And Now a Word From Our Roving Angler...He's In the Smokies

We received this report from Landon Williams, the fishingest 21 year old we know.

I spent my birthday up in the Smokies and had a big time with a couple of buddies up there. We stayed at Cades Cove Sunday night and it was a blast. We fished the North Prong of Little River that afternoon and fishing was good. River was up from recent rain from the passing tropical storm but fished decent with dredge rigs of leeches and pheasant tails. Mostly rainbows but got more browns as it got darker and the rain started again. It poured most of Sunday night and the rivers up in the park were running high and chocolate milk colored. We salvaged the day by packing up and spending the rest of the day on the lower Nantahala below the powerhouse. Fishing was good for holdover and  even wild rainbows down there fishing bank side pockets and seams. They were not hunkered down in that recreational release flow and fed in the top half of the water column, perhaps for emerging BWO's that were coming off. We were catching them on small Frenchies and a few on a Zelon Caddis emerger. It's interesting  you can catch them even with rafts and kayaks constantly going over them. Dark thirty never really happened like I was hoping but I dredged with a golden stone nymph and hooked several in the last hour, including a large brown who got in heavy current and eventually got off. It was a fun way to spend my 21st birthday here on planet Earth!

Landon

The Porch Hatch

If you're wondering what bugs are hatching right now in north Georgia, you need look no further than the front porch of Unicoi Outfitters.  These photographs are from early this morning (6/13).  You may want to consider flies that will resemble these bugs on your next outing.

Hexegenia Limbata	Hexegenia Limbata (Filet Mignon)
Giant Golden Stone (top)	Giant Golden Stone (bottom)
Cranefly	Cranefly

Small Stream Wonders

My friend Mark and I decided to do a little hiking and hit some wild trout waters on Saturday and we both agreed to go to our favorite.  So, for about 4 hours that afternoon, we leap-frogged each other up the mountain, stopping now and again to compare notes and rib each other about our slow reflexes.  When you're targeting little wild rainbows, you'll miss many more than you catch.  At least at our age you do.  They'll appear from nowhere in the blink of an eye, sample your fly, spit it out and disappear before my aging brain even registers "Fish!"  It's just one of the reasons I get such a kick out of it.  When I do fool one and gently bring it to hand, it's like tickling a baby; I just can't help but chuckle.

On this particular trip, both Mark and I were hoping we would each have another rendezvous with what we consider a true trophy fish for this stream.  On previous trips, he and I have both done the dance with a good 12 or 13 inch rainbow.  Mark's dance was successful.  Mine was simply a glance over the shoulder that I replay in slow motion when I close my eyes.

Most of the afternoon I was fishing an Adams Trude (easy to see that white wing!) and Mark fished a size 16 Tan Caddis the entire time.


But today it was all fish in the 4" to 8" range.  We aren't complaining at all.  These fish are why we do this.  The trophies are simply something to talk about for years to come.  We didn't even take a picture of a fish on this day but I think you can tell from these photos what the attraction is.  What a wonderful place!

Howdy All,

Spent Saturday afternoon over on Rock Creek Lake floating around in the float tube.  The water was still pretty cold there and I regretted wet wading once the clouds came in later in the afternoon.  Fishing was pretty good all things considered.  I used a dry dropper rig with a big stimulator and two tungsten bead nymphs, a pheasant tail variant "The Frenchie" and a pink version of a hares ear called a "Surveyor."  Best way to fish it was casting in areas of risers and then slowly strip it back to me. The Dry would sometimes dive when a fish took a nymph dropper but many times all that would signal a strike would be the dry turning in a different direction or a small blip.  Fish actually hit the dry too stripped across the surface, usually just as it was starting to move.  I had many doubles hooked and a few landed and even managed to hook and land a triple!  As cool as that was, the highlight of the day was seeing a small banded water snake swimming across a small cove on the lake and a nice brook trout came up and nailed him!  Now that is something you don't see everyday!  Enjoy the pictures and flying bream...

