Unicoi Outfitters Fishing Report - 10/3/25

Wow, it’s darn near perfect up here! Cold nights, pleasant days, and dry weather with no humidity are providing fine conditions for anglers. Chilly nights and moderate days have cooled off all trout waters, but they’re still very skinny due to lack of rain. That dry weather has kept bass rivers low, clear and extremely inviting to floaters and waders. Lanier stripers have finally popped back on top, too!

Due to DC bickering and the govt shutdown, many federal operations are closed, which may impact some of your favorite facilities. However, most of the land and water appears to remain open, best we can tell from limited, posted info. See those fed details in our blog.  Our weekly blog is fresh every Friday and will help you boost your own catch rates. 

http://blog.angler.management/

(Link in bio)

Stop in either UO shop if we can help you out.

Helen: 706-878-3083. 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:  purple haze, tan elk hair caddis, parachute ant, yellow or orange stimmy, foam ant, micro chubby Chernobyl, royal humpy, Drymerger. 

Nymphs & Wets: 

Stockers: red squirmy worm, peach egg, micro girdle bug, black woolly bugger, tan and olive mops, pink tag jig.

Mountain streams: hares ear, drowned ant, pheasant tail nymph and soft hackle, prince nymph, crazy leg stone.

Streamers:

small black and olive buggers, bank robber sculpin, micro dungeon. 

(Bass & Stripers) Boogle bug, wiggle minnow, sparkle minnow, clouser minnow, thrasher, polar changer. 

Headwaters: 

It looks like USFS lands are still open, but some developed facilities may be closed. The Chattahoochee Forest website had very limited information:

http://www.fs.usda.gov/r08/chattahoochee-oconee/alerts

The main message appears to be that there won’t be any staff around for maintenance, law enforcement, and emergency response. We all need to pack out our trash and not trash our forest during this shutdown!  

National forest headwaters were low, clear, and cold today (58F at lunch). 

The Hooch on the lower WMA was 61F and some leftover 9/27 stockers were seen. 

Same for Smith on the park (58F).

Stealth, light lines, and small, dull bugs will do best in the very thin, sunlit waters. Fish are hungry in that cold water, but scared when their backs are hardly covered by the low flows.

UO buddy RSquared: “Thursday morning, I headed north to my favorite Brown Trout Stream. With it being mid-week, I assumed the small creek would be devoid of people. I was wrong. Several groups were camping & fishing. The water was low & gin clear!! The fish were very wary & I was in my best stealth mode. However, I still spooked several decent browns. I tried various nymphs & dries with nominal success. I managed to stick a couple of 4" browns with a Parachute Adams. It was a beautiful day to be on the water and enjoy some healing hydrotherapy! The old saying, "The fishing was great but the catching was poor!" Proved to be correct!”

Delayed Harvest:

Both the NC and TN sessions reopened on October 1.  It’s a fine time for a road trip north!

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1G9g1NN3LP/?mibextid=wwXIfr

https://www.tn.gov/twra/fishing/trout-information-stockings.html

Stockers: 

A few more GA streams were stocked this week, and there are leftovers around from last week’s stocking, too (see last Friday’s UO report for that list)

https://georgiawildlife.com/Fishing/Trout

Just use light line and smaller baits while our streams are so low and clear, making even these fresh stockers very nervous.

Private Waters:

Thanks to the arrival of cool fall weather, we are reopening several of our private reaches this weekend.  Call the Helen shop now (706-878-3083) to reserve your slots.  We’ve taken a lot of reservations already.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DPTu0UJgD_5/?igsh=MTB4ZXN3b251dnBoaA==

Wes will be staffing our UO booth at the Soque River Flyfishing Festival on Sunday.

