Summary:
Headwaters remain real low and clear, with spooky wild trout, due to a lack of rain. Folks with stealth, light leaders, and smaller flies are still doing well. A few stray stocker browns are still holding on in bigger streams, but pickings are slim. They might improve if GAWRD puts a few fish out for National Hunting and Fishing Day next Saturday.
Bass rivers are rocking, so grab your 6 or 7 weight rod and have a big time on poppers. Lake bassin’ remains good, and we eagerly wait the reawakening of stripers from their summer slumber. High mountain trouting in NC has been good, while our private waters here in GA will reopen in a couple weeks.
Anglers are reminded to call now to reserve prime fall and winter fishing dates on our private trout waters.
Be careful! Our wildfire risk increases with each passing, dry day, so be very careful with any outdoor flames until we get a few good soakers.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19r2MtiBEy/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Fishy details are in our blog. It’s fresh every Friday and will help you boost your own catch rates.
http://blog.angler.management/
(Link in bio)
Stop in either UO shop if we can help you out.
Helen: 706-878-3083. Open 8-5 daily.
Clarkesville: 706-754-0203. Open 8-5 from Monday thru Saturday.
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
Wes’ Hot Fly List:
(Wes said last week’s list is still good, since water conditions haven’t changed)
Dries: purple haze, tan elk hair caddis, parachute ant, yellow stimmy, foam ant, micro chubby Chernobyl, royal humpy, Drymerger.
Nymphs & Wets:
Stockers: red squirmy worm, peach egg, micro girdle bug, black woolly bugger, tan and olive mops, pink tag jig.
Mountain streams: hares ear, drowned ant, pheasant tail nymph and soft hackle, UV green weenie, prince nymph.
Streamers:
small black and olive buggers, bank robber sculpin, micro dungeon.
(Bass) Boogle bug, wiggle minnow, sparkle minnow, crawfish jambalaya,
(Panfish) Gill Scorpion, amnesia bug, girdle bug, chartreuse mop.
(Carp) carp nasty, gorgon craw.
Headwaters:
They remain super-clear, cool, and droughty-low due to our lack of rain. Lower elevation streams are warming into the high 60’s in late afternoon due to daytime air temperature highs in the 80’s.
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/USGS-02330450/
Yesterday at 4PM Spoilcane and the Hooch on the lower WMA were 68F
and a real high trib was 66.
Skinny, slow water has stream temps reacting quickly to air temps. Next week’s cool-off should get all streams fishing better throughout the day.
I ran into an angler duo from UNG up high yesterday and they said the wild bows were real spooky and refused a lot of their drifts. They did better on a para-Adams than their usually reliable elk hair caddis.
Stockers:
Stockers are scarce, but there are still a few fish around for anglers who cover a lot of ground. Tyler and Mackenzie returned their rented waders to me at the shop late Sunday afternoon and said they had some luck on the Hooch. The caught and released a nice handful of browns on a variety of baits and spinners.
Keep an eye out on Friday for a short stocking list from GAWRD. The agency usually releases some stockers to celebrate National Hinting and Fishing Day on the fourth Saturday of September. It’s a free fishing day for GA residents. Note the two Kids Fishing Events in north GA, also.
https://georgiawildlife.com/Fishing/Trout
https://georgiawildlife.com/get-involved/nhfday
Private Waters:
We are on the verge of reopening our private waters on the Hooch and Soque. Call the Helen shop now (706-878-3083) to reserve your slots before all of our prime fall dates are filled. We’ve taken a lot of reservations already.
UO buddy Mo said their trio hit the Cherokee private waters last weekend. Overall the catching was slow due to low, clear water and fee and spooky fish. But they managed a few gooduns. Mo said: “They would take a mop fly, a big girdle and smaller stonefly imitations (size12, black dub body and a couple rubber legs). I fooled several smaller fish on a size 16 natural walt’s worm.”
Tailwaters:
Georgia’s two trout tailwaters are stained but still fishing well, based on web reports I’ve seen. Just pay close attention to dam release schedules to stay safe.
Warm Rivers:
Once again, they are a best bet for the weekend! This dry spell has region rivers low and clear and cooler. The Hooch looked perfect once again when I crossed the Highway 115 bridge yesterday morning. As Wes said in his post this week, September might be the best month for topwater river bassin.’ Don’t miss it! I’m going as soon as I finish this fishing report!
