Better late than never, here is this week’s UO fishing report. The big news is our reopening at the new store in Sautee-Nacoochee. You can find us at 2454 GA Highway 17, across the road from the Old Sautee Store. We will share that store’s phone number as soon as we get reconnected.
Trout fishing was pretty good during last week’s warm spell, but will slow down for a few days until this new cold front passes through. Be ready as air and water temperatures rebound, starting on Wednesday.
Lake action is still quiet, but March is right around the corner and will kick-start our reservoir bass and striper hunts. Got your walleye rigs ready?
Check out the next set of upcoming events. Details on them and on our angler trip successes are in our full weekly fishing report, here:
http://blog.angler.management/
(Link in bio)
Sautee: open 8-5 daily.
Clarkesville: 706-754-0203. Open 8-5 from Monday thru Saturday.
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
www.unicoioutfitters.com
Wes’ Hot Fly List:
Dries:
Black elk hair caddis, grey elk hair caddis, griffiths gnat, small Parachute Adams, indicator flies for dry droppers (micro chubby) (stimulator)
Nymphs & Wets:
DH Stockers: twister egg, pheasant tail (nymph, soft hackle) or Frenchie, sexy Walts worm, rainbow warrior.
Mountain streams: zebra midge, soft hackles, prince nymph, frenchie or pheasant tail.
Streamers:
UV polar jig, jiggy fry, sparkle minnow, bank robber sculpin.
Reservoir Bass & Stripers:
Cowen’s somethin else, low fat minnow.
River bass:
Dead Ned, crittermite, clouser minnows.
Headwaters:
Mountain streams are still very low and clear due to a lack of rainfall. Several anglers visiting our new shop reported topwater success during last week’s warm afternoons. In fact, wild bows even preferred dries over droppers. That action will slow until midweek warmth thaws out the wild fish again.
Delayed Harvest:
Fishing reports were positive on DH streams. February stockers have smartened up after three weeks of angler pressure, so smaller egg and nymph patterns were more successful than the bigger, gaudier bugs that were hot at the first week of the month.
UO guide Sydney: “ I fished Smith DH on my midweek off-day. Caught this nice rainbow on a sexy waltz worm, the anchor fly on my double nymph rig!”
Stockers:
Stockers remain slim. Your best bets are the two tailwaters for summer/fall holdovers and just outside the DH stream boundaries to find the wash-downs. Fishing public waters above or below private trophy waters might fetch you a straying brute or two. It’s Rainbow Romance season and some bows may swim upstream in search of clean gravel.
Private Waters:
Private waters fished decently during the warm spell. Low, clear water and “experienced” fish made the catching challenging, especially for newer anglers. Veterans with light tippets and perfect drifts still did well. Private water action should rebound at midweek. Just follow rising stream temperatures to your own success.
We’ve got Nacoochee Bend leased until the end of this month. UO owner Jimmy sent some “thanks notes” and gifts to his best partners and customers over the last three decades, and these groups are enjoying their free Bend fishing trips during these last two weeks of February.
UO guide Sydney invited a couple of her fishing buddies for a midweek Bend freebie. Syd said, “Last hoorah on the Bend for me is bittersweeet. Angelica and I got to have some fun. She was doing a photography project for school and had asked me to do some fishing for her so we had a great time with some wooly buggers, black sparkle minnows, hellgrammite patterns in some rainy weather. Charlotte and I spent a few hours on Friday morning and had a ton of fun, too. Reminiscing on all the trips out here and good times with amazing people , I will sure miss this water!”
The GA Women Flyfishers assaulted Nacoochee Bend on both Friday and Saturday. They had to work hard for a handful of big, picky, and powerful rainbows. Changing flies often, the experienced club members scored on a variety of egg, worm, nymph, and bugger patterns.
As we close our three decade chapter of fishing Nacoochee Bend, we were touched by Megan Nellen’s tribute to the site and UO owner Jimmy’s benevolence.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DVAJFTfkZ70RP5mEnL0JUXwtI7mIphSXhL9Uy00/?igsh=NjU3ZHJubnUzMWd4
Tailwaters:
UO buddy Retiree Jay: “My friend David from ATL and I did a float trip yesterday on a north Georgia river I had never fished before. We saw lots of black Caddis flies hatching all day, but very few rising fish. David had a little luck early on a size 12 black Caddis dry fly. I tried swinging nymphs and soft hackles with no luck. The rises ended quickly, I was stumped so I tried something completely different (streamers)! I immediately was rewarded with some hefty trout that were willing to chase my brown articulated streamer with small dumbell eyes.”
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVDPZ8GjovC/?igsh=MWU3aDZ4YnIyb2lpNw==
UO buddy Ryan: “This past weekend I had a chance to get out with some friends on one of my favorite access points on the Hooch Tailwater. The weather was nice, and it seemed to have fish more active than the weeks prior I've fished here. My friends and I caught fish on both natural nymphs sz 18-20 as well as egg patterns, all euro nymphing. No browns this trip, only rainbows came out to play!”
Warm Bass Rivers:
No news, other than they aren’t very warm and those fish probably aren’t very hungry.
Ponds:
UO buddy Jay: “ Pond bass are biting, too. I got to my local pond during the warm spell and did well on dark streamers fished slowly.”
UO buddy Spangler: “Hey Dredger, something for the fishing report: I really enjoyed George Daniel on this week’s Undercurrents. Something he said was timely, about how catching some bluegill is like fly fishing therapy. Work and sports had kept me off my go-to streams this month and a couple lunch break sessions on the Lanier TW left me with a bruised ego and a broken rod tip for my trouble. So Wednesday afternoon, I just walked to the neighborhood pond with my 4W, a small blue stealth bomber and an olive bugger hanging off its tail. The water was still frigid but something about this little blue bomber had them hungry or just plain mad at it!”
Lakes:
Our folks have been too busy moving our Helen shop contents to Sautee, but GAWRD has sone hot walleye and striper intel in its most recent weekly blog:
https://georgiawildlife.blog/category/fishing/
Afar:
UO-Sautee shop manager Wes: “Israel, Atticus, Jackson and myself headed south early this week to go fishing for Bowfin. We linked up with Bert Deener and fished for two days and the conditions and fishing were simply incredible. Sunny with highs in the low 70’s and the fish were very aggressive. combined the group probably caught over 100 fish in two days of days of fishing. It was a grand time with good company!
If you wanna get after some Bowfin in Georgia Capt. Bert is the guide to give a call!”
https://bertsjigsandthings.com/
Events:
Feb 24:
Wes’ “Unicoi Undercurrents” continues next Tuesday. All fans of the Game Changer streamer series won’t want to miss Wes’ interview with fly pattern innovator Blane Chocklett!
https://www.instagram.com/p/DU8S5engCz5/?igsh=YTJ2bW05djhrbzM5
Feb 28:
Women’s Fly Casting Clinic in Johns Creek. Sponsored by the GA Women Fly Fishers:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DUPI3wSjGa_/?igsh=MTU3MmU5b2tjNnkwdg==
That’s the latest intel from our new home base in serene Sautee-Nacoochee, Georgia. We were truly touched by the crowd of friends and customers who made our Saturday reopening a huge success.
Thank you! Thank you! We can’t wait to welcome the rest of y’all to our new hangout in the valley.
Good luck getting past Monday’s chill and then catching some fish at the late-week rebound. Stop in our new shop soon and check it out. Hopefully we’ll have phone service connected next week and we’ll share that number, too. C’mon spring!
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
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