  Details and tickets here:

 https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FLVo2tVG1/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Tailwaters:

Here’s the latest news on the federal government shutdown effect on Chattahoochee National Recreation Area:

https://www.facebook.com/share/16HeK7oY1u/?mibextid=wwXIfr

UO friend Ryan: “I hit the Hooch Tailwater this past weekend to get some tight-line nymphing practice before my biggest competition ever in a few weeks in Cherokee.  The water was terribly stained, and the dissolved oxygen levels were not great so I was happy to make out with about 15 fish.  I was throwing 6-7x tippet with hares ear, frenchie and France fly variations ranging from very natural hues to flies with an attractor hotspot. Breaking down the river thoroughly was crucial and I caught fish in all types of habitats.”

Warm Rivers: 

They’re low and clear and cooling off. The Hooch at Highway 115 was 69F at 6PM yesterday.  Go soon to grab the last of the topwater action before these rivers cool and the bass move a bit deeper.

https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no=02331000&legacy=1

UO-Helen manager Wes: “I did a shoal bass float last week with Tim. We took advantage of the low early fall flows and caught some nice shoal bass all on topwater. An olive/tan Stealth bomber was the top fly of the day.”

Ponds: no recent reports. I walked the Unicoi Lake trail at midday today and fish had pulled back off the banks due to very clear water.  Fish deeper during the day and hit the shallows at dawn and dusk. 

Lakes:

UO guide Joseph’s Lanier report:“ Lanier is heating up with the return of striper fishing. We’re seeing good groups of fish surfacing mostly in open water. As always light winds and cloud cover will offer a better feeding window than other conditions. For lures serpentine swimbaits and topwater walking baits have been best. The fish are still moving a bit fast for fly fishing. If you want to try with the long rod Game changers, full size clousers, and kinky muddlers should produce. 

The topwater action is just heating up, so now is the time to lock in a date. I still have some availability for mid October and November. 

To book call UO-Helen at 706-878-3083 or visit www.josephclarkflyfishing.com”

Afar:

Here’s some timely info from our friends at R and R Flyfishing regarding fed gubmint shutdown effects on the Smokies:

https://randrflyfishing.com/2025/10/02/fly-fishing-through-the-government-shutdown-in-great-smoky-mountains-national-park/

Dredger went back up to the Smokies on Monday in search of cold water and found some! The stream was  60 degrees at his 9AM start.  

He caught a few small bows deep on the Euro rig, but quickly switched to a dry/dropper rig as the sun rose. And it was game on!  Most fish preferred the frenchie dropper, but four ate the stimmy dry fly. 

The wild fish didn’t exceed 9 inches, but all were fun. Surprisingly, small browns were on the feed, too, despite the high sun. Seven came to hand, along with about double that number of wild bows. A few big reservation migrants tested his two-weight rod, which passed the test.

Trip highlights included an onstream lesson by a master angler (heron), a resident elk hopping in above him for a cold drink,  spotting a couple of big browns pairing off to spawn, and watching a 16-inch brown doing figure 8’s at his feet in an attempt to engulf the thrashing 8-inch rainbow on the end of his leader.

UO’s good friend, Ski, made up to his cabin on the PM yesterday (10/2) and found time to wet a line that evening. He hooked this 35-inch king on an egg pattern and was able to beach it after a 30-minute fight.

UO buddy Swamper: “Okefenokee Swamp – Eight members of The Atlanta Fly Fishing Club (atlantaflyfishingclub.org) came down for a trip with me to the Okefenokee last weekend and had a blast. James from the Atlanta Fly Fishing Club caught this bowfin on a Capt. Bert’s Bladed Fly about 5 minutes after he started fishing in the Okefenokee Swamp on Friday. “

Full report here:

https://georgiawildlife.blog/category/fishing/

Capt. Bert Deener guides fishing trips in the Okefenokee Swamp and makes a variety of both fresh and saltwater fishing lures. Check his lures out at Bert’s Jigs and Things on Facebook. For a copy of his latest catalog, you can download it from his website at 

bertsjigsandthings.com or e-mail him (bertdeener@yahoo.com).

Events:

Reminder: the Soque Fly Fishing Festival is this Sunday. See above for the registration link.

