning (48F at 11am).
The squirmy worm hatch was in full force as I walked along the creek. As long as the water stays high and stained, big and bright or buggy flies will be your best bets, so toss squirmies, eggs, buggers, and rubberleg stones. Then drop back to smaller, natural-colored nymphs as the water clears. Use your submerged boot as an index of clarity.
Winter breaker Kason was out of school and having a great morning today (14th) with his champion fishing guide, his father Josh. Deep-dredged squirmies under an indicator were being inhaled in the softer seams of a deep pool.
Kason caught a handful of bows and a real pretty brookie while I stopped by.
After I left, Josh texted me, exclaiming that Kason just got a brown to complete his first-ever GA trout slam!
The stream got crowded by my noon departure, so go early or late this weekend to avoid the most competition for honey holes.
UO buddy Hillis had a nice day on Feb 7 at Smith DH. He said: “ Jeff, I had a Great day fishing Smith today. Caught several, all on a Walt’s Worm. Started fishing around 10:00. Almost immediately I had a really big one hooked, but unfortunately it broke my tippet. Later I had another large one hooked, and it took off like a rocket and broke off. Finally I managed to land a big one. All the other fish I caught were decent but not large. I caught rainbows and browns.
I tried several flies with very little success until 1:00 or so when I put a Walt’s Worm on and that was the silver bullet. Before that I met a guy on the stream fishing a brown wooly and having a lot of luck with it. He gave me one and said it was guaranteed to catch fish, but unfortunately for me it didn’t work. I tried drifting and stripping it with no luck. I then put a strike indicator on and dropped a Walt’s worm off the end of the wooly and whammo I started catching fish, all on the Walt’s Worm. I gave one of my Walt’s Worms to a fellow fisherman who was fishing with a tenkara set up and not catching anything. He tied it on and caught a fish almost immediately. He was so grateful, said it was his first fish caught on the tenkara. It made me feel really good. Usually, almost always, it’s the other guy giving me a fly that works. I had to leave and wasn’t able to stick around and see if he caught anymore. I hope he did. Following my fun day on Smith my wife and I had a late lunch at my favorite BBQ restaurant. Could not have asked for a better day.”
Private Waters:
Nacoochee Bend fished well for our guests earlier this week. Plenty of fresh memories were made by our guests, the Veterans Fly Fishing group, based in Dahlonega.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DF_Q3QBB7pe/?img_index=4&igsh=eWxkNDF4cTJwN2Q3
Interested veterans, here’s more info on their program:
https://veteransflyfishing.org/about/
Tailwaters:
No recent reports. Be on the lookout soon for black caddis squadrons. Jimmy saw a bunch on the lower Hooch, below trout waters, last week.
NC:
News flash! Here’s NC’s newly updated 2025 Delayed Harvest stocking schedule:
https://www.ncwildlife.org/fishing/trout-fishing-north-carolina
Also, here’s Ian’s pre-flood Smokies update:
https://randrflyfishing.com/2025/02/05/winter-thaw-in-the-smokies/
And his 2/13 flood video:
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19zcM9bn8F/?
UO buddy Myles recently returned from his road trip and said: “This past Saturday, I fished western North Carolina with 2 friends of mine. I was able to catch 24, one of my friends caught about 12 and the other caught 8. Lots of pretty wild fish were caught, and even a nice stocker brown about 14".
I was using 6-6.5x tippet with 2 nymphs on my Euro rig. I commonly switch between size 18 and size 20 nymphs with either a 2.5 or 3.0mm bead depending on the depth and current. With a proper tuck cast and drift, I had minimal problem getting 6-10 feet deep in some spots. Silver and Pink beads have been the ticket for me lately, with copper not as favored.”
Warm Rivers:
UGA 5Rivers member Adam: “We fished the backwater of a middle Georgia river this past weekend. The max depth was only about 3 feet. About 90% of all bites were on small red/white poppers. Targeted the "deep" channel just off the bank. Water was low and clear, so sight fishing was effective. We caught bluegill, flier, bass, chain Pickerel, crappie, and even hooked a carp."
GAWRD has some fresh river walleye, stripers, whites, and bass in today’s blog:
https://georgiawildlife.blog/category/fishing/
Lakes:
UO buddy Athens Jay: “Last week I helped some friends introduce their daughter Paige to fishing. She started out a little hesitant, but the first good tug had her hooked. Farm pond fishing is definitely heating up and we caught a variety of species on both fly gear and conventional tackle. A white sparkle minnow worked great on bass species. The bluegill and stocked trout could not resist this abomination!”
UO buddy MD: “One thing I love about fly fishing local warm water fisheries is being able catch multiple natives over corse of the afternoon. Last Saturday I hit a local lake with my four weight and a buggy little rubber-legged-dragon variation suspended under a chubby Chernobyl. In addition to redbreast sunfish, bluegill, black crappie, and largemouth bass, I pulled in two of my local favorites: redear sunfish (aka shellcracker) and warmouth. Warmouth are just so cool looking to me, and a big shellcraker will often do its best redfish impression, surging toward the bottom as it approaches the kayak. I may even give swollen lakes a try before more rain moves through this weekend.”
No news received this week from our Lanier striper regulars.
Events:
Ongoing: Dream Trip ticket sales. Win a week of fishing in Yellowstone for just ten bucks, or one of a dozen great runnerup prizes. Drawing on March 22. Details here:
March 22 : Hoot on the Hooch. Georgia Foothills TU’s annual fundraiser on the banks of the Chattahoochee River at the Helendorf Inn in Helen. All Dream Trip raffle winners announced.
Good luck as you work around the storms and high water. It’s nice to see our rivers recharging, so we’ll accept this single step back for two steps forward for spring fishing success. Check those USGS gauges and know the flows before you go.
Stop in either UO shop for more breaking intel and our best February bugs.
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
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