Landon Williams

Specialty License Plate Fees Drive Off Drivers

We picked up this story from the Macon Telegraph and wanted to share it with our readers.  Somehow the net effects of changing the price of specialty tags was obvious to everyone but the State bean counters.

Long-term effect could be harsh for wildlife programs

By S. HEATHER DUNCAN — hduncan@macon.com

The state division that protects and improves the state’s wildlife is watching its source of income disappear into the rear view mirror, along with the specialty license plates that once supported it.

Three years ago, Georgia hiked the costs of all its specialty plates and added an annual renewal fee. At the same time, it began diverting the majority of the proceeds from specialty tag sales to the state’s general fund instead of the programs championed by the tags.

Since then, Georgians have turned away in droves from the plates that were intended to benefit causes from wildlife protection to cancer screenings.

Middle Georgia state Rep. Willie Talton, R-Warner Robins, sponsored a bill during this year’s legislative session that would reverse the way license plate revenue is split, giving the lion’s share back to the sponsoring agency.

“My purpose was to get that money going toward the charitable organization they bought (the tag) for,” said Talton, who years before helped establish the Joanna McAfee Foundation license plate to support childhood cancer research. “It’s just fair.”

Talton said he hopes to hold hearings this summer on the proposal, which remains alive under the Motor Vehicle Committee. He said state Sen. Ross Tolleson, R-Perry, has said he would carry the bill in the Senate.

Although the addition of an annual renewal fee initially boosted income from specialty tags, agencies like the non-game division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources are concerned that these gains will soon be offset by the drop in public participation in the tag program.

Wildlife benefits

The non-game division is a rare state program that receives no money from the state budget. Traditionally, 60 percent of its entire operating budget comes from the license plates featuring a bald eagle or a hummingbird. The remainder comes from donations, investments and the annual Weekend for Wildlife fundraiser.

The agency uses that income to leverage thousands more in federal grants to help restore habitat, conduct research on threatened species like the gopher tortoise, and sometimes even purchase land such as the Fall Line Sand Hills Natural Area in Taylor County.

Mike Harris, chief of the DNR non-game conservation section, said the license plate changes haven’t caused cuts to the wildlife program yet, partly because it had a reserve that totalled about $7 million at the end of fiscal 2012. But the rate of decline in plate purchases doesn’t bode well for the future, Harris said.

DNR programs that support trout fishing and bobwhite quail habitat also have plates that have seen the same steady drops. The Bobwhite Quail Initiative has seen a 53 percent drop in the number of its license plates in service since the price change, DNR documents show. Just three people bought a new Trout Unlimited license plate in February.

“The bottom line is the number of new plates being issued is down by about 90 percent from before the fee change, which was a low point in the cycle,” because no new plate designs had been issued, Harris said. “And 60 percent of the people who had the plates have turned them in.”

That includes many who still support the work of the non-game wildlife program.

Pierre Howard, executive director of the Conservancy, gave up his non-game tag.

“When the state government got under budget pressure, they started taking money they expressly said would be used for other purposes and using it for the general fund, and I think that greatly undermined public confidence in the process,” he said. “It’s not right and it’s not fair, and it needs to be corrected.”

Changes made after audit

The change was made in 2010, partly in response to recommendations made that year by the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts. Its performance audit of the specialty license plates suggested that charging three fees for every new plate, plus an annual renewal fee, could earn the state an additional $24 million a year. Even if participation dropped by half, revenue would increase $11.7 million, auditors predicted.

The audit also recommended that the state more aggressively market its specialty plates.

The Legislature followed the audit’s chief recommendations by standardizing and increasing the cost of specialty plates. The price tag was set at $60 (up from $25, in many cases) with a new $35 annual fee.

Just $10 of the revenue each year now goes to the cause supported by the plate, such as children’s health care, highway beautification, or spaying and neutering pets. Almost all the rest goes to the state’s general fund. No additional funding was provided to market the plates.

A follow-up review by state auditors in September 2012 found that participation had dropped by more than expected. The number of plates newly issued and renewed decreased by 60 percent and 35 percent respectively.

