December has rolled into our region with some mighty cold nights and chilly days. Despite that challenging weather, the fishing has been pretty darn good. Just dress (warmly) for your success.
Trout streams are cold and clear, and low once again, dropping quickly after each rain. We’ll need a lot more rainfall to boost their base flows. Headwaters are icy in the mornings, so hit them at lunchtime with dry/dropper combos and make sure your dropper gets down to fish-eye level via a tungsten bead or a small tin shot a few inches above it.
Delayed Harvest fishing has been pretty good. You just have to hunt the pods and then figure out the hot technique of the day. We did.
Same goes for trophy waters. Syd has figured them out and shares her secrets in today’s full-length report.
Joseph and Hank the Yank have been cashing in on the Lanier shallow striper action. Itsy-bitsy bugs have bought the most bites.
We’re still collecting used flyfishing gear for Georgia college clubs. Feel free to donate! And the Rabun Rendezvous is 2/7/26 at the county civic center.
Catch all the details of our successful trips here:
http://blog.angler.management/
(Link in bio)
They’ll help YOU to catch more fish this weekend and thru the week ahead. Don’t forget your hand warmers and a spare pair of dry gloves. Stop in either UO shop if we can help you out with flies, supplies, and advice.
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: parachute blue wing olive, Drymerger, tan elk hair caddis, tiny tan chubby, RS2, parachute Adams.
Nymphs & Wets:
DH Stockers: squirminator, Frenchdipity, lighting bug, CDC pheasant tail, slush egg, Ruby midge.
Mountain streams: zebra midge, soft hackles, micro mayfly, prince nymph, hares ear.
Streamers:
Black and olive woolly buggers, Sparkle minnow, barely legal, UV polar Jig, mini gulp sculp.
Reservoir Bass & Stripers:
clouser minnow, low fat minnow, somethin else, micro Cowen’s baitfish.
River bass:
Thrasher, dead Ned, sweet baby cray, clouser minnow.
Headwaters:
They remain low, clear, and icy due to our recent, freezing nights. You’ll do better once the afternoon sun warms the water a bit. Try a dry, but definitely add a small nymph or wet fly dropper below it. You might even slowly dredge the bigger pools for sluggish fish that have retreated to their winter refuges.
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/ga/nwis/uv?site_no=02330450
Our friend Ian at R&R Flyfishing shared a fresh park fishing report that applies perfectly to our north GA headwaters, too:
https://randrflyfishing.com/2025/12/02/winter-fly-fishing-season-arrives-in-the-smokies/
Delayed Harvest:
The region’s DH streams have had a Jekyll and Hyde personality for our anglers. Jekyll gives up fish to experienced fly tossers who approach clear, flat water with great stealth, land their flies softly, and figure out which pattern and technique works on the day at hand.
Mr Hyde has pitched a shutout to newer fly anglers who don’t yet have the skills of vets, as described above. Rookies just need to keep practicing and their success will increase with time on the water- and reading about the vets’ successful recipes.
Folks to the shop this week had mixed results at Smith. We are still recommending light tippets and small bugs. If tiny pheasant tails, Duracells, and midges don’t work, try sinking a soft hackle deep and swing, then twitch it back upstream to you.
The big surprise of the week was one angler who had success on dries. Here’s a secret: the park volunteers feed the DH section a couple times per week to discourage migration and maintain their weight. So, a fluffy, dark tan caddis or micro chubby might be a good Purina hatch-matcher.
Rabunites Bluejay and Dredger hit Tooga DH for the first time this season on Tuesday. Water temp at their noon ford crossing was an icy 43F as a bald eagle flew past them. It didn’t rise much during their four-hour trip and the fish started out sluggish, as expected:
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/USGS-02176930/
Nothing on a variety of dredged, drifted bugs. But they scored on twitched and stripped buggers: olive or black, it didn’t matter.
New stockers were looking for movement.
They finally caught a few bonus fish on slush eggs, only after extra shot were added to get them right on the bottom.
A bunch of bows, a few browns, and one nice brookie were fondled.
Hint: find the deeper, slower water that provides cover from eagles and ospreys. The rest of the river is too darn shallow right now to hold fish. Locate the pods with a bugger and then sink legs and eggs thru that pool when the bugger bite turns off.
