Welcome to our Halloween fishing report. The best treats this week were significant rains on Monday and Wednesday. They boosted streamflows and turned on resident trout.
Go soon and catch those better flows before they subside and fish turn picky again. Tailwaters are stained but fishing has still been good in the pea soup.
Delayed Harvest regs kick in again tomorrow on those designated streams, so catching and crowding will be the name of the game for the next week or so. Go early or late to beat the crowds.
Lake spotted bass are still good and stripers are stirring, so reservoirs are a good bet too.
Don’t miss Trout Tunes in Athens on November 9th! UGA event leader Emery said: “We had a blast last year, and can't wait to be back at Athentic Brewing Co. On November 9, at 6 p.m! We are so excited to have Dire Wolf jamming some Grateful Dead tunes all night, and some amazing items to raffle off!
Tickets are $10 now, and $12 at the door, which each come with two raffle tickets. Don't miss out! Get your tickets now: Venmo @tu5riversuga with your name and # of tickets!
Check out @5riversfishing_uga on instagram for updates.”
Catch all the fishing and event intel here:
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:
Dries: Orange Stimulator or elk hair caddis, chubby Chernobyl, parachute Adams, blue wing olive, various midges.
Nymphs & Wets:
DH Stockers: twister egg, squirmy worm, mops, Duracell, psycho prince, CJ controller, ruby midge.
Mountain streams: hares ear, pheasant tail nymph and soft hackle, prince nymph, crazy leg stone.
Streamers:
Mini shimmer buggers, sparkle minnow, Jiggy fry.
Reservoir Bass & Stripers:
clouser minnow, wiggle minnow, somethin else.
River bass:
Thrasher, polar changer, crittermite, crawfish jambalaya, dead ned.
Headwaters:
Headwaters have some better flows and cooler temperatures. yesterday afternoon Dukes ran 53F
and Spoilcane was a degree warmer.
Catch the GA bluelines soon before flows subside to drought levels and fish get real spooky again. Mountain mornings are now chilly, so start with a dry/dropper rig early and ditch the dropper around lunchtime, when stream temps rise above 50F and those little wild trout rise more consistently to your fall dries.
From the UGA and GT 5Rivers Flyfishing Club leaders:
“The UGA and GT 5rivers clubs made a trip to the Chattahoochee Forest where we had a good time camping and fishing together in clean, good ole fashioned fellowship.
A small group decided to split off and fish some bluelines for specks. The water was low and clear so we had to be extra sneaky if we were going to have any luck. We had success catching brook trout on small drys and everyone in the group caught at least one.
The folks fishing the bigger waters downstream had success with some wild rainbows and browns, with a few in the group catching their first fish on the fly!
After a great day of fishing we ended the day with some delicious venison burgers and a campfire!
Where were we chasing wild trout?Well, the Rabunites taught us to reply,
“I don’t believe we said.”
Go Dawgs! Go Jackets!”
Delayed Harvest:
The GA season kickoff starts tomorrow. Expect some opening day crowds and beat-up fish. First anglers to prime pools can nail the naive stockers on junk food like eggs, squirmies, and buggers. Late-comers can change games to bright, drifted nymphs on lighter tippet. Try to let the pools rest a bit and those fish might recover their appetites after their fright responses to angler hoards.
https://georgiawildlife.com/Fishing/Trout
(Scroll Down, click on Opps , then blue stream names for DH maps)
Stockers:
Wait til March, or fish downstream from DH boundaries to catch DH wash-downs after flood events.
Private Waters:
They’ve been hot and cold. They started out cold when the water was low and clear. Fish were just super-picky and insisted on small, dark nymphs on light tippets and perfect drifts. Our Sunday women’s event at the Bend was some fun fishing, but thin catching in the thin, snail-slow currents.
Then the rains came, streamflows increased, and so did the catching. UO guide Sydney had two great guide trips today, introducing new anglers to flyfishing at our Nacoochee Bend property. Her hot bugs were black copper johns, small brown pats rubberlegs, a few eggs, and perdigons. Some afternoon fish were rising to October caddis and maybe some small fall cahills, but she stuck with
dredging for her rookie anglers.
Tailwaters:
No recent reports.
Warm Rivers:
No recent reports. At 2PM yesterday the Hooch at Hwy 115 ran 56F. Visibility was about two feet and clearing. The rivers can still be a fun afternoon float for bassers chucking crayfish flies or ned rigs.
