Welcome to the first official day of Spring, and it’s going to be a fine one. The warm, dry weekend looks great, too. Get out there ASAP and wet a line if you can. Do not forget our open house tomorrow at our new store in Sautee. We’ll have burgers, drinks, and some awesome free raffle prizes from 11 until 3.
On the trout front, headwaters are still extremely low and clear. The good news is that they are warming quickly with these balmy days ahead.
Same goes for the region’s DH streams. Sunshine and warmer water means that bugs will hatch and noses will poke through the surface to sample your dries. That happened to Dredger yesterday. Private streams will fish well for folks with thin tippet and a stealthy stalk, while some GA stocker streams might be getting their inaugural doses of 2026 trout this week, and definitely next week.
Pond fishing should take off with rising water temperatures. Same goes for our reservoirs, where bass are already active while stripers are lagging behind just a bit. Stripers have already started their spring river runs just south of us, so north GA’s migrations should only be a week or so away.
As always, the specific intel is in our weekly fishing prospects, here. Click to unlock the secrets to your own Spring success:
http://blog.angler.management/
You’ve waited a long winter for this spring bloom of shallow water fishing. Here’s your chance to start the season with a bang, a free burger, and maybe an awesome raffle prize, too. Don’t miss out on this weekend. Stop in either UO shop for your topwater supplies.
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
Sautee: 706-878-3083. Open 8-5 daily. (2454 GA Hwy 17, Sautee-Nacoochee.)
Clarkesville: 706-754-0203. Open 8-5 from Monday thru Saturday.
Wes’ Hot Fly List:
Dries:
BWO’s, Hendrickson, Tiny Black elk hair caddis, Drymerger march brown, grey elk hair caddis, Parachute Adams, Quill Gordon, and buoyant indicator flies for dry/dropper rigs (micro chubby, stimulator).
Nymphs & Wets:
Sexy Walts, frenchie, pheasant tail and hares ear nymph and soft hackle, psycho prince.
Mountain streams: Parachute Adams, gray elk hair caddis, tan micro Chubby, and a Pheasant tail, prince nymph, or soft hackle partridge dropper for deeper pools.
Streamers:
UV polar jig, jiggy fry, sparkle minnow, black or olive buggers, bank robber sculpin.
Reservoir Bass & Stripers:
Cowen’s somethin else, low fat minnow, gray/white Clouser, game changer.
River bass:
Dead Ned, crittermite, clouser minnows, thrashers.
Headwaters:
They are still drought- low and crystal clear. Residents will be piled into drought refuges, but will be hungry and competitive if you don’t spook them. Just be aware of smoke and a few road closures due to planned USFS controlled burns. Check the appropriate Forest website for details.
UO buddy Splatek had a big time bluelining with his two boys:
“The boys and I snuck off into the no cell signal zone. Beats the heck out of a screen any day of the week!! Older boy caught about a dozen rainbows; 5 year old caught a few more than that.”
UO buddy Weston hit IDBIS Creek, hidden high in the national forest, and reports: “We caught around 30 to 40 wild rainbows on dry/droppers. For drys we were using patriots and parachute Adams size 14 and 16. For nymphs we were using pheasant tails,hairs ears,frenchies and more in size 16 and 18. They didn’t really seem to care what was on bottom,they were gonna eat it.”
While low and clear, the Rabunite “switch” has turned on in the region’s DH streams due to sunny skies and warming water. Hooray!
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no=02176930&legacy=1
Carry both a topwater game for the afternoon hatches and a dredging or streamer-stripping game when the bugs fly into the trees and the fish sink back to the bottom. Go early or late or hike far away from the lot if you’re crowd-averse.