Among the 14 plates that supported state agencies, 76 percent fewer were issued, and less than half were renewed.

Two of six state agencies with specialty plates saw a decrease in revenue along with a drop in new purchases and renewals.

But others got a bump in revenue. The pet sterilization program received enough additional funding that the Georgia Department of Agriculture was able to increase the number of state-funded sterilization procedures that veterinarians can perform per month and even develop block grants to provide local animal shelters.

The DNR, too, saw revenue gains because of the renewal fee. In 2010, the non-game program earned $885,236 from the tags, according to data provided by Harris.

In 2011, after the price increase, revenue climbed to $1.9 million. As fewer drivers participated, revenue dropped to $1.5 million in 2012. That drop is projected to continue at a rate of 26 percent by the end of fiscal 2013 this summer.

Although these numbers are still higher than just before the fee changes, they aren’t necessarily an improvement on overall past performance. Between 2003 and 2009 the mean annual revenue for the non-game plates was $2 million, DNR documents show. That was during the period when the DNR earned $19 to $22 per new license plate.

General fund the winner

Harris said the department hopes to boost license plate sales when it unveils new designs in June for its eagle, quail and trout license plates.

Harris said the DNR would like the annual renewal fee to remain, but DNR officials are hearing the cost of a new tag is too much.

“And we’d like as much as we can get in revenue sharing for the program,” Harris said.

From the time of the price change through the first half of fiscal 2013, license plate revenue for the wildlife resources division has totaled $6.2 million, while the general fund has earned $16.2 million from the same plates, DNR documents show.

Talton’s bill would reverse the current split by providing the general fund $10 and the sponsoring agency $25 of the license plate costs. The bill also would add many new specialty license plates, some of which would not be subject to a split at all.

Houston County outdoor writer John Trussell said he supports Talton’s proposal, although he thinks the annual fee will remain a deterrent.

“I had six wildlife tags at one time, and now I have none, because it’s just too expensive,” he said.

Howard expressed confidence that state leaders will correct the problem, adding that his organization and others need to make a better case that the non-game wildlife program is important and should be funded in the state budget.

“I was involved in working on a lot of state budgets for a long time, and I can tell you there’s a lot of stuff in there that ain’t near as important as this,” said Howard, a past lieutenant governor of Georgia.

Landon's Latest Wild Trout Report

A couple of days ago I hit a wild trout stream up in Rabun Co. with the intention of targeting the wild browns. Clouds hung in the sky for most of the afternoon, making for the perfect opportunity to target these wily critters. Water temperatures were very comfortable in the mid to upper 50’s, making wet wading enjoyable.  Numbers of fish were very good for this stream and the wet winter and spring we've had showed in the health of the fish.

It seems that the fish were more congregated in the good looking pieces of holding water, perhaps due to the lower numbers of “slow” areas where browns usually hold. As long as I maintained a stealthy profile, I could sometimes catch multiple fish per pool, which was really cool for a brown trout stream. I even managed a couple of wash down brook trout that are normally miles upstream as well as a few rainbows down towards the parking area further downstream.

  

There were a couple of consistent trends. I fished a dry-dropper rig with a yellow stimulator and a #14 tungsten bead hares ear below it. In fast pockets shallower than 3 feet, fish responded to both flies. However the fish seemed a little bit skittish of the stimulator in calmer or deeper pools and I’d have to go with a more natural fly to catch them, a size 14 Light Cahill parachute.  I had a hard time getting any fish in really deep pools to come up at all for dry flies. Reluctantly I went down deep to them with big and ugly flies in a couple of pools. Dredging was the way I caught the big fish of the day, a chunky 13-inch brown that doubled over the three weight and even took a little drag! There were a ton of different bugs flying around, but “yellow” was the consistent color with #12-16 Light Cahills and Sulphurs seen as well as #16 Yellow Sallies and Big Golden Stones as well.

We have the best water conditions Georgia has seen in several years so get out and enjoy the streams while the water levels are still great and the fish are hungry.  You never know what is around the next bend.