Ponds:
UO’s Jimmy and Kathy gave grandson Crosby a nice Xmas present a while back. He’s putting it to good use! Enjoy his beast bass video:
Lakes:
Lanier bassin has been good and stripers are finally ascending from the depths.
UO guide Joseph: “Fishing for stripers has picked up slightly over the past week. We’ve had some good conditions and the fish finally started to show again. Most of the schools we’ve seen have been over open water and surfacing sporadically. Fishing should continue to get better over the coming weeks. For conventional tackle serpentine swimbaits and topwater baits have been best. For flies Cowen’s somethin’ else, Game changers and clousers are all major players.
I still have a few dates left for November so if you’re looking to get out give the shop a call at (706)-878-3083 or visit my website at www.josephclarkflyfishing.com
UO buddy AJ: “I finally saw some good consistent topwater striper action on Lanier this week! It was cold, wet, and windy but the striper were happy and splashing. It was a little too breezy for fly rods, but a Berkley Magic Swimmer put double digit striper in the boat! Most of the schools I found were over open water around the larger creek mouths. Water temps were around 66-67. We're still waiting on the bulk of the sea gulls and loons to show up, but we did see a few early birds that helped us find a few fish. Reach out if you're interested in getting out there! Mild Fall temps and happy fish - The perfect time to be on the water!
-Alex
Lanier on the Fly
Afar:
UO buddy Ryan: “We fished a competition in Cherokee this past weekend. The water was super low and fish were spooky. Many competitors threw 6.5x-9x tippet and small natural nymph patterns. There were some quality fish in the 16-20 inch range landed, and I was thrilled to land a nice fish in my last session of the competition! My brother. Myles, fished great and landed a 1st place finish!”
Added Myles: “Here's the nicest fish I caught! A 43cm rainbow! Over the course of 4, 2 hour sessions, my partner and I caught 80 fish. All on a variety of natural nymphs. These fish were very finicky, so I was consistently changing between different fly patterns I had confidence in to catch as many fish as I could. All on light tippet and size 20 nymphs. We saw some minks running up and down the bank, as well as an elk sprint a couple hundred yards until it ran out of sight. With the leaves changing in the mountains, it's a beautiful time of the year to get after some fish!”
UO buddy RSquared was busy harvesting fly-tying materials: “No fishing this past week. I was Hunting pheasants in South Dakota.”
UO buddy Nanette: “Here’s a mid-October report from the Nan DH. We caught fish, all stocker brookies, nothing to write home about. I caught a few on an October Caddis (lots of the real thing flying). We also caught fish on a drowned ant and Walt’s worm. But the real star was the scenery!”
Events:
Don’t miss Trout Tunes in Athens on November 9th! UGA event leader Emery said: “It is almost time for Trout Tunes 2025! This is an event to support 5Rivers at UGA, a collegiate chapter of Trout Unlimited in partnership with Costa, focused on fly fishing and conservation. We had a blast last year, and can't wait to be back at Athentic Brewing Co. On November 9, at 6 p.m! We are so excited to have Dire Wolf jamming some Grateful Dead tunes all night, and some amazing items to raffle off! (Day trip for two on Nacoochee Bend, anyone?) This is an evening you do not want to miss! Tickets are $10 now, and $12 at the door, which each come with two raffle tickets. This is going to be a great evening to come together and support 5Rivers at UGA, to make fly fishing more accessible for everyone and aid our conservation efforts. Don't miss out! Get your tickets now: Venmo @tu5riversuga with your name and # of tickets!
Check out @5riversfishing_uga on instagram for updates.”
From the Rabunites: ”And the winner of our 2025 Mack Martin (Winston) rod raffle is….
Monte English!
Monte is a long-time Rabunite who always supports the chapter with his plentiful purchases of raffle and banquet tickets. His sweet, new stick (with matching reel and line) will be delivered soon.
Congrats Monte!!!! And thanks to all raffle players who helped us raise more than $1,100 for the chapter’s conservation and outreach efforts. If you’re not already a member, join our clan soon and get in on all of our fun and accomplishments.
There’s your trick or treat bag of weekly goodies from our UO gang. Take your time getting out of bed and catch the afternoon rays and sunning fish. Maybe you’ll find a few on top, too, so have a few of Wes’ dries for trout and his streamers ready for shallow stripers. Enjoy this great fall weather before winter forces us into thick clothing and forced our fish toward the bottom.
Good luck!
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
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