Are You Sharp Enough?

Man, this weather has got me frisky as a newborn colt.  I can't wait to get off work and hit the river for a couple of hours in the afternoon.  Yesterday I grabbed Kathy's kayak and headed to the Chattahoochee for some topwater shoal bass fishing.  What a great crisp afternoon it was, just cool enough to warrant waders at dark.  I paddled upstream for about a quarter mile and beached the kayak below a beautiful set of shoals.  I was determined to fish on top with my old standby, a white Stealth Bomber, and nothing else.  Twenty minutes later I had long distance released 4 nice shoalies and was trying to figure out why.  I recalled that this same fly had resulted in a couple of similar disengagements Sunday afternoon when the old Edison incandescent went off in my little pea brain and suggested I check my hook for sharpness.  Sure enough, the only Stealth Bomber I had with me was dull as a hammer and I had nothing to sharpen it with.  To add insult to injury, the first fish I lost was probably the largest shoal bass I have tied into this year.  I had thrown my fly right into a turbulent frothy mix of currents coming over a ledge.  The fly floated maybe two feet when this guy exploded on it from beneath the whitewater.  Chalking it up to bad luck, I kept fishing and proceded to lose three more nice fish in the next twenty yards.  The bite was definitely on but I was ignorantly unprepared.  Checked the hook on my thumbnail and it slid right off.  A big no-no!  When I'm trout fishing, I always have some kind of sharpener on me but not last night going for bass.  And it cost me big time.  Make yourself a note and tape it to your fly rod; "Check Hooks for Sharpness, Dummy!"

I did manage to land at least as many as I lost before dark-thirty set in and I floated back downstream to my truck.  Largest one was probably 12 inches; nothing like the first brute that threw my fly back in my face.  I'm already planning a rematch.

Do You Know the Difference?

These two river bass were caught this past weekend by the Dredger; one dredging and one on top.  Can you identify the species?  The topwater fly that you can see in the photo on the left was the trusty White Stealth Bomber.  The subsurface fly in the other photo was a Hipps Hell Craw.  Both flies are excellent bass catchers and should be in your arsenal when wading into the warmer waters of the region.

Lake Allatoona Topwater Starts Soon!

It looks like Henry Cowen's got some good fishing coming up the next couple months over on Allatoona:

Small stripers are the norm on Allatoona

Well guys and gals, I hope everyone had a nice summer. I know I could not wait for it to end. Fishing for me consisted of some river fishing for trout, striped bass and carp. I want to let everyone know what we are doing that is new and exciting. We will be fishing over on Lake Allatoona during Sept and Oct to take advantage of the tremendous top water bite that goes on over there. It is an absolute perfect fishery for flyrodders. There is a mix of small stripers, hybrids, spotted bass and white bass. Most of these fish average from 2-5lbs. It is an ideal 6 to 8 wt rod fishery. Best of all is the fact that Allatoona has no herring on it so all the bait is generally threadfin shad in the 1-3″ size. A dozen fish per man is very common when the fish are schooling. We can also accommodate the non-fly fishing angler as these fish can also be taken on lite spinning tackle. It is just great fun! I did a bit of this in June and really enjoyed it to the point where many of my customers want to take advantage of the pleasant weather and great fishing. We will be running 4 hour witching hour trips that cost $250 for up to 2 anglers. Fishing will either be a first light (6:45am-10:45am) or last light (4pm-8pm) deal. Just a nice way for 2 folks to affordably get into some fantastic action! All trips will be run out of my 16 1/2 foot G3 boat. As usual, we can supply all tackle if needed. Floating and intermediate lines are what is called for. We will start booking trips immediately and expect the fishing to kick in by Sept 15th and run thru end of Oct. See you on ”the other” pond. HC

Bass Fishing in the mountains of North Georgia

With the rising water temperatures of summer, anglers can switch gears a bit and sample some of our great warmwater opportunities here in the mountains of North Georgia. A great place to start would be a trip to the Orvis endorsed Lodge of Falling Waters. Located near Ellijay, Georgia, Lake Kennemur contains a healthy population of big bass and hand-sized bluegill that are eager to smash a properly presented fly. Wonderful accommodations are available at the lodge that will make you feel like you stepped into a post card from Montana. The view from the great room is soothing enough to keep you anchored there all day if it were'nt for those pesky largemouths chasing bait fish just outside your window.

Unicoi Outfitters is offering morning and late afternoon 3 hour trips on the lake for 2 anglers for $200.00. Trips are given in our guides' driftboats so you don't even have to get your feet wet. We also supply all the gear for your outing, all you need is a Georgia resident fishing license to fish here and a call to our shop in Blue Ridge at 706-632-1880 to reserve a spot. Check out this bass caught on a recent outing.

Big-Time Bassin' Comes to Georgia!

This weekend (August 5 - 8) the FLW Outdoors 2010 Forrest Wood Cup (aka "The World Championship of Bass Fishing" is coming to Lake Lanier and the Gwinnett Center.

While it's not fly fishing, there are a lot of activities available (free!) for the public, including a bunch of stuff to interest kids in fishing.  And once the kids get interested in fishing, hopefully they eventually become fly anglers, and good stewards of the fisheries...which helps us all in the long run.

So, check out their website linked above for the schedule of events.
 

Lake Fishing Tip

Lake bound trout, bass, crappie, and bluegill are notorious for choosing different depths in which to carry on their daily lives. Water temperature, barometric pressure, fishing pressure, and of course food sources may put these fish at a certain depth level in a lake or pond at any given time of year. Some days finding this activity zone is critical to getting strikes. Putting your fly in the face of a sometimes sullen gamefish is not always easy. Strike zones the size of a ping pong ball can be encountered after strong cold fronts making precise depth control necessary.