UO friend Myles: “As the cooler weather approaches, I've been getting antsy to complete my first Bass Slam. After talking with some friends, I had received some intel for a local redeye spot. On Tuesday I checked things out and caught a few small ones behind another person. I went back yesterday, and about 15 minutes into fishing my boogle bug gets smacked! Sure enough, it would be a 9" redeye to complete my bass slam!”
Ponds: No reports once again from our flat water fans. The pond bite should be good as surface waters start to cool. Hit the perimeters any time the sun isn’t beating down on them.
Lakes:
UO manager Jake: “ Highland lake bass fishing has been very good recently. Typical fall patterns are into play which means all the guns stuff is back in the rotation…. Such as flukes, topwaters, and multi-jointed swimbaits. This pattern should continue to improve over the coming weeks.”
UO guide Joseph: “Bass fishing on Lanier has picked up over the last week or so. We’re starting to see good groups of spots around creek mouths in open water, on humps, and points littered with brush. Most of the fish we’ve seen have been eating on bluebacks ranging from 3-5 inches in length. For baits flukes, serpentine swimbaits, and walking baits have all been major players.
With October approaching quickly stripers will be feeding on top soon. I still have some dates available in mid to late October for some amazing topwater fishing.
If you’re interested give the shop a call at 706-878-3083 or visit my website at www.josephclarkflyfishing.com”
Afar:
Smokies reminder: 441 has reopened.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DOgzxgziVdO/?igsh=cm0yNzNmNXgxY2J1
Ian and Charity at R&R have a fresh Smokies update:
https://randrflyfishing.com/2025/09/17/fall-fly-fishing-in-the-smokies-upon-us/
UO buddy RonW set aside his mtn bike long enough to wet a line last weekend: “It was another great adventure up in the Smokies with the fellas! We will surely not forget this one anytime soon. Thanks to some intel from our UO friends, we were able to cross over the ridge on 441 and get to our TN hotel.
We ate good, we drank good (some more than others), we laughed, we caught a bunch of fish,
nearly stepped on a copperhead,
saw a bear in the wild and then had 2 bear encounters at the hotel....what more could you want out of a Smokies trip?
Somewhere in the vicinity of the Hampton Inn in Gatlinburg lies a fat and happy bear full of $75+ worth of exceptionally fine European smoked meats and a tasty 8.5% milk stout, along with some classic city lager, apparently he doesn't like fine cheese? Rookie mistake on our part for not locking the yeti in the back of the truck, or better yet, not bringing the food into the room on Friday night.
The pic of the bear in my truck is from Saturday night, the night after he cleaned us out of our Saturday creekside rations. We cleaned and bleached the coolers Saturday am after we realized we'd been had. It goes to show how strong their sense of smell is as well as their memory! Lesson Learned...We will NEVER make that mistake again!
Meat theft and all, it was a fantastic weekend getaway with some much need laughter and hydrotherapy! I can't wait to do it again!
Hot flies: Parachute Adams and Yellow Humpy up top. Greenie weenies reigned supreme subsurface. Surprisingly the yellow stimulator didn't work too well. I think I got a couple fish on it. I changed to a yellow humpy and it was game on. At the end of the day my greenie weenie was beat up. You could see the strand of fiber under the chenille on the tail. “
Kudos and Congrats
Rabunites Nan and Rick gave their streams a rest and instead instructed some new folks on fly casting techniques. The Rabun TU gang had a fun time Tuesday night.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1C9P4Fwq8d/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Everyone is invited to attend their meetings and consider joining their chapter if you’d like to.
(Type in “secrets” on their search bar to strike gold!)
In case you missed it, here’s a link to out tribute to our fishing buddy, Jay, a consistent provider of fishing fodder for this report:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BJyK3gJR5/?mibextid=wwXIfr
That’s the latest set of fish fibs from our corner of the southern Appalachians. Hopefully we will finally get past summer air temps next week, and that will turn on our fall trouting season! In the meantime, cash in on hungry river bass. Stop in a UO shop soon to prepare for that fine fall fishing on the horizon. Good luck!
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
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