This week’s theme is “weather and water.” First, keep an eye on the weather forecast, since north GA is under a severe storm threat level of 3 out of 5. This is not the weekend that you should be camping up here in the forest!
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/193FveZncT/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Hopefully this front will pass with little damage and we’ll have some great fishing on the other side.
Spring has sprung on both trout streams and reservoirs! Most streams are yo-yo’ing on either side of 50 degrees and the first hatches of spring are happening.
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no=02330450&legacy=1
Trout are looking up on most days in larger rivers, DH streams, and even on headwater bluelines on warm days. GA DH streams may have been restocked this week, so have some junk flies ready. We’ll know for sure if GAWRD posts a stocking report this afternoon.
It will only get better with each passing day of warming water. Watch USGS stream gauges or call our shop for streamflow updates, so you’ll know what’s fishable after this storm.
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/ga/nwis/uv?site_no=02176930
Reservoir shad and stripers have started to come shallow. Hitch up your boat and go soon. Lakes are always a good option when our favorite rivers are still high and muddy. Splurge once this spring and book a trip with a striper guide like Joseph. Everyone needs the thrill of a fat striper on the fly!
This week’s full report is chock-full of timely intel that will help your own success rates. Catch it here, as always, and just scroll to your paragraph of interest: bluelines, Delayed Harvest, lakes, etc:
http://blog.angler.management/
Now go check your storm shelter and charge the batteries in your weather radio. And maybe tie or buy a few more hot flies. The best time of the year for north GA and western NC fishing is upon us! Stop in either UO shop (Helen, Clarkesville) for your March intel, trip bookings, and flies.
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
Wes’ Hot Fly List:
Dries: quill gordon , parachute Adams, Blue quill, March brown, blue wing olive, rage cage black caddis.
Nymphs & Wets:
DH streams: slush egg, pats rubberlegs, Pink tag jig, Frenchie, hares ear nymph and soft hackle, micro girdle bugs.
Mountain streams: Pheasant tails, micro girdle bugs, prince nymphs, hares ear nymph.
Streamers:
Sparkle minnows, small black and olive buggers for DH streams, mohair leeches, UV polar jigs, mini shimmer buggers, Thrasher.
(Bass & stripers) Cowen’s Somethin Else. clouser minnow, finesse changer, Crittermite, clawdad,
Headwaters:
They’re low and clear and warming over 50 degrees. Residents are spooky, but hungry and looking up. When the water is low, use your summer technique of stealth, thin tippet, and smaller bugs.
Dredger hit his local blueline yesterday afternoon (3/13). The resident bows were picky, but he still managed a nice handful in his 4-hour tour. He had three refusals for every eat. Best bugs were a #16 gray or tan elk hair caddis, with plenty of High N Dry dessicant to keep them floating high.
Most were dinks, but all were pretty. He missed a few better fish and also saw some real nice ones in logjams, but couldn’t fool them before spooking them.
Foothills TUer Bob has had good luck dry/dropping and nymphing at Smithgall. He said:
“Nymphs were quick tuck casts and immediately getting contact with the line because the fish hit on the drop as soon as it hit the water. Right in the heads of pools and nasty places. Feeding lanes. Lots of small BWO hatches and some big March Browns. Peak feeding time has been 10-2. And thin tippet has helped me. Remember folks, it’s all barbless flies and lures in your possession while on the stream.”
Headwaters will drop and clear within a day after storms that drop less than two inches of rain. Keep them in mind while your big stream option is blown out.
Delayed Harvest Streams:
They’re a best bet right now. Most, if not all, have been restocked to kick off the spring season. Fresh stockers don’t know what real bugs are for their first few weeks of freedom, so you’ll do best with small stripped buggers and drifted eggs, squirmies, and pats rubberlegs. Then those fish will start keying in on the hatches, so dry/dropper rigs will outperform your junk flies.
Dredger stopped by Smith DH on Wednesday and it looks like it got redosed, with some chunky fish, too!