Luckily there are many choices in fly lines that can get us down from the surface to around 30 feet or so. Beyond that depth is the realm of the trollers with down riggers anyway, also known as taking a sharp stick in the eye. Sinking and sinking tip fly lines can open up a whole new world to the lake angler. The only problem with that is they can also open up your wallet as well. A good fly line will set you back $70 or so. Depths over about 15 feet usually do require the use of one of these wonderful pieces of technology.

Fish in water at 15 feet or less however can be reached with your normal floating fly line and the use of a large strike indicator and heavy fly. Attaching an indicator at various levels on a long leader can give you precise adjustments in the water depth that your fly can be fished. I know there was a collective cringe by all you traditionalists out there (you know who you are). My favorite shallow water lake depth control tool is the simple Thingamabobber from Westwater Products. These little wonders are available in sizes from 1/2 inch to 1 1/4 inch sizes. With the largest size you can keep a dumbell-eyed Clouser Minnow on a collision course with a school of hungry spotted bass in 12 feet of water for the entire length of the cast. Watching your indicator get jerked two feet under water also adds a visual aspect to probing the depths with your fly rod. Memories of childhood fishing a red and white bobber with a minnow attached to an aberdeen hook will come flooding back the first time you get a strike while using this technique. With this set up the angler can stop his retrieve half way back to the boat and let the fly suspend tantalizingly over deepwater cover without having the fly drop down and become hung up. A super slow presentation can be had with such a rig making lethargic fish take a second look when your fly comes helplessly creeping by. This is just another arrow in the quiver of the lake angler.

Buggin' Bream

Now is the time to beat it to your favorite farm pond or lake for some blazing hot panfish action. Early morning and late evenings are prime time for outstanding top water action, while midday is the time to go deep and pry those big bull bream from their hiding places. Your standard trout flyrod is perfectly adequate for almost any situation you might encounter out on the lake. Flies used for trout such as a Turks Tarantula, Foam Hopper, or Wooly Buggers will take big Bluegill and their cousins as well as the standard chartreuse popper and sometimes even better. Any wiggly fly that comes to life with a twitch or strip of the fly line will work. A regular weight forward line with a 9'4x leader should suffice. Areas such as the backs of coves with some type of cover such as logs, stumps or grass will hold fish daily through the summer. When the sun gets high resist the temptation to head for the AC . Tie on a wooly bugger and probe the creek channels in the coves. Some of the largest panfish I've ever caught came from 10 feet of water. Although not as glamourous as watching a monster gill suck in a top water bug, slowly stripping a streamer and feeling the sudden thud of a heavy fish is exciting in itself. You never know what just ate your fly a five pound largemouth or a 1 pound bluegill. So, grab your trout stuff and go bream fishing I bet you've already got a place in mind.

A not so great Tuckasegee trip

Well, I had to settle a curiosity that had been bothering me all summer about one of my favorite tail water rivers. And despite people telling me that it is not worth fishing, like the legend of Wooly Swamp, I just had to find out for myself.

So my brother and I headed up to Webster, NC to spend the day prospecting on the Tuckasegee DH section. We launched the boat around 8:00am with at least 8 rods rigged up with everything from pencil poppers for bass to small nymph dropper rigs for trout. Now my drift boat has been known to resemble a battleship with all the rods sticking out of it, and Saturday was no exception. We fished hard and with reckless abandon for our own health and well being, but at the end of day, we were broken and longing for Monte Alban's Mexican Restaurant there in Franklin. We did catch a few trout but did not see or catch any bass. Its a shame too because there is so much good water on that section.

Most interesting observation was the water temperature. I realize that there is a long distance between the DH section and the two separate powerhouses that release water down the Tuckasegee, but knowing what I know about Hydrology, I was a little surprised. At 8:00am with the East Fork running 500cfs, the water temp was 62F. Which I thought was a little warm for that time of day. The release stopped around 1:00pm and by 6:00pm the water temp was up to 68F. On days that there is no generation, I could easily see the temps in that section hitting +70F.

You (Re)Learn Something Every Day

Isn't this just a great time to be out on the water?

One day last week Jimmy asked if I wanted to leave work early and head out to Lake Lanier....sure. I had to run home and get a rod, and when I did, all I could find was my old 8 weight that only had a floating line on it - I couldn't find the 9 weight with the Rio VersaTip. Dang. Oh well, I figured I could maybe catch a couple of fish if we found some bass running baitfish.

Sure enough, we did. We found a little mini-point with a couple of small coves on either side that had active fish. The spots were pushing bait to the surface, and try as I might, I couldn't hook up. Jimmy was doing pretty well fishing an intermediate line, but I couldn't buy a strike with the floater. After about an hour and a half, Jimmy said "why don't you put my reel with the 8 weight sink-tip on your rod?" Hey - good idea! I really prefer to use my own rods, and I figured since the bait were pushing up on top and we were getting boils I should catch something...in spite of the results I'd had, so I didn't want to borrow Jimmy's 8 weight. Sometimes I can be pretty stubborn, but using his reel seemed like a good compromise.

So, I pull my reel off and put Jimmy's on....and first cast: fish on! Then a few minutes later a double...some misses and then another fish. Put the fly in front of the fish. I've preached it hundreds of times when talking to customers about nymphing for trout...you'd think I'd heed my own advice! The sink-tip made all the difference.

We ended up with about 10 or 12 spots between us in the 2-pound-ish neighborhood on chartreuse Clousers...lotsa fun for a couple hours after work! You can bet I'm not going out after bass again without a non-floating line anytime soon...and you shouldn't either!