Stockers:
There may still a few fall stockers around in the bigger GA streams, especially the two tailwaters. You can also fish downstream from DH boundaries to catch DH wash-downs after flood events.
UO buddy Ryan: “The day after Thanksgiving, we brought our Pensacola cousin Jeffrey up to the mountains, with plans of getting him on his first-ever fish on the fly. Some fresh stockers were willing to play, and egg patterns were all that was needed to get into some quick action. He landed no less than 4-5 fish, getting his close-quarters water haul cast dialed in after a brief casting demo. After showing him how subtle a bite can appear on an indicator, he got more trigger happy with his hooksets and fish were hooked for the remainder of the evening!”
Private Waters:
UO guide Sydney has been unlocking the secret combination to Nacoochee Bend success. Her clients have scored big this week by dredging small bugs on light tippet. Her best bugs have been “Eggs, perdigons, CDCs, and hares ears with a good bit of split shot to get the flies down, since fish have been sitting real low.
My newly tied egg pattern got my clients on some good fish today. Thanks to the Rabunites for the tying tips.”
Tailwaters:
Nothing recent.
Warm Rivers:
UO buddy Jay:
“My very old kayak started developing some cracks and leaks, so I treated myself to an upgrade. I headed down south to the land of limestone and much warmer weather for a shakedown river float. Flows were very low and water crystal clear. Our target was shoal bass from the southernly extent of the range for that species. I had a lot of fun, and a substantial amount of luck in catching some real beauties. All my fish came on a large, articulated black streamer tied with lots of rabbit fur. I use a jig hook, tungsten football bead attached on a pin below the hook shank to balance the fly. I’m very happy with the new boat and can’t wait to go again!”
Ponds:
No reports.
Lakes:
UO guide Joseph; “Fishing on the big pond over the past week has been good but tricky. Here’s a nice 16 pounder to round off an 8-fish outing on Monday! All the fish we’ve been catching have been eating teeny threadfin shad near the surface.
There are some good groups to be found, however we’re seeing lots of singles. We’ve seen fish around channel swings, mouths of creeks and in the back of main lake pockets. Another aid this time of year is looking for bird activity. We’ve had to burn a lot of gas to track down these scattered Lanier schools, but the scouting time has paid off.
All of our fish have been caught on intermediate lines on an array of different flies and retrieves. Henry’s somethin else, polar fiber minnows, small game changers and various other patterns will work.
I still have some available dates for the end of this month and we are starting to fill up for prime dates in January-March. To book a trip with me, visit www.josephclarkflyfishing.com or call the Helen store at (706)-878-3083”
UO buddy Jay: “This winter weather has me thinking a lot about stripers, and thankfully my recent conversations with the good folks at Unicoi Outfitters resulted in a trip to “The Pond” as our dear friend Henry Cowen calls it. It was a cold, windy day with intermittent rain (in other words – miserable unless you’re a striped bass). Presentation and fly selection were critical, but Unicoi’s Joseph Clark really knows his stuff! He learned from the guru (Henry), and we even had the pleasure of visiting with Mr. Cowen (aka the Mayor of Lake Lanier) while running around.
Fly Fishing for Freshwater Striped Bass - Henry Cowen - Unicoi Outfitters
I put five fish in the boat! I can’t wait to do it again!”
Events:
The Rabunites said their annual Rabun Rendezvous will be on Feb 7 at the Rabun County Civic Center. Details forthcoming. If you like BBQ, live bluegrass, bucket raffles, silent auctions, and trout tales, then mark your calendars for 2/7/26.
About Rabun TU – The Rabun Chapter of Trout Unlimited
We’re still collecting used flyfishing and camping gear from fellow anglers and giving it to new fly anglers with the North Paulding HS, UGA, and GA Tech 5 Rivers flyfishing clubs. If you’d like to donate any gear or supplies (leaders, Indi’s, tippet, flies) feel free to drop them off at our Helen shop. We’ll get your goodies to the club leaders.
TU Costa 5 Rivers College Clubs - Trout Unlimited
The forecast is for slightly warmer and a whole lot drier days ahead. The fish don’t mind the cold and neither should you. Just dress like an Eskimo and give it a go. We’re sure glad we did, right Jay and Bluejay?
Stop in either UO shop for supplies, intel, gifts, and the always popular UO gift certificates. Good luck!
PS: Go Dawgs!!!
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