Landon Williams

A Cast From The Past: Pflueger

Recently while going through some old family items, my wife came across a 1956 issue of Argosy magazine.  Now, you've got to be near or beyond retirement age to even remember Argosy so, if you're younger than that, it was a popular mens' magazine that began publication in 1882.  It finally went the way of the Dodo bird in 1978.  If you do a little research on it, you'll find that over the years the magazine has had some well-known writer's stories.  Horatio Alger, Upton Sinclair, Zane Grey and Edgar Rice Burroughs are among the more notable contributors.

What piqued my interest as I flipped through the aging pages wasn't the stories of Russian cold war defectors or the dangers of hunting wild water buffalo in Brazil.  The thing that got my attention were the ads for outdoor gear.  Mitchell Model 300 spinning reels with extra spool, a new fangled fiberglass rod, rod sack and aluminum tube for only $34.70.  If you didn't have $34.70 to spare, just send them $2.00 as a down payment and take 6 months to pay the balance.

Stevens Model 77 pump shotguns at $49.95.  Genuine Paratrooper Boots for $14.87, postpaid in the U.S.A.  A Smith & Wesson .38 Revolver, WW II issue, for $24.95.  And my favorite of all time, Shrunken Heads straight from the Amazon for only a buck fifty ppd.

The best ad in the magazine that got every angler's attention, however, had to be the one for Pflueger Reels.  The good old Medalist was selling for $8.50.  In today's dollars, that translates to $70.82.  I've always been enamored with the Medalist.  The smooth hefty feel and that sound.  Man, that solid "click, click, click" is as distinctive as the old two-cylinder "Poppin Johnny" John Deere tractor.  Some things just conjure up images of the past and a Pflueger Medalist is one of them.

Chestatee Tribs

Our ol' pal Landon Williams should have been studying for tests on Sunday, but instead did what any self-respecting fly-fishing student would do: went fishing! Here's a brief report:

I fished some Chestatee tributaries on Sunday just for a quick fix before I went back to studying for the day. Air temps and water temps were just about ideal with water temperatures ranging from 49-53 all day depending on the tributary and shade. Bug were hatching from about 10 am on and were thick all day. There were not real large numbers of any particular kind but mayflies seen included size 14 March Browns, 14-16 Hendricksons, and grey and black caddis around a size 14-16. I dredged really early before the sun came up real well on a certain trophy regulations stream with good results but caaught a lot on a 14 yellow stimulator and 14 Parachute Adams but caught just as many on a 16 tungsten bead hares ear 2 ft on a dropper rig once I hit tributaries for wild fish. Enjoy the pics.

Signed,
Test cramming cretin.

The creeks will be a little high with all the rain we've had the past couple days, but the above-average temps should really have the fish active - should be a great weekend on the water!

The Best Spring Break!

Spring Break for many college aged kids involves heading down to FL for a week of fun in the sun with friends.  While this was a realistic concept for me, I decided to spend several days in North Carolina with the hopes of peace of mind and plenty of hungry trout.  During my three-day jaunt, the weather could not have been more perfect with temperatures in the high 60’s and partly cloudy skies until late Sunday afternoon.

Half the trip was dedicated to fishing the Davidson, or “the D”, as many locals call it. There are three sections to the Davidson River that are of interest to anglers. First is the normal catch and keep section which is located the farthest downstream and is closed to fishing until April 1^st.  Next is the artificial lure only Catch and Release section which is located upstream of Avery Creek to the Pisgah Wildlife Education Center which houses a trout hatchery.  Finally the section of most interest perhaps is the catch and release, fly fishing only section located right next to the hatchery. This section of the Davidson is famous for its numbers of large browns and rainbows that are notoriously picky in terms of fly selection and even presentation. As much as I enjoy the challenge of fishing for large fish, I personally enjoyed fishing the lower sections of the Catch and Release section more for the shear fact that there are miles of great water downstream that house both great numbers and even some fish of size.  The fish, from what I experienced, were far less fussy downstream and the water a whole lot prettier and enjoyable to fish.  Smaller hares ears and zebra midges dragged behind a mohair leech or a San Juan worm worked well.

