Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
www.unicoioutfitters.com
Wow, you’ve finally done it! You’ve landed a truly memorable fish. How big is that trophy?
You plan to release it, but would sure like to know its size. Here are a few quick and easy ways to obtain a length and weight on your trophy trout, bass, or striper.
First, mark your rod and hold it alongside your trophy as it rests on its side, in the water so it can still breathe. On my store-bought rods, I’ll take a Sharpie pen and draw a line on the blank at 12, 16, 20, and 24 inches up from the rod butt. On rods that I build, I’ll wind and finish small thread wraps at these intervals. And maybe go another interval or two higher on my striper rods!
A second method is almost as quick and easy. Buy a nylon sewing tape measure for a couple bucks from a craft store. They’re usually 60 inches long, so I cut one in half for my trout and bass packs. I roll each half up and put one in my fly vest and the other in my summer bassin’ sling pack. The tape measure is very small & light and doesn’t rust.
While trout are measured in inches, big bass and stripers are often discussed in pounds. If you’ve caught a real lunker, that flexible tape measure can also help guestimate its weight. Just measure total length and girth and use those two measurements in a weight estimator for your species.
Here’s a nice article with those equations:
https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/Fishing/questions/estfishweight.html
While some veterans just eyeball their catch and embellish its length in future fish stories, a lot of folks want to know the lunker’s true size. Hopefully these methods will provide the answer you want while taking care of that trophy you will release - after a few quick pics.
Good luck making and recording your fishing memories!
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
Welcome to “Veterans Weekend.” This blustery weather is good for only those dedicated flyfishing vets among us. Today it’s cloudy, windy, and cold, with air temps flirting with 40 degrees and some spitting sleet. There’s a chance for more icy precip tonite. Tomorrow will be just as inhospitable, but Sunday moderates just a bit. It’s a good weekend for flyfishing rookies to stay home, watch videos, tie flies, and wait for better weather instead of freezing and getting skunked.
The good news is that our streams are in great shape. We only had an inch of rain last night and much of it has already run off. My lunchtime recon showed the Hooch and its tribs clear and cool, but not icy-cold. The Hooch and Spoilcane were 48F while Smith DH was 46F. Bottom-bumping small nymphs, eggs, and midges on light tippet should pay off for vets who can detect subtle strikes in the clear, cold water.
Lake stripers and spots still rock along. HenryC and Jake have great updates for us. The size of Lanier’s stripers is keeping all lake fans in that game.
Have you marked your calendars for the Atlanta Flyfishing Show on Feb 3-5? Don’t forget. We’d love to see you there.
Catch our hot intel in our full fishing report, linked at our home page. Wes’ hot fly list and angler reports will help you dial in the mid-winter action. Good luck. Dress warmly!
Wes’ Hot Fly List:
Dries: parachute BWO, Griffith’s gnat.
Nymphs & Wets:
Peach egg, Oops, diamond midge, Walt's worm, WD-40, Mop fly.
Streamers & warm water:
Simi seal leech, sparkle minnow, finesse changer, Clouser minnow. Cowen’s Somethin Else.
Headwaters:
Our GA streams have great flows and decent water temps - in the mid 40’s. Try a dry/long dropper to scrape the pool bottoms with those dropper nymphs. Just watch out for joggers tomorrow!
The Smokies, in contrast, are blown out and icy cold. A bunch of snow is also closing high-elevation roads up there. Stay south for better trouting opps. Byron’s Smokies daily intel here:
https://littleriveroutfitters.com/
UO Regular RSquared: “ Steve & I went trout fishing Monday in my favorite Brown Trout location. The weather & fishing were great, however, the catching was nonexistent! We tried multiple flies but nothing we used enticed a strike, much less a fish. We made it home in plenty of time to watch Georgia win its second National Championship in a row!!! Go Dawgs!”
Delayed Harvest:
Make sure you bring a dry change of clothes in your vehicle. If you dunk, you sure want to get out of those drenched, icy clothes before hypothermia bites you.
The Hooch and Tooga gauges are great indices of river conditions in our area. Always check them out before your drive north.
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/ga/nwis/uv?site_no=02330450
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no=02176930&legacy=1
DH fish are now sore-lipped and sluggish from the colder water. That means they are pickier and light-hitting. Rookie catch rates are plummeting, while vets are still having decent days during these winter challenges.
Fish won’t move very far for a meal. It’s time to paint the pools and other flood refuges with short casts and deep, drag-free drifts. Try eggs, legs, small nymphs, and tiny midges. Put 2-3 casts into a spot, move a few feet, and repeat. Paint that pool like you’d paint a wall at home. Hookset often- any time your indicator or sighter hesitates. Jimmy and I have a name for winter nymphing to subtle strikers: Zen fishing. If we think a strike may occur on the drift, we’ll set the hook at our projected right moment. Try it and see how many more fish you stumble into.
Smith DH is in great shape. Residents are pickier, so try Bottom-rolling some eggs, Euronymphs, and midges on 6X or 7X tippet.
It worked for a trio led by Martin, an old streamside acquaