Is this August? We’re in the 80’s, suffering through a serious drought, and under a red flag warning for outdoor fire danger. Pass up the campfires for now!
Enough of the bad news. How about the good stuff? First, it’s the traditional opening week of GA’s trout stocking season. All waters on the WRD master list got dosed. Second, stream temps rising into the 50’s and 60’s have kicked off our spring bug hatches. Toss some dries into your favorite DH and wild trout streams. Third, lake stripers are on their spring runs up the rivers.
That’s enough good news to get us past the lack of rainfall. Check out our specific intel ASAP to enhance your own Spring success:
http://blog.angler.management/
Come by either UO store for your spring supplies. Have fun!
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:
grey elk hair caddis, BWO, Parachute Adams, Quill Gordon, Drymerger march brown, and buoyant indicator flies for dry/dropper rigs (micro chubby, stimulator)
Nymphs & Wets:
Squirmies, Mops, Lightning bug, pink tag jig, girdle bugs.
Mountain streams: Pheasant tail, killer may, prince nymph, soft hackle partridge.
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, polarchanger, thrashers.
Headwaters:
Darn, these streams are skinny! This is like summer drought fishing. Stick to your classic dries (caddis, Adams) and cover a lot of water to find decent depths. Stalk quietly and cast lightly to hungry wild fish piled into those few pools.
UO buddy RSquared: “Saturday, after the GATU quarterly meeting and a visit to Unicoi Outfitters open house, council treasurer, Cathy V. and I drove several miles up a rough, dusty, dirt road to reach a small, high elevation stream. Another angler had already beat us to this location. It was too late to travel somewhere else, so we were forced to fish behind him. We managed to bring a few of these Appalachian Jewels to hand but we had to work hard for them. I had my best luck with a dry/dropper rig. I used an orange stimulator for my top fly and a size 16 Tellico nymph as my dropper.”
Delayed Harvest:
Rabunites Dredger and Boomerang hit Chattooga DH last Friday afternoon. Water temp 50F at 1PM, and Hendricksons and BWO’s had the fish looking up from 1 til about 4. Dredger stayed til dark, but the bugs did not show up. It’s still a bit early for good sunset action. Their trip details are here:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CgjnNSKyH/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Rabunites Rick and Nanette hit Nantahala DH last Wednesday afternoon, after the sun warmed the waters a bit. Bug hatches were sparse, but enough fish were looking up to make them throw double-dry rigs. The two best patterns were a small para-Adams, trailed by a tiny gray caddis.
Stockers:
Every waterbody on the master list is stocked for the GA season opener. Expect big crowds, especially in Helen for the city’s annual trout tournament. GAWRD’s longest stocking list of the year is here:
https://georgiawildlife.com/sites/default/files/wrd/pdf/trout/Weekly_Stocking_Report.pdf
Private Waters:
UO manager/guide Jake: “The upper Soque fished really well earlier this week. The water is lower than normal for this time of year, but the fishing has been really good. We caught fish on a variety of dry/dropper rigs, squirmy worms, and smaller soft hackles. “
Tailwaters:
UO friend Spangler: “Hey Dredger, Some Lanier tailwater intel: 2 hours after work till right before the 6 pm release, the upper river fished well. The water was absolutely crystal clear, with no hatching bugs to note. I tried my usually search rig of a jig olive CDC bugger under a black and brown indicator caddis. I did get one swipe at the caddis and missed one on the bugger. When I switched to the little size 18 hares ear (the one Ryan Hartley suggests) with a really heavy bead under the caddis, things picked up. I hooked into at least 10 in 2 hours and got 6-7 to the net. In fact a couple of the little bitty 3” browns were rising. I picked them off sight fishing, but they were so little that I had trouble casting forward
due to extra weight on my fly. The highlight was this big bow, which thought it was a steelhead in fast current.”
Warm Rivers:
On Monday UO buddy JB said: “Mornin! Some intel for you from the river. Joseph C and I got out to check on the bass. No stripers yet. The shoal bass were shy but we managed to trick a few. Water was low and cold. White game changer did the trick.
Ponds:
No recent reports, but GAWRD has some great intel in its well blog, below. Ponds are red-hot right now!
Lakes:
The GAWRD shocking crews said that stripers are in the upper ends of lakes and running up the rivers in the their annual spawning attempts:
https://georgiawildlife.blog/2026/03/27/georgia-fishing-report-march-27-2026/
Wanna know how GA walleye fisheries are created?
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWZbBP3gpjN/?igsh=azZ4MHo3ZWtvNzh1
UO buddy Ryan: “The Hooch Tailwater has been oddly “off” for the last few weeks. I’ve been entertained by chasing some lake-run warmwater species around Cherokee County.”
Afar:
LRO is always a good source for the latest Smokies fishing reports:
Little River Outfitters - Fly Fishing in the Great Smoky Mountains
UO guide Israel: Wes and I went to Denver for a manufacturer meeting, but we stuck around for a few extra days of recreation. We hit a nice hatch of BWOs in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River. Then we popped up to a high mountain lake and got some Tigers on streamers and chironomids.”
Athens Jay just returned from his bucket list trip: “I just returned from 21 days and nights on the Colorado River, rafting 226 miles through the Grand Canyon.
It was an incredible experience and I even got to do some fishing along the way. I managed to catch some real pretty wild trout. I fished a brown articulated streamer in the main flow of the Colorado, and fished CDC beadhead pheasants tails in the small tributaries. The fish were just an added bonus to the scenery!”
Events:
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
April 11:
It’s the Hoot on the Hooch in Helen, the annual fundraiser by the GA Foothills TU chapter. C’mon up for good food, good tunes, and y’all fish tales. You ight even hear your name called as a winner of one of the GATU Dream Trip prizes, assuming you’ve bought a few raffle tix.
https://go.tulocalevents.org/e3e934/Campaign/Details
Go and enjoy some great spring (summer?) weather this week. You might have to outwalk the weekend crowds, or bring your own rock to stand on in the most popular stocker streams, but quality time on the water will make it worth your efforts. Just pass up your campfires for now. Let’s keep those trees intact and shading our precious trout waters! Good luck. Stop by a UO shop soon for your spring supplies.
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
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