I called it quits and headed north to Great Smokey Mountains National Park in the hopes for even more scenery and wild trout.  I camped two nights at Smokemont and this last half of the trip was exactly what I had in mind for the whole trip.  Winter Stoneflies and a few Quill Gordons were even dancing for me on arrival.  However it was apparent after flinging various dry flies with meager results that the fish were just not looking up on Saturday.  I think this was in large part due to the fact that the water temperature topped out at a still fairly low at 46 degrees.  I reluctantly went back to dredging and salvaged the last few hours on my same Davidson rigs from the day before.

 

However, as many good anglers say, you cannot rely on what worked yesterday (literally in my case!) Sunday started out much warmer and the bugs were again out in force again by 10 AM. However there was something different and I could feel it after releasing my last trout dredged up in the morning. The water temperature hit that “magical” 50 degree mark and kept going up. After another half hour of fruitless dredging, I took notice of the poking noses in the next pool upstream and clipped off the shot and stuck on a caddis dry with a beadhead hares ear dropper 2 ft. underneath. The rest of the day was just downright silly with wild rainbows and browns hitting the dry and the suspended dropper, even in rather deep pools!

My trip was great, but there were three things that I came away with:

1. Always adapt to changing conditions.
2. Keep an eye on that water temperature.
3. San Juans work very well, despite what locals say!

Landon Williams

Flint River Needs Your Help

  

The Fight to Protect the Flint River at the State Capitol Continues in the House of Representatives Please contact your State Representative in the House TODAY and ask for them to REMOVE THE "AUGMENTATION" LANGUAGE FROM SB 213 OR VOTE NO.  Go here to find your Representative and contact information:http://openstates.org PLEASE make contact with your Representative by 10am Tuesday, March 24th SB 213 revises the Flint River Drought Protection Act of 2000, but contains a poison pill that threatens rivers, property rights, and taxpayers that must be amended out of the bill. The bill passed out of the House Agriculture Committee on Friday and now goes to the Rules Committee. The Rules Committee could amend the bill and they will decide when to send it to the full House for a vote. Background: SB 213 contains a provision that authorizes so-called "stream flow augmentation" projects -- including dangerous Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) projects -- and also prohibits downstream users from reasonable use of any water added by these projects. The provision threatens longstanding Georgia waters rights law, private property rights, and clean water. The augmentation language will allow a hugely expensive, tax-payer funded, multi-million dollar Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR)  flow augmentation project to continue to be funded in the lower Flint. The water added by this project will flow to Florida while Georgia farmers and other property owners are denied reasonable use of it. The project is supposedly designed to add to Metro Atlanta's water supply but at an extremely high cost that is projected to fall on Metro Atlanta utility ratepayers, who already pay the highest water bills in the state. The augmentation provisions also allow the EPD director to deny water users that are downstream of an undefined "augmentation" project the use of any of the "augmented" water flowing past their property, without prior opportunity to be heard. This provision allows the State to control (or allow a private party to control) a portion of stream flow and prohibit the reasonable use of it, which is akin to prior appropriation of water -- a short step from western-type water regulation. State ownership of water is different from thestate's current regulation by permit. Property owners in Georgia have a "bundle" of rights that make up their property rights. An essential property right in that bundle is the right to reasonable use of water on or under your property. Allowing the appropriation and state control of water, and not allowing downstream property owners the right to reasonable use of it, radically diminishes that property right. PLEASE CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE IN THE HOUSE and ASK FOR THIS DANGEROUS AUGMENTATION LANGUAGE TO BE REMOVED and if it isn't, VOTE NO ON SB 213.       We will continue to update you on the bill's status and ask YOU to take action for the benefit of the Flint River watershed.

Wild Trout Primer

From our ol' pal Landon Williams:

In case you haven’t heard, Georgia's trout season opening day is less than three weeks away!

For many of us, this reminds us that we will soon have many more miles of streams open to fishing that were previously closed and they will have many new fish stocked into them. However, there is a sort of fringe group that are anticipating this date for another reason:  the seasonal opening of all of the wild trout streams that abound throughout North Georgia.   Now, this is not to say that there are no wild trout streams that do not have the year round designation like our Delayed Harvest streams and bigger rivers such as the Chattahoochee near Atlanta or the Toccoa. However, the vast majority are closed to fishing after October 31 every year until they reopen the next spring at the end of March. Wild trout are a very desirable quarry for many, but some folks find it difficult to find good streams to fish outside of word of mouth from fellow anglers. Despite this, the resources exist out there and many are available over the internet if you are tech savvy!

Perhaps the most useful tool that one can acquire for researching wild trout streams is a quality map of the Chattahoochee National Forest. There are many maps that not only show the forest service roads but also many of the streams and their names as well. My personal favorite can be found by clicking here and the different areas of the forest can be accessed by clicking on the map.  The digital copies are nice but an actual in-hand copy is invaluable when you are out and about actually looking for the streams.  For those who are more adventurous and familiar with the technology,  GPS units are also handy when you get way off the beaten track, as you often do with this type of fishing.

Aside from finding the streams, there are a few things to remember in your search. Rainbows and browns are the most likely trout you are to encounter in our trout streams here in North Georgia.  They are quite numerous and can prosper in streams even at relatively low elevations. There are not many streams predominated by brown trout, but they do exist, especially at the lower elevation (1500 ft. or so) and lower gradient streams. Rainbows tend to take over as the water speed and gradient of the stream increase. Both species certainly do mix but these are generally good trends to follow if you are also following along with your research with a topographic map featuring elevations.

If you are interested in the highly coveted Brook Trout, generally the angler will have to go much higher up in elevation. This is not necessarily due to their demands for colder water but in large part due to being outcompeted by invasive rainbows and browns. Brookies are usually found in sections of streams located above large waterfalls that inhibit the movement of rainbows and browns into their sections of water. Many regular brook trout anglers are convinced that a section of water located above a “barrier falls” and 2500+ ft. in elevation is the formula for finding brook trout regularly. Also of interest are the “Back the Brookie” streams that have received stream enhancement projects from TU, GA DNR, and the Forestry Service. They are a great starting point, especially for new wild trout anglers.

Good luck in your research efforts in the coming weeks. The wet winter that we have had should have stream levels in great shape for this spring!

Gearing Up For Spring

Chuck Head got in a bit of fishing this week and he's fired up about the spring:

This egg heavy female smashed a large crawfish
pattern drifted deep through a prime looking run.

As surely everyone has noticed, we have actually had a winter in southern Appalachia this year. Unlike the last couple of dry and relatively warm winters, this year gave us more than a couple of good snows, and a few pretty incredible floods. This is often seen as an inconvenience, with favorite rivers swollen and unfishable for over a week at a time, leaving anglers with few options within a reasonable drive from home. However, there is a longer term payoff to the angler in exchange for a few more weekends spent at the tying desk or watching a favorite fishing DVD for the fifteenth time.

All of that high, cold water has done an incredible job of making our water look better than it has looked in a decade. Years worth of silt deposits have been flushed away, leaving the water to run clear and cold over rock instead of sand. This is a very good thing for the insects that populate the stream bottom, which, in turn, benefits the trout. The fish have eaten well all winter, have fought hard when hooked, and look bright and well fed when held and released. Standing high on a bank on the Hooch or at Dukes, watching the big boys feed, sliding actively back and forth, they look, for lack of a better word, happy. Plenty of food to eat and plenty of water over their heads: about as much as a trout could ask for.

 So what does all of this mean to the angler getting ready to head to the stream after being washed out this winter? I would say the key to consistent angling success this Spring is to adapt to conditions on your "new" home waters. If you haven't gotten a chance to get to your favorite stream this Spring, I'll go ahead and tell you - it looks different than it did last Spring, and better. Something some anglers don't realize is that high water events can change the way a stream looks and fishes completely. It doesn't matter if a favorite pool produced well last Spring, there may only be one or two fish calling it home this year, if that spot is even there at all. Floods change streams. I always tell people to fish where there should be fish, not where success was had in the past. Fish have no emotional ties to a spot in a stream, and as soon as it stops producing what a fish needs in terms of food and shelter, it will leave without as much as a kiss goodbye.

