Welcome to longer days afield, as we “spring forward” on Saturday night and stretch our angling afternoons into early evenings. Now we just need it to warm up! The rain, cold, and wind made it a challenging week, but the weather should improve now and the catching will, too. Hit the warmer afternoons on trout waters, especially those at lower elevations. Bring a rookie flyfisher and some squirmies and small woolly buggers to DH streams, since they have or should soon receive another dose of naive stockers. Region streams have already cleared and dropped to normal flows after our midweek rain.
Lakes have been slow to turn on, due to the cold spell we’ve had. Ponds have been a better bet than reservoirs, but those big lakes should turn on with the expected warm spell at midweek. The early spawners (walleye and whites) should be in the rivers feeding the reservoirs, so prospecting up those rivers should pay off.
Catch Wes’ weekly update to his hot fly list and our latest fishing reports here:
http://blog.angler.management/
(Link in bio)
Stop in either UO shop (Helen, Clarkesville) for your March intel and flies. Good luck!
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
Wes’ Hot Fly List:
Dries: Micro chubby Chernobyl, quill gordon , parachute Adams, Drymerger blue wing olive, rage cage black caddis, little black stone.
Nymphs & Wets:
DH streams: slush egg and squirny worm for fresh stockers. Pink tag jig, Frenchie, Zebra midge, hares ear nymph and soft hackle, micro girdle bugs, and chewy caddis for prior residents.
Mountain streams: Pheasant tails, micro girdle bugs, prince nymphs, ruby midge.
Streamers:
Sparkle minnows, mohair leeches, UV polar jigs, mini shimmer buggers, Thrasher.
(Bass & stripers) Crittermite, clawdad, clouser minnow, finesse changer, Somethin Else.
Headwaters:
They’re back to low and clear. They’re just really cold right now due to our freezing nights. But they’ll start warming up with these pleasant days and nights ahead. Start with dry/dropper rigs and hope for some trout on top after lunch, if those streams inch up toward the 50 degree mark.
UO buddy CDB: “Dig out your 8 tracks and queue up Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Rust Never Sleeps. Consistent pattern. Little micro streamers (I prefer ones with the red heads or purple collars). These little rust-colored nymphs have been dynamite as well. High up in the mountains in the rain both worked well. Found plenty of little rainbows and one lonely little brown who must have swam upstream from down below.
Similar story on DH water in the sunshine - bronze micro streamers dead drifted through pockets, jigged through seams, or slow stripped with long pauses were super effective.
Dark pats rubber legs worked well on private waters as well as light colored eggs, such as peach, fished deep.”
Delayed Harvest Streams:
Got some squirmies, eggs, and small buggers for fresh stockers? And some small, dark nymphs and leeches for prior residents? Don’t forget some dark dries for the warmer weekdays next week. Our bigger waters have already dropped and cleared after our midweek rain. They’re ice-cold this morning, so dredging is in order. But they’ll start warming this afternoon and through the coming week, so bring hope and some dark dries for the possibility of afternoon dry fly action. Carry some black winter stones, little black caddis, both quills (gordon and blue) and those dreaded, tiny midges. And your stream thermometer! Look for noses poking up in sunny, slow eddies and pool tails. Try a dry and a long (deep) dropper nymph to start. Don’t forget a tungsten bead on the dropper or #6 dinsmore four inches ahead of it. Shorten your dropper length from 4 to 2 feet if the fish tell you to.
There’s a good chance the Georgia streams will get a monthly redosing soon, too. We’ll know for sure if/when the WRD weekly trout stocking list is posted on its trout page later today. I saw plenty of fish in Smith DH during my Wednesday hike, likely before any truck stops this week. I spotted some nice fish as far down as the last footbridge.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DG00aBgpGhW/?igsh=MW1zd2JwYnQ3dHducw==
See CDB’s DH report, above, in the headwaters section.
It looks like our favorite border river got refreshed, too:
https://www.dnr.sc.gov/fish/stocking/results.html
NC DH streams are also being restocked now for the spring fishing.
https://www.ncwildlife.org/fishing/trout-fishing-north-carolina
Note: Interstate 40 has reopened.
https://www.facebook.com/share/15rgD7sYAf/?mibextid=wwXIfr
UO buddy Lumis: “Took a guest from Romania fishing last weekend on the Nantahala. He had never fly fished before.
Managed to get him onto a few fish, including a big ole rainbow that broke off, and another nice brown that I netted quickly so he wouldn't be left heartbroken twice, lol. He was very happy.
I spent most of the day teaching/guiding but I did get to fish a bit and caught a mix of 4 stockers and 4 wild rainbows (6-7 inch range). Found a lot of success in the pocket water by dredging small, dark nymphs like an olive perdigon and a hares ear nymph.”
UO buddy Megan:
“We trekked up to the Nantahala last weekend and braved the weather. It was cold and slow to start. At one point when I had three split shot on, I considered a fourth. And then thought maybe that’s aggressive, even for Jeff!
Day 1: we only caught rainbows and brookies. A double nymph rig with a pats rubberlegs and any midge dropper did the trick.
Day 2: We dry/dropped with this Euro nymph dropper. We got brookies on the dry and only browns on the nymph - mostly toward the end of the drift.”