UO buddy Mo gave us his Chattooga DH Rx: “We had a great redemption day on The River last Sat. It was a beautiful day to be out. The water temp was 48F mid am and 56F as we walked out just after 5pm. The water level and flow were perfect. The gauge showed 1.47 and falling. While the rainbows are always there to play the brookies have been elusive for us, but this day set the record for both numbers and size. The dinks were either eaten by bigger fish or didn’t want to play as we only found a handful of fish under 10in. We started out early euronymphing with perdigons and enjoyed good sport catching a ton of rainbows until lunch. The action continued in the pm when I switched to a small hare streamer/zonker and absolutely wore them out. Lots of rainbows brought to hand but the brookies were very aggressive too. Surprisingly, no browns on the streamer. They seemed to prefer the caddis dry that Kurt was drifting on top with good success. In the span of 2 hours about half a dozen browns and several rainbows ate his dry fly. We had to leave earlier than usual but I can only imagine the action on top as the shadows got long in the late pm. Also, we saw sporadic risers and a variety of flies hatching throughout the day:big drakes, stoneflies, black caddis and midges. Might have to go back with a dry fly rod as the weather and temps stabilize in the next few weeks.”
Rabunite Dredger hit Nantahala DH yesterday afternoon.
He got there around 130 and surveyed a favorite pool, his “strike indicator”’spot that tells him how to rig for the day. Water temp a chilly 46F, but the bright sun had some scattered BWO’s hatching and a few tiny, wild bows chasing them.
Those small wild fish are usually the first to rise to a sporadic hatch or to the start of a thick one.. He decided to stay there and rig up for dries, and was glad he did. Within 30 minutes the BWO’s poured off, and were joined by some Hendricksons and March browns. The fish responded. He stayed in that pool for the 2.5 hours of the hatch, landing a nice handful of wild bows and two stockers that had figured out real trout chow.
Best bugs were a tiny BWO for most fish and a March brown and Hendrickson for a couple more.
HINT: if all your parachute dries have a white post, go buy a gray Sharpie pen and color a few of them.
When the bugs left around 4, he picked pockets with a Euro rig and had success on both bugs, the sexy Walts anchor and the smaller Frencie dropper. The colors on the wild bows were amazing. He stayed til 7, but didn’t see any real surface action at dusk. It’s still a bit early up there for good Dark-30 action.
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Stockers:
GAWRD usually gets a jump on their stocking season opener by hitting some streams the third week of March. Be on the lookout for today’s weekly stocking report from the agency.
https://georgiawildlife.com/Fishing/Trout
Private Waters:
Water temps are good, but low flows are still making our trips a bit challenging. Bring some yarn indicators and the highest quality ($$), thin tippet with you for your best scoring. We need rain, lots of it!
UO guide Sydney: “I had a guide trip to Soque River Camp. Flies that worked for my clients were were pats rubber legs and a lot of soft hackles!
Then I went to smith DH to have some fun myself and caught them on a lot of small stuff too- midges and cdc flies,
They have shied away from junk flies already- and are getting smart!
A lot of fish rising though despite the cold snap we had !
Tailwaters:
UO friend Spangler: “Hey Dredger, some intel for the Lanier Tailwater:
I was able to fish (about a mile south of Settles Bridge) the tailwater during lunch for a couple hours last week. I saw grey/brown caddis off and on and some midges too. No risers except the ones that took a shot at this indicator caddis (did hook up with one but he was net shy). Anything worked under the caddis as long as it was an olive CDC bugger! I probably could have downsized the nymph but I was having too much fun jigging it in riffles with the caddis jumping with it and either a fish would swipe at the caddis or grab the bugger (and one missed the caddis and flossed himself onto the bugger). I think I hit double digits or one short in 2 hours. The water was a bit stained from the rain and lack of generation today but I think that worked in my favor. “
Web reports suggest the Toccoa caddis action is still hot. Check with the Blue Ridge shops for the best local intel.
Warm Rivers:
Walleye runs are usually over by now, but whites and hybrids will come on strong and a few male stripers may already be up the rivers, too.
UO buddy JS said the reservoir stripers are migrating up the rivers to our south: “Local anglers are reporting good numbers of striped bass moving into the shoal complexes of the Chattahoochee in downtown Columbus. While fly angler Jackson Sibley located this healthy fish with a streamer, other anglers are finding success with both live and cut shad. Fish in the 10-lb range seem to be the bulk of the catch, with reports of fish up to 20-lbs reported.”