Smith will be crowded, so go real early, real late, or real far downstream to avoid the crowds. Dredger offered his Smith decipher technique on a NGTO post Tuesday. Scroll down to it:
http://www.georgia-outdoors.com/NGTO-Xenforo/index.php?threads/quick-smith-report.801/page-2
Dredger hiked into a cold Chattooga DH (44F at 1PM) on Tuesday. It was low and sandy , with many traditional spots too skinny to hold fish.
After a winter of dragging nymphs along the bottom, he took his dry fly rod and stuck with a dry/dropper rig for most of the afternoon. It was dead for his first 30 minutes, then some mayflies and small caddis stirred for the next 30 and he connected with 3 fish among the risers.
Then the bugs went away and the fish followed, and he hit a two-hour drought. He finally saved face by switching to a dredge rig to pop three more fish before leaving at 5 (water temp 49F).
The freshly stocked Walhalla fish preferred junk flies, as evidenced by a fellow angler’s report of cleaning up on pool fish with a legs&eggs combo that same day. Soon, however, they’ll figure out those real bugs drifting past them and the dry/dropper action will heat up.
NC
Dredger hit the road last Friday afternoon (7th) and revisited the Smokies. It was cold to start, with water temps in the low 40’s and no bugs buzzing. He started with a Euro setup and was pleasantly surprised by some chunky wild browns and bows that keyed in on his frenchie dropper. Nobody liked his girdle bug anchor fly.
About 1.5 hours later, some bugs popped and he saw a few risers. They were ignoring the little BWO’s and sipping the larger mayfly, probly a quill Gordon or March Brown. He reached for his dry box and discovered that it was still safe at home, in winter storage. Ugh! So he improvised by coating a hares ear soft hackle with High N Dry and floating it. Three more fish came to hand, his first of the year on top.
The bugs sputtered out around 430 and he detoured to his elk-spotting hangouts. And was rewarded.
A big BBQ sammich from the Haywood Smokehouse topped off a mighty fine road trip.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19Aw8kCNaH/?mibextid=wwXIfr
NC DH streams are 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
Dredger hit the Nan DH last Sunday afternoon (9th) and had a big time on top. First he perched above a prime pool and “scouted:”: observing bugs and risers.
Then he caught some bugs in his paint strainer and tried to match them. His dries weren’t a perfect imitation of the blue quills, but they were close enough to fool some fish.
He stayed in that one pool all afternoon while bugs emerged and fish sipped. A mix of wild and stocked bows and stocked brooks and browns came to hand, while he uncapped a big broodstock brown by too quick of a hookset.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1C996TMgrY/?
Private Waters:
The warmer water has really heated up our private stream action. Book soon at 706-878-3083.
Nacoochee Bend client Ian: “Hey Jeff, we spoke in the shop Saturday about those little squirrel jig streamers. Went out this morning for my unguided 1/2 day trip and landed this Hooch brute first thing this morning. Shop mentioned it might you might want it for the fishing report.”
UO-Helen manager Wes: “Lots of fish eating emergers on the Soque. A size #16 soft hackle pheasant tail or orange soft hackle partridge was the key player for my clients this week. “
UO guide Israel: “Soque has been good the past two days. Various soft hackles seemed to be the preferred flavor but we picked a few fish off on a Ray Charles as well. Lots of bug life in the afternoon. Midges and March Browns, stray caddis or two. Sporadic rising from the trout. More dry fly action to come!”
UO guide Joseph: “Fishing on private water has been good with spring flows and warm fronts. Patterning the fish has been a little tricky so I’ve been rotating flies and tactics until I find something consistent. This week we landed on a small stonefly followed by a split case bwo or a unweighted pheasant tail in size 16-18. We also had a few looks on streamers but it was less consistent. With the rain rolling in this weekend higher dirty water streams could be a good option for streamer fans.”