Another large part of success this Spring will lie in the angler's ability to get the flies in front of the fish. More water means more weight. Last Spring, I remember fishing one of my favorite spots with a single #1 split shot, while currently it takes four BB shot to get down to the fish. Having flies in front of the fish is more important than the flies themselves; they can't eat what they never see. Once down, flies with movement, color, and/or flash are a good way to get the fish's attention in the higher water. That fly is moving past the fish much faster than it was last Spring, so something needs to jump out at them. Using a Rubberlegs, San Juan, or a Lightning Bug type fly in front of a more natural trailing fly (Hares Ear, Pheasant Tail) is a good way to get a fish in line with your drift and then give the fish a choice of which fly he wants.

Monster Smallies

I've known Steve Hacker for a number of years and get to fish with him now and then on his home waters in north Alabama.  Steve is probably the foremost smallmouth guide in the region and knows those lakes as well as anyone who's ever fished them.  I get regular fishing reports from him but this most recent was so good I thought our readers would enjoy reading it.

Jimmy

PICKWICK FISHING REPORT

2.25.13
Water temp: 48.2 degrees
TVA discharge rate: spillways reopened; approx. 104,000 cfs/24 hr. period.
Lake elevation: risimg; approx. 419

Pinching myself to make sure that I'm not just having a dream about a day full of giant fish! Mat Lipscomb came over from the Memphis area and met up with former Memphis State college roommate and good friend Rick Benson. Having known both of them for years, I was really looking forward to the day. Little did we know when we launched what kind of day it would turn out to be!

Mat was the keeper of records, as he brought two sets of Chatillon scales with him, and a piece of paper and pen to keep track of what we caught. The first place we fished yielded nothing, but a move proved to be just what we needed.

Our five best today weighed in at almost 32 pounds! Our 10 best liked 2 ounces weighing 53 pounds! Each of us contributed big fish and had something to crow about!

Rick had the big fish at 9-1, a magnificent largemouth, his personal best. Mat had the big smallmouth, I think equaling his personal best, Rick had the big spot, and Mat said that I had the best 5 fish individual string of the three of us at 25-10.

We had a Grand Slam of smallmouth, largemouth, and spot—3 fish Slam—that weighed 17-11! Rick had a Grand Slam by himself that weighed 16-8! Where else can you do that? What a lake!

A couple of fish were caught early on on jerkbaits, but the great majority of the fish were caught on Strike King Pro Model Football Jigs in ½ and ¾ oz weights trailed with Rage Craw trailers. Even after washing and eating supper, my fingers still smell like Kick'n'Bass Craw, and that's just fine with me.

Greatly blessed we were today, as the weather and water conditions were pretty rough, and getting rougher as I write (I can hear the thunder approaching in the distance, and some storms with even bigger winds than the 20-25 mph we had today are forecast for tonight).

Enjoy the pix, and all the fish were released in great shape just as soon as we took these. A replica mount of the big 9-1 is planned.

God bless,
Steve Hacker
www.smallmouth.com

Brown Trout Tactics

From our Man In The Field, Landon Williams:

                  There is just something about Brown Trout that get many anglers’ hearts racing and a large grin on their face.  We all dream of catching a large hook-jawed brown that seems as old as the dinosaurs.  They are for many, the most prized and even most frustrating species of salmonid we can pursue here in the Peach State.  Despite our fascination with them, it’s a surprise to many anglers when they do catch one. This is due in large part to the varied habitat that brown trout prefer and the tactics used to target them.

