This week’s theme is “hello rain!” It’s most welcome on our drought-impacted mountain trout streams. Hopefully we’ll get 2-3 inches through Saturday, and then more storms in the weeks ahead to recharge our headwaters.
Trouting this past week was extremely slow and challenging on nearly all mountain streams, with only a few exceptions (as described in our full report).
But the trouting game will change completely overnight. If these storms hit as predicted, many streams will be blown out over the weekend. Flows should be better for a few days after the storm surge, but water temps will dive with the upcoming cold snap. Tune into your favorite fly shop and key USGS stream gauges to see where and when your trout waters will return to fishable conditions.
The past week was great for reservoir stripers and bass. The warm, overcast weather had the shad up, the gulls diving on them, and some big, finned predators busting into them. Don’t miss our intel in the “Lakes” section of our full report.
Lastly, our Tuesday night “Undercurrents” started with a bang with Henry’s striper tell-all, which Wes recorded for any of you late-comers. And we have seven more all-stars scheduled for y’all, so tune in on Tuesdays!
See more Undercurrents info and detailed fishing intel in our full report, right here:
http://blog.angler.management/
(Link in bio)
Good luck this week. Don’t forget a raincoat, warmer clothes, a stream thermometer, and our phone number for daily stream conditions.
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, parachute Adams, griffiths gnat, little black stone (or #18 gray elk hair caddis, and a small tan chubby or elk hair caddis as the lead fly (a strike indicator for your tiny dry dropper)
Nymphs & Wets:
DH Stockers: twister egg, pheasant tail or Frenchie, sexy Walts worm, rainbow warrior, zebra midge, root beer midge, Duracell, micro girdle bug.
Mountain streams: zebra midge, soft hackles, prince nymph, frenchie.
Streamers:
Black and olive woolly buggers, jig leech, barely legal, UV polar Jig.
Reservoir Bass & Stripers:
clouser minnow, low fat minnow, Cowen’s somethin else.
Headwaters:
Flows just kept dropping and fish-holding water just kept drying up last week. Survivors in those glassy pools were super-spooky and more interested in survival than eating. More rain should change this.
Dredger returned for a Smokies rematch last Monday. He lost again, managing only five bows in four hours of hard fishing (both dry/dropper and Euro) in 41-degree water. Some winter stones were fluttering, but few fish were rising. There was no hot fly pattern, as frenchies, sexy Walts, and Spanish bullets each brought a fish or two. The real pattern was habitat: deeper, faster water, which was in short supply. It was still a warm, beautiful afternoon in the national park, topped of by a flock of gobblers and several herds of elk. Hint: be careful of large “pedestrians” when driving through downtown Cherokee!
Delayed Harvest: Most streams were fairly uncooperative due to the low, clear water. The first anglers to a pool had a decent shot or two before the pool spooked. Small eggs, nymphs, and Euronymphs (perdigon, frenchie, etc) worked on unspooked fish at Smith.
The exception was the Chattooga, which was still very low and clear. The SCDNR trout page indicated that it was just redosed.
Athens Jay and accomplice Jamie confirmed that fact with a midweek trip. Jay said: “Fun DH trip for our Athens duo. Very low flows and clear water had fish in deeper runs and pools. Double nymph rigs under a bobber were very effective. We found cooperative fish in deep runs (not in riffles or pools). Moving water was the key for enticing them to eat.
Funny thing happened while we were both fishing double nymph rigs near each other. From those four nymphs, we caught a triple that was a trout slam!
Here’s a late (4PM) addition, just in from Athens Alan: “Hi Jeff, hope you have had a good week.
Made the trek up to the Chattooga DH section yesterday. Full parking lot on the GA side with a big group of hikers gathered at 10:30 am and 10 vehicles in the SC lot when I arrived. Temperature on my truck was 50 degrees when I pulled in. Was on the river by 11:00, water was low and clear, the gauge height near Clayton showed 1.25. Started with a double nymph rig and connected with an 11” brown in short order on the top fly, a Dredger black leech special (many thanks!).
Moved up river a bit and landed a nice brookie that went 13” on the bottom nymph, a small size 18 pheasant tail.
Shortly after noon I began to see some caddis on the water and saw rises to them around 12:30, tied on two caddis, one that was a size 16 and the other a size 14. I’d seen what looked to be two different naturals on the water, one had a lighter wing and body and I caught another one that had a darker wing and body. Landed three rainbows (completing the Chattooga slam 😀) in the first pool. Walked further upstream and stopped to eat lunch. Sat on the bank and watched risers in a quiet flat section that I targeted and landed another handful of browns and rainbows.