Private Waters:
UO buddy Josh had a good trip to Nacoochee Bend this past week:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGylOkJvxuK/?igsh=MW9zYzBvZm83YXF6YQ==
UO Helen manager Wes: “Fished private water with Dave’s bachelor crew yesterday. The fish were hugging bottom due to the cold spell, so we had to change up our tactics and work hard for bites.
We were able to land some nice fish on a few different patterns like a Duracell, root beer midge, hares ear, and split case BWO’s.”
Here’s a really nice trip tale regarding Nacoochee Bend. Enjoy “Ignore the Groundhog.”
https://riversandfeathers.com/ignore-the-groundhog/
Tailwaters:
UO buddy RonW: “Our Trio fished the Dam last Saturday and it didn't disappoint. What a beautiful day it was!
The water was covered up with anglers at our normal access above Bowman's Island, so we walked downstream to find some "free water". I started off with a dry/dropper and landed my first fish, a pale looking rainbow, on the dry within about 10 minutes. I landed my first brown of the day about 10 minutes after that on the dropper.
We worked our way upstream a little bit until some other fisherman dropped in just upstream of us, so we either had to get out and walk the trail up above them, or cross to the other side of the river and work up past them. Mo and I chose the latter and I ended up in a pretty precarious spot with a decision to make. I decided to backtrack, get out and go around, which was probably the wise decision.
I made my way back up top to our normal access point to see that the crowds had thinned out. I found Kurt fishing in my run so I waded out there and moved him along. A few minutes later, I landed a nice little brown on a brown $3 dip, right off the ledge where Kurt told me he has caught them before.
Kurt made his way down towards the island to meet up with Moe, who was fishing up to us. I stayed put, above the wood and did quite well, landing another 6 browns and 1 more rainbow. All came on the dip except 1 brown that smashed my little #20 cinnamon dry.
It was another fantastic day on the water with my brothers. We laughed, we caught fish, we emptied Kurt's flasks and we all got some much needed hydrotherapy.”
Warm Rivers:
March is here and the early spawners have started marching from the lake into the rivers. Be on the lookout for walleye, whites, hybrids, and some stray stripers in the days ahead.
The best river status report is always the weekly WRD update, with the intel from its electrofishing crews. Those blogs are refreshed every Friday afternoon.
https://georgiawildlife.blog/category/fishing/
Recall GAWRD’s walleye fishing guide, too:
UO-Helen shop manager Wes: “UO guide Atticus and I got out after some middle Georgia shoal bass over the weekend. It was great to explore some new river bass water. We found our best success up shallow around pocket water in the shoals. The best pattern was a hellgrammite imitation tied weedless on the Ahrex PR378 GB predator hook. “
Ponds/ Lakes:
Watch water temps! Impoundments are slower to react to warming air, so give them a couple days of warm weather before you can measure warmer water and enjoy an improved bass/striper bite in the shallows. A cold front will push fish deep, but they’ll come back up after the next round of sunshine restores those warmer water temps.
UO buddy Athens Jay:
“Piedmont ponds: In the afternoon bass are hungry, cruising around in 2-5 feet of water. Slowly stripping a dark game changer on an intermediate line worked pretty well. Using a floating line and a 10’ fluorocarbon leader, slowly bumping a black jig fly with a tungsten football head worked extremely well.”
Our two striper hunters were still off the water, so the best Lanier intel will come from the WRD weekly fishing blog. Hopefully the biologists will have a good update this afternoon.
https://georgiawildlife.blog/category/fishing/
Striper fishing starts to heat up in mid-March, when surface temps get up near 50 degrees. Rain-stained rivers will dump into Lanier, where that stained water will warm up from the sunshine and draw shad and stripers. Watch for the fishing to break loose a few days into the next round of warm weather. Looks like next week is a good bet! To book a shallow water striper trip with UO guide Joseph, call our Helen shop at (706)-878-3083.
News and Events:
Ongoing: Dream Trip ticket sales. Time is running out! Win a week of fishing in Yellowstone for just ten bucks, or one of a dozen great runnerup prizes. Drawing on March 22. Details and tix here: https://georgiatu.org/
March 22 (AM): we’re looking for a few more benevolent trouters who are willing to help us Sweep the Hooch in Helen:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AFKPgSDeT/?
March 22 (PM): 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 (grand prize and 10 great consolation prizes) announced.
A draft GA state wildlife action plan (SWAP) is available for your review and comments. Comment deadline to GAWRD is looming: March 21. Details:
https://georgiawildlife.com/WildGeorgiaSWAP
April 5: Chattooga River Spring Sweep. Lend a hand to the US Forest Service. Meet at the Highway 76 parking lot at 9AM. Catch some trash that morning to clean up the river and catch some trout that afternoon as your prizes for your river stewardship.
GA Tech Kudos!
Five Rivers club leader Will M shared this news: “We scored some major funds for our flyfishing club! Prez Drake worked very hard to meet all the deadlines and such, he and Secretary Avril did a lot more work on it than I did.
Enjoy this early report today. I’ve studied the weather and water and am heading out now to recon a couple of my favorite trout waters. I’m carrying the Euro rod for cold-water dredging before lunch, but have my dry fly box and some hope for the possibility of a few afternoon risers. It may still be a bit early in the season, but it’s always fun to try. The coming week is supposed to be warm, with plenty of dry spells, so maybe y’all can get out there, too, and experience the kickoff of our spring fishing season. Let our waters warm and those trout, stripers, and bass rise toward the shallows!
Stop in either UO shop for the best March bugs and intel. Good luck!
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