UO buddy and vets’ volunteer fishing guide CDB:
“We had some great days on private waters this week. Nacoochee still has plenty of bruisers swimming around. A wooly bugger caught the attention of Veterans Flyfishing Marty Liotta’s big rainbow. Generally, presentation was the critical factor for success, with Walt’s Worms (16), flashy perdigons (18-20), rubber legs (10) and buggers accounting for most of the fish. On the Soque, rubber legs and bronze zonker micro jigs (10-12) worked well. My new favorite bronze beadhead nymph (16) with a red collar accounted for PHWFF Gary Peterson’s dandy ‘bow.
I did manage to slip out on my own to some of my favorite DH water in the rain in between the private water trips. The fish were plentiful and active, lots of brookies out there. I euronymphed all morning with good results using the bronze nymph about 18” above a bronze micro zonker with red or with gold flashy dubbing at the throat. Fish it deep and if you are using a double nymph rig make sure you have at least 18” between the two. The top fly will clean up on the freshly stocked fish, and that bottom fly can get you into some of the fish that have been around for a while. There are some good fish out there in the public waters too! As it warms up don’t forget to fish the riffles, or at least do a few drifts before stepping in the water and crossing. Every year there are some beasts accounted for in shallow, fast water.
Finally, I would note on the Chattahoochee a light hatch that looked suspiciously like March Browns came off and the fish were all over them. Next time out I will leave the rod of darkness behind and take my 5 weight and bring a box of dries along. It’s fixing to happen!”
Tailwaters:
No recent reports. They should be fishing well.
Warm Rivers:
March is here and the early spawners have started marching from the lake into the rivers. Be on the lookout for leftover walleye, whites, and hybrids, and more stripers in the weeks leading to their mid-April spawning run peak.
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/
UO buddy RSquared: “White Bass & Crappie are still making their way up the Coosa System in NW Ga. stripers have started up, too. I also fished a small creek that eventually finds its way to the Coosa via a tributary to Big Cedar CreeK. I caught several species of fish including some wayward rainbows.”
Here’s a late addition from UGA 5R clubber Sawyer:
“Water on this particular Piedmont riverbwas still cold, but the shoal bass were getting into prespawn feeding mode. Wading through slightly high and muddy water was worth it because the bigger fish were out to play. Stripping large black streamers around shoals and bouncing the bottom with dark craw imitations both did the trick. Multiple fish over 3 pounds were brought to hand by our band of 5rivers buddies.”
Ponds/ Lakes:
Bottom line: Lanier has finally turned on! Jimmy and Henry are out on Lanier this morning and sent me this pic:
UO guide Joseph: “Had a nice outing with clients Tim and Gerald earlier this week. We were able to land 4 stripers and 4 bass including a 16lb striper on fly! We found fish on several different types of structure but the most consistent for us was points. We were able to find someone gulls diving but only a few of our fish came from under birds. With the spawn just around the corner we should start to see good numbers of fish stage up on points. For flies we had the most success with Henry’s somethin else fished on intermediate lines up shallow. For spinning tackle small soft plastic swim baits on a 3/8 ounce jig head was the ticket. Spring is just now heating up and before you know it our fish on the lake will be deep for the summer so if you want to get in on some action now is the time! To book a trip with me, call the Helen shop at (706)-878-3083.”
It’s great to have ole Hank back on The Pond. His Cowen’s Somethin Else fly produced for its originator.
Henry said our favorite NFL dude, Nate, has been doing well on the south end of the lake, too. Check out his buddy’s 25lb beast on the fly rod:
News and Events:
Ongoing: Dream Trip ticket sales end this Saturday! 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.
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
Spring is here! Don’t miss the hot action. Just hunker down and let the Saturday storm pass. Then “emerge” to emerging mayflies and shallow-swimming threadfin shad. And our favorite predators right behind them! Stop in either UO shop for the best March bugs and intel. Good luck and sage hunkering to y’all on Saturday night.
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
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