Was nice when the clouds were providing overcast conditions and definitely made it easier to be “stealthy”, still walked up on more than my fair share of fish that waved as they shot off.
Bugs had stopped coming off by around 3:30. Got back to the parking lot at 4:50 and was the only one left. Saw four other anglers during the day, was a good trip! Have a great weekend!”
A quartet of Rabunites (rabuntu.org) hit Nantahala DH on Wednesday afternoon.
The river was still low and clear and most fish were sullen.
“Bluejay” managed a decent handful of fish via Euronymphing a small perdigon through the few available, deeper pockets and runs.
The afternoon sun got some bugs (winter stones, BWO’s) flying and a few fish rising in soft seams and slow pockets. Nanette practiced her skitter and fooled a few on top. Her visible lead fly (strike indicator) was a #16 tan caddis, while the business end was either a tiny BWO or pheasant tail soft hackle, dropped back 18 inches on 6X tippet. Skitters brought more looks and eats than standard dead drifts.
Stockers:
Stockers are slim. Your best bets are the two tailwaters for summer/fall holdovers and just outside the DH stream boundaries to find the wash-downs and swim-ups after flood events.
Private Waters:
We’ve had very few post-holiday trips as most folks are recovering from that time off and spending spree. The trips we’ve had have been slow, to be honest. Despite better (warmer) water temps, catching has been slow. Those big fish are just so spooky in the low, clear water that our guides and clients have been able to get just a few drifts and a hookup or two in each pool before it shuts down. Fly pattern hasnt really mattered. Eggs, nymphs, and small buggers will get a first strike or two.
Higher water will remedy this situation. Then it will be back to some decent afternoon action during the warmest water of the day.
Tailwaters:
Tailwaters are the other exception to last week’s crummy trout action. They’re fishing well. Remember that our GA trout tailwaters (Hooch, Toccoa, even Smith DH) run a bit warmer due to their stored lake waters, which haven’t fully cooled off from cold December air temps.
UO buddy Ryan: “Hooch tailwater action has remained solid with these warmer days. I've seen rising fish eating what I believe were BWO's, and even some Caddis hatching. The wind has been my #1 battle my past several trips out. It's been necessary to use a heavy anchor fly with ~4mm tungsten bead or heavier just to have a chance against it. In these conditions, indicator nymphing would be much more relaxing but I am stubborn.
Warm Bass Rivers:
No news.
Ponds:
No news.
Lakes:
UO guide Joseph: “Fishing has been very good over the past week on Lanier. I was out Tuesday with Steve and son Andrew, and we ended up landing 11 and losing four. All of our fish came on small baitfish patterns fished on sinking lines. Bird activity also greatly helped us to find schooling fish.
I still have some openings for the rest of this month so if you’ve been wanting to give it a try now’s the time! To book call UO Helen at (706)878-3083 or visit www.josephclarkflyfishing.com”
UO owner Jimmy hit Lanier, also. His first trip was a bit slow. He only hooked and lost one striper, but had a heck of a consolation prize: a leaping, head-shaking 7lb largemouth.
He invited Dredger on trip #2. They used the intel from Henry and Joseph regarding birds, fly patterns, and fishing techniques and had an epic afternoon. There was lots of spaghetti on their graph and fish sometimes breaking as close at 10 feet from the boat. They put eight stripers in the boat, with the two best pulling the boga down to 15 and 17 lbs, respectively.
Henry also had some good trips this week.
Did you miss Henry’s Tuesday night striper intel? Never fear, for we’ve got your back. Buy Henry’s book or listen to his recorded interview. Tune in here and wait about 2.5 minutes until Wes starts the interview. That Lanier striper gospel will produce for you, too. It sure did for us!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTMMgnVkXYN/?igsh=bXpsbHpwdWhlem1s
Afar:
UO staffer Atticus:”Here's some fodder from my recent trip to the Florida keys. I had flyfishing fun with such diversity.”
Events:
Wes’ “Unicoi Undercurrents” continues each Tuesday night on UO’s Instagram page. Next up is Bass Pro Shops/Cabelas catalog photographer David Cannon’s picture-taking tips. He’s an old GA friend, mentored by Jimmy and the Rabunites,
and now makes his living traveling the globe and taking professional pics!
The January roster:
The rest of Wes’ lineup is equally impressive, from Okefenokee Bert to Euro-master George Daniel and game-changer Blane Chocklett. Set your phone alarms for Tuesdays at 645 PM to tune in by 7 for the live shows.
That’s the latest here as we await the storm front. The warm, dry weather is finally heading out. Here comes colder air and hopefully lotsa raindrops for some river recharge and much better trout action. Good luck. Call or stop in if we can help launch your 2026 trips.
And there we go!