Kudos:

A big thanks to the Rabun TU/GA Tech partnership for Sarah’s habitat enhancement last Saturday!

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17SpnxjerY/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Get outside ASAP and enjoy this great fall weather. Cooler days have turned on the fish and made us very comfortable and happy, too. Have fun fishing before the leaves fall and clutter your drifts in a month or so (they’re already filling some NC streams).  And please take your trash with you to keep our national forests and parks clean during Washington DC’s latest round of political stalemate. Thanks!  Come see us, for UO sure is OPEN!

Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.

www.unicoioutfitters.com

Unicoi Outfitters Fishing Report - 9/26/25

What’s new? Well, we’ll tell you. We finally had some rain and the fish loved it!   Headwaters were briefly recharged, but are dropping and clearing quickly. Some stocker streams got a fresh dose for National Hunting and Fishing Day (27th), when Georgians can fish for free. River bassin remains great, while pond bass and bream are once again cruising the cooler shallows. NC trout were fired up when water temps dipped into the 50’s and big critters (bears and elk) just added icing to the cake. Distant anglers shared some “kingly” pics and vids. And Wes came thru, as always, with his hot fly list and an awesome Chatt Bass video. 

Catch it all in our blog. It’s fresh every Friday and will help you boost your own catch rates. 

http://blog.angler.management/

(Link in bio)

Stop in either UO shop if we can help you out.

Helen: 706-878-3083. 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:  purple haze, tan elk hair caddis, parachute ant, yellow stimmy, foam ant, micro chubby Chernobyl, royal humpy, Drymerger. 

Nymphs & Wets: 

Stockers: red squirmy worm, peach egg, micro girdle bug, black woolly bugger, tan and olive mops, pink tag jig.

Mountain streams: hares ear, drowned ant, pheasant tail nymph and soft hackle, UV green weenie, prince nymph.

Streamers:

small black and olive buggers, bank robber sculpin, micro dungeon. 

(Bass) Boogle bug, wiggle minnow, sparkle minnow, crawfish jambalaya, 

(Panfish) Gill Scorpion, amnesia bug, girdle bug, chartreuse mop. 

Headwaters: 

They are returning to low and clear levels after yesterday’s rains.  Headwaters were already clear (and 64F at noon), 

while lower elevation streams (Smith, Spoilcane) were slightly stained and slightly warmer (65-66).  

They will all clear by tomorrow. Mornings may fish better than afternoons for a few more days because we are still having warm, muggy nights in the 60’s. We need the return of 50-degree nights to really turn on headwater trout throughout the day.  (See my “afar” trip, below)

https://waterdata.usgs.gov/ga/nwis/uv?site_no=02330450

Stockers: 

UO guide Syd donned her rain gear yesterday and hit a local stocker stream, which was high and stained. She had decent luck with some stocked fish and little wild rainbows on a double nymph rig (mini leech, Montana prince, regular prince).

Tomorrow is National Hunting and Fishing Day and a free fishing day for state residents. In celebration, GAWRD has spiced up several streams for us.  From today’s GAWRD weekly fishing report: “Stocked Trout (This report courtesy of Trout Stocking Coordinator Chris French): In recognition and celebration ofNational Hunting & Fishing Dayon Saturday September 27, the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division will be stocking several thousand Rainbow & Brown Trout into various locations across North Georgia. Several popular locations from eastern, central, and western North Georgia will be stocked in time for National Hunting & Fishing Day, which is also one of Georgia’s 3 annual Free Fishing Days where residents do NOT need a fishing license or a trout license to fish on any public waters in the state including lakes, streams, ponds and public fishing areas. Planned stockings include Johns Creek in Floyd County, Rock Creek in Fannin County, Cooper Creek in Union County, the Chattahoochee River and Smith Creek in White County, the Tallulah River in Towns and Rabun Counties, and Moccasin Creek in Rabun County. Stay up to date with the most recent trout stockings and information at:

https://georgiawildlife.com/Fishing/Trout

https://georgiawildlife.com/get-involved/nhfday

Private Waters:

We are on the verge of reopening our private waters on the Hooch and Soque. Call the Helen shop now (706-878-3083) to reserve your slots before all of our prime fall dates are filled. We’ve taken a lot of reservations already.

