Soggy Opening Day!

From our friend at the DNR, Jeff Durniak:

The tradition continues this Saturday. RENEW YOUR FISHING LICENSE AND TROUT STAMP. At nine bucks and five for the trout stamp, you get a year of entertainment. That's cheaper than a trip to the movies or a restaurant!

DNR is adding license dealers and working out the new system's kinks as we speak, but your easiest method is to buy ahead of time via the internet. Don't stand in a line at a tackle shop on Saturday morning, when you could be fishing! http://www.gofishgeorgia.com/recreationallicenses_services.aspx

(editor's note: remember, we've got licenses available now at both Unicoi Outfitters locations)


While the rain forecast may dampen some spirits and some camping plans, there are several potential upsides:

1) less crowds = more good spots and more fish for die-hards

2) better distribution of stocked fish due to flood waters

3) Much needed groundwater and reservoir recharge!

Just use your knowledge of stream discharge (USGS real time water data), crowd size, and DNR stocking plans to help you pick the best streams. The best may not be the biggest. Remember that smaller streams with smaller watersheds will have more rapid runoff and will be wadeable quicker. They often don't have the big crowds of the big-name waters like Cooper, Wildcat, Dicks, and Holly. Also look for flood refuges in small and large streams, as those places in the channel may stack up with fish. Use enough lead to get down to those trout, which are trying not to get blown downstream into a reservoir full of hungry largemouths.

Our '09 stocking list is here: http://www.gofishgeorgia.com/documentdetail.aspx?docid=34&pageid=2&category=fishing

And, for folks with a bit harder time getting to the creek, we now have a list of more accessible streams (thanks to WRD trout stocking coordinator Perry Thompson at Burton Hatchery) here: http://www.gofishgeorgia.com/documentdetail.aspx?docid=34&pageid=3&category=fishing Hey, none of us are as young and nimble as we used to be.


There are a lot of trout-related events happening on Saturday:

1) Open House at Unicoi Outfitters in Helen (some free seminars)

2) City of Helen's trout tournament http://www.helentroutfestival.com/

3) BBQ and bluegrass at Satolah Fire Dept (east Rabun Co). http://www.maconnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4375&Itemid=34 http://www.firedepartments.net/Georgia/Clayton/SatolahVolunteerFireDepartment.html

4) More events at NGTO and on many Georgia TU chapter websites.


If wading streams is not your top choice, get the boat out. Anthony said there are some nice ones in Seed Lake (photo) right now, in between all those walleye. Good luck. Got a sharp knife, a frying pan, and corn meal? Stockers are like Doritos. Remember that commercial, "We'll make more." Grab a kid and ... www.gofishgeorgia.com

Dukes Creek in the Rain

Sunday after church, with high anticipation because of the rain, I met up with "The Dredger" who was fishing Section 1 on Dukes Creek. It turns out the fishing had been slower than expected that morning because the water was too muddy (a rare occurrence on Dukes but we did get a lot of rain this weekend). He had only landed a couple of smaller fish but had broken off two big ones that morning. By the time I got there, Section 1 was beginning to clear just a little but at least 5 other anglers were staking out different stretches of it so we decided to go down to the middle of Section 4 and fish up 3. Unfortunately, the water didn't begin to clear at all down low until around 3 PM so the slow fishing continued there also. We did manage to catch about 15 fish between us in the four hours we fished and most of them were good solid fish with a couple of twenty inchers, a couple of 17's and 15's. All rainbows this trip. Off-color water is usually brown trout time but today it just didn't happen. A couple of fish were caught on San Juan Worms and one on a Power Egg but everything else was on big ugly black leech patterns (with more split shot than should be legal). In one hole, I counted 9 flies lost on the bottom between the two of us as we played tag-team while tying on new rigs. It was fun though. High sticking those heavily weighted flies just a few feet from where we were standing. Catching fish in the same run the other guy just fished with no luck (both of us). And I must say that the Simms Vibram soled boots performed great in that heavy water. Sunday afternoon was beautiful after it stopped raining. And the catching was just good enough to bring lots of laughter, hootin' and hollerin'.