                  Browns have a tendency of not being in the places many anglers expect when targeting trout.  Most anglers will fish in the classic riffles and runs that we think of as great trout habitat. You can certainly find brownies in these spots when they are actively feeding, especially when there are heavy hatches during warmer weather.  However, you are much more likely to find browns in the water you may find much less desirable to fish on a regular basis.  You know the type, usually deep and slow interspersed with structure such as woody debris and large boulders. This is indeed the type of water where you’re most likely to encounter a brown.  At the same time, this water may be the one where anglers are least likely to be successful.  Slower water gives an angler's quarry much longer to inspect the fly before deciding to eat or not.  This game for some can be quite exciting and challenging but for many anglers, who are just out to catch a few fish, it may seem it's not worth the effort.  Fear not however, as there are a few key areas where brown trout get the same type of protective habitat while still having more water flow over their heads and it can tip the scales in the angler’s favor.

There are three types of habitat that can be noticeably improve your chances of running into a nice brown trout, whether it be a Delayed Harvest fish or an elusive stream-born wild fish. The first and, in my opinion, most important structure a brown trout will utilize are undercuts. Undercuts exist here in GA quite often but not in the same sense you may think of in a meandering meadow stream with undercut banks out West.  Rather, I'm referring to large undercut rocks and my favorite, bedrock shelves. It is quite common to find brown trout hiding under such types of habitat, even if it is not particularly deep. 

A second type exists less frequently but still provides great habitat.  It's a back eddy.  Back eddies are usually slow and provide a large volume of food as it drifts away from the main current. It is not uncommon to find browns here and they can be targeted by casting into the “upstream” side of the back eddy (this may even mean casting downstream into the eddy’s current and fishing the drift back upstream.) 

Last but not least are those bank side pockets and runs that many anglers often ignore.  Current along the bank is usually quite slow compared to the middle sections of river.  Brown trout, who are fans of slower current, can be found in runs and riffles right next to the bank, especially if they have overhead cover in the forms of bushes or overhanging trees. This habitat type is even better if they incorporate any of the two previously mentioned attributes.

Fly selection in itself is secondary to having the proper presentation and a sneaky approach to your target area and quarry.  Good Luck and have fun in your quest for a trophy.  I know I will when I go after the large wild brownie who broke me off recently in a log jam!

Landon

Happy Birthday To You

     Growing up, my parents always made sure I understood that a man must always keep his word, and that he should never make a promise that he did not intend to keep. My parents' words bounced around in my head as I laid in the warm bed Sunday morning, wondering how mad my friend would be if I backed out on him on his birthday float trip. Then as I lay there in bed, another phrase popped into my head that my Father would always say: "You never know, unless you go". This was his way of telling all the people who asked him if he honestly thought that he was going to catch fish in extreme weather conditions.

    Knowing that the high for the day was only supposed to be around 38 degrees, I slowly climbed out of bed and began to get ready, knowing that I had made a promise that I intended to keep. As we drove to the river, I began to ask myself if I was mentally prepared to freeze my butt off and not catch any fish.

   We arrived at the river and prepared to set sail on what could be the most miserable day that I had faced this year. We launched the boats and managed to get enough of the frozen anchor rope out to hold the boats in place until we returned from our shuttle. After putting on every piece of clothing that I had brought with me, we departed down the river. In the first mile of the trip, I quickly changed my opinion about how the day was going to be, as we began to pull fish after fish into the boat. Not only were we catching fish, but we were catching quality fish, with the average being around 17 inches. As luck would have it, Ryan Williams managed to put the first fish in the boat on this particular trip, which was only fair, since it was his Birthday.

Ryan With A Quality Rainbow

      The boys in the boat behind us were not going to be outdone by a bunch of young guns, and immediately responded with a stud of a brown trout. We all stopped fishing and turned around to watch Mike wrestle with what he called: "The biggest brown he had been hooked into since his trip to Montana last year". The fish ran in and out of trees and tried his best to lose Mike, but Mike's expertise eventually brought the brute into the boat.

  

Mike's Big Brown

      As we continued to float down the river, we experienced what I will remember as one of my best days on the Toccoa River. Some days you put up numbers some days you put up size, but on this day we did both! I'm sure that Ryan couldn't have thought of a better way to spend his birthday, now I just have to talk him into rowing me down the river on my birthday. Happy Birthday Bud!