Tailwaters:

UO friend Myles: “This past Friday I ran a Euro Nymphing trip on the hooch tailwater. It was my client’s first time fly fishing. The water was that nice stained, pea-soup color, but that didn't stop the fish from eating! Shortly after we got started, my client was successfully figuring out how to euro nymph. Throwing a variety of eggs and nymphs, we got a nice mix of wild browns and some stocker rainbows. He ended up catching about 20 fish, and to say the least he is hooked into the fly fishing world now!”

Warm Rivers: 

They remain a best bet. Get some muscular river bass on top before cooler fall weather puts them down.  Cooler river temps have them more active. Right now we just have to check the level of stain after these rains. Good news: the Hooch at Highway 115 was stained and 73F at 2PM today, but still very fishable. 

https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no=02331000&legacy=1

The river at Duncan Bridge was a bit muddier, but still had two feet of visibility.  The summer tube and yak crowd has diminished, so float the rivers soon. 

UO Helen manager Wes managed to squeeze in a short local search for Chattahoochee Bass. And he found a fine one, indeed! Check out the colors in his post yesterday:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DPBu72CAPu8/?igsh=MTZobmZzYTJ6bm80cQ==

UO buddy Ryan’s update on his Bass Slam quest: “After multiple trips without success, I managed to land a nice Coosa Redeye bass for my GA Bass Slam.  All I need now is a largemouth and I am all set!  I caught it on my 7 foot 3 weight throwing a hopper which was a blast.  Came up right before my fly floated over a rock and gulped it!”

https://georgiawildlife.com/fishing/angler-resources/GeorgiaBassSlam

UO staffer Dredger ran north of the border twice last week to get his Smallie fixes before they sink with cool fall weather.  Friday afternoon looked perfect, with low, clear water. But nobody told the fish. He managed just two fish before a thunderstorm ran him off right at the magic hour of 7PM.  He vowed revenge.

And found it upon return this week. The river was a bit higher, slightly stained, and cooler from recent rains. He managed a good handful of cooperators, from 9 to 12 inches, on his white stealth bomber in the last 90 minutes of daylight.  A quiet stalk, long cast, and loud  “splat” of the landing bug drew aggressive strikes in the long, flat pool. The best one, maybe 14 inches, shook the hook before a pic.

Recent Retiree Athens Jay: “I finally got a chance to spend time on a favorite Piedmont river. The flow was really low and clear. Fish were spooky and I had several fish chase my fly but not eat with conviction. I did manage to land several healthy river bass on a big articulated streamer that was sort of shad-colored. Fish were holding tight to rocks and wood, and it was really cool when they charged out to eat a fly. We did also have pretty good luck on top with a big black popping bug. “

Ponds: They are cooling off and the fish are stirring.  I saw plenty of bream and small bass cruising the Unicoi Lake perimeter while I hiked its trail this morning. 

Toss those poppers. And to double your bream catch, drop a small wet ant or pheasant tail two feet off the popper’s hook bend on 5X tippet. The popper/dropper rig can be deadly.

The best part of the park trip was its start.  Coming off the highway and driving along the row of rental cabins near the dam, I tapped brakes as a pack of big dogs was crossing the road way ahead of me.  As I slowly drove further, those big black dogs weren’t dogs.  Mama bear was leading her three nearly fully grown cubs back up the hill after a probable lake drink. A Bruin Quartet!  (Sorry, no pics since they moved too fast) . Be Bearwise this fall!

https://bearwise.org/

Lakes:

UO guide Joseph’s Lanier report:“Topwater bassin is picking up on the pond. I’m still seeing consistent groups of spots feeding on the surface. It seems like most of the fish are moving towards the mouths of the creeks around humps and points. I’ve also seen a few in open water over timber however without forward facing sonar they can be hard to target. For baits flukes and serpentine swimbaits have produced the best. 

