Mountaintown Plantation: A Piece of Trout Heaven

Mountaintown Plantation opened its incredible water to fishing for the first time yesterday. Fly rods in hand, two lucky guys slid in the crystal clear water at daybreak. Bright Fall colors lined the stream banks and sunshine quickly warmed the frosty morning into short sleeve weather.

Any pocket of water that looked like it should hold a trout received a cast and the fly was greeted by a hungry rainbow. Jonathon, Brian, and I experienced one of those days when we could do no wrong.
The trout were eating almost any fly from my unorganized fly boxes.I told Jonathon and Brian that we should see if we can find a fly they won't eat.

Brian had a beaded fish counting necklace with 30 beads on it. He slid them down one time and up another counting at least 60 trout he caught and Jonathon matched him fish for fish. Over 120 trout ain't too bad for a debut.
Hold on tight for we have big plans for the piece of trout heaven!Give us a call at the shop if your interested in hearing more about Mountaintown Plantation.

Julian Byrd

Byrd has pulled the oars down south and out west, but calls Georgia home.  Like most of our guides,  he got started fishing at an early age...read more about him here.

The "Second Season" is About to Start

With the cooler weather and rain we've got in the forecast, it's time for the fall trout season to start up here in the South.  Here's a little video to get your blood pumpin'!  Thanks to David Cannon for the great vid!

John Browning

John has been with the shop guiding for a while now, and as you can tell from the photo, has a bit of fishing experience too!  I'm not entirely sure which one is John, but he is in the photo at right.  Read more of JB's story here.

Jake Darling

Jake has been hanging around the fly shop since he was knee-high to a gnat...we finally had to start letting him guide just to get him out of shop!  In addition to being a great guide, Jake helps run the Helen store - stop by and ask him about his nickname...and click here to read his bio over at our website.

Becky Strain

With David's recent mention of NCF opening back up, and with our other private trophy trout streams about to re-open for the season, I thought I'd take the opportunity to post some info on a few of our guides.  First up is Becky Strain - Becky guides a lot out at NCF, and in addition to being one of several FFF Certified Casting Instructors on our staff, she has won the Women's World Invitational Bonefish Tournament multiple times and holds an IGFA world record for bonefish on the fly.  Click here to read her bio over at the Unicoi Outfitters website.

Noontootla Creek Farm is now Open!

After a long scorching summer, NCF is finally open to anglers again! Yesterday, I had the opportunity to take our Southeastern Simms Rep. Dave Chouinard over to sample some fishing on one of the South's best freestones. The trout were feeling good in the cooler water even though it was very low due to the drought. Dave caught this beautiful Brown trout on a hopper dropper combo along with several more nice fish coming to net. Luckily, we were not eaten by the black bear that left this track in the mud and compared to my fly reel he is a pretty big boy. Judging by the track, he's probably a 400 plus pounder. Our other private waters will be opening soon so grease up that elbow and come and get 'em!

Broken Rods

Here at Unicoi Outfitters we're lucky enough to have customers from around the world...some of whom fish for different species than we're used to around north Georgia.  We recently got an email from a customer who had a warranty repair question...now the truth is that most of the rod repairs we get in are from encounters with car doors rather than big fish, no matter what the customer says (hey, we're all in the Liars Club, right?).  But this time I think it might have been the fish....