Ponds:
No recent reports, but don’t let that fact stop you. These hot days will pull bass and bream into the shallows. While the topwater action is still wetland away, try some streamers for bass and crappie and popper/nymph dropper combos for bream.
Lakes:
The lake striper and spot bite is improving with warming water. Bass are the better bet, as stripers are still scattered and finicky. Follow your electronics for deep fish and birds for breaking ones. We need a good rain to stain the creek arms, which will warm up and pull in threadfin shad and predators.
UO guide Joseph is on Lanier right now. We’ll have to wait for his update. Here’s a rerun of his advice from last week. “Fishing on the pond was steady last week. We’ve had some abnormally high water temps for this time of year that have had the stripers scattered. We’re seeing small groups over open water and some around main lake points. The best way to target these fish would be with an intermediate line with a 3-4 inch baitfish pattern. Somethin else’s, clousers, game changers, and a new pattern I’ve been working on dubbed the “somethin better” by Henry Cowen have all been players.
Bass fishing has also remained good with warmer temperatures and we’re still catching some great fish up shallow, holding tight to structure.
Spring fishing is in full swing and we only have a few more weeks of striper fishing on the pond. If you’re wanting to get in on the action call UO Sautee at (706)-878-3083 or visit my website at www.josephclarkflyfishing.com !”
Your best bet is to attend our Saturday open house and quiz Lanier striper legend Henry Cowen and his favorite student, Nate, on their current techniques.
Afar:
LRO is always a good source for the latest Smokies fishing reports:
Little River Outfitters - Fly Fishing in the Great Smoky Mountains
UO buddy RSquared attended a TU region meeting in NC this week and shared his fish story: “On Friday, I was blessed to fish the DH section of the North Mills. When I started, the air temperature was in the 20's. With the cold weather, I assumed the trout would be hugging the bottom. I tied on a tandem rig with a Pat's Rubber leg as my top fly and I tried various fly's as for my dropper. This combination produced only one fish. Later that morning, I found a small pool that was unoccupied. I started to see an occasional trout rising to feed off of the surface. I came prepared to nymph all morning but I found one lone Parachute Adams in size 18 in my fly box. I tied that on and my 3rd drift produced a stocked Brooke Trout. For the next hour, I would sit there on an exposed rock and fished the dry fly. After a few drifts, I would pause for five or so minutes before casting again. I wound up with four stocked Brooke’s on that lone Adams. It was good to be on the water that cold, sunny morning.”
Events:
March 21:
Join us for the UO- Sautee fly shop’s housewarming party! Don’t miss your shot at some mighty fine raffle prizes. Details in our flyer and here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DVYgjY0AIO8/?igsh=a2gzOWVqOGUycnli
April 8:
Dredger takes his “Spring Dries and Droppers” program on the road for one more stop this spring: the Atlanta Flyfishing Club on April 8. AFFC welcomes all guests,so metro ATL folks, mark your calendars to net some fine Rabunite intel at an Atlanta Classic, Manuel’s Tavern.
https://atlantaflyfishingclub.org/
April 11:
Folks interested in flyfishing can try “Rabunite 101, a morning introduction to the sport at the Rabun County Recreation Center gym. It’s a real bargain at $25. Details:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CyqVTpMY6/?mibextid=wwXIfr
https://tu.myeventscenter.com/event/Rabunite-101-Fly-Fishing-Seminar-122568
Enjoy this early report today. Why so early? Because I’m out the door ASAP to a favorite Rabunite stream, with high hopes of some afternoon dry fly action. You can catch that Dredger intel by visiting us tomorrow in Sautee. There’s a burger and some BWO’s with your name on them. And maybe a 9/5 Recon, too, if you’re real lucky…
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWCzEoukULw/?igsh=aHE0MDc4dmxlcXZs
Good luck! Stop by a UO shop soon for your spring supplies and breaking intel. Now get going. I’m outa here myself!
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
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