We’re right on the cusp of striper fishing. I still have some dates available for October and November, however they are going very quickly.

To book or inquire call the Helen store at (706)-878-3083 or visit my website at www.josephclarkflyfishing.com”

Afar:

My Michigan buddy, Ski, traveled a few hours north yesterday to check on his cabin, which sits right on the bank of the P.M.  He sent me this text and video. 

“Hard to see, but a nice pod directly across from cabin. There was a guide parked there when I arrived. Saw them land an 18 inch brown. Hopefully those submarines will still be there next week when I can return with my fishing gear.”

I gotta plan a road trip soon to tangle with his back-yard kings!

UO’s nomadic angler, CDB, checked in between epic trips: “I ventured north to the famed Pere Marquette and Muskegon rivers with a group of veterans from Veterans Flyfishing last week. You might know the Pere Marquette, or PM, as the home of the first brown trout ever planted in U.S. water.  Roughly 4,900 German “von Behr” fry—were released in April 1884 into the Baldwin River, a PM tributary. There is even a giant brown-trout sculpture in downtown Baldwin, MI to celebrate this.

This intrepid group of anglers tangled with multiple species—smallmouth bass, red-eye bass, brown trout, northern pike, steelhead and of course, king salmon.  No grayling, sadly.  While they were indigenous to the PM, they were extirpated in the 1800’s due to logging and development.  The kings were spectacular fighters, surprisingly acrobatic and often somersaulting through the air.  

All the fish except the king salmon were battled on 5 weights with a variety of small streamers and nymphs as well as a few surface takes on tricos and adams.  The kings were battled on 11 weights, drags cranked down tight, 12-to-15-pound test tippets, and mostly stonefly nymphs.

It’s a pilgrimage I have put off for years, but now that I have done it, I can say that it is worth it, and I will almost certainly be back.”

Dredger ventured up to the Smokies last weekend with his repaired, 9-foot 11-inch, 2-weight Clearwater rod.  The former ten footer did fine.  Water temp was 58F at 10AM and it was game on in those cooler waters!  

A big bunch of bows and three browns ganged up on his Euro rig.  

So many, in fact, that he switched to a dry/dropper rig. Even the chubs were fun!  They were still partial to his silver beaded dropper, but he did manage two trout on top. Here are pics of the mugging victims.

None broke 9 inches, but all were wild, spunky, and fun on the limber rod and 6X tippet. Elk were scarce at midday, but he did spot one big bull bedding in the roadside shade and causing a typical elk jam of onlookers.

UGA 5Rivers grad “Coop” paid some dues up north:

“The South Holston is full of smart fish! Had to use 6x tippet and long leaders down to size 18 to size 22 midges, split backs, and hare's ears. Fish were rising on tan sulphurs that hatched in the afternoon. Looked exactly like a light cahill fly, might want to have some of those with you if you head up to northern TN. Prime fishing weather is coming soon!”

Events:

The Rabunites invite us to two gatherings. Tomorrow morning is Sarahs trout habitat enhancement. Tuesday (30th) is carrying supplies into the Chattooga for the annual interagency fish sampling event.  Details here, in the club’s September newsletter:

https://rabuntu.org/tight-lines/

That’s the latest intel up here. We’re thankful for the rain soaking our woods, and welcome a few more inches to recharge our streamflows.  We just don’t need too much, so we hope next week’s two storms just skirt us and don’t inundate us.  And we pray the same for our dear friends in the Carolinas, still recovering from Helene after a year.  

Stop in and see us soon. Swap some fish or bear stories and restock your bugs and leaders. We have refilled our shelves and bins for your fall season and have plenty to go around!

Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.

www.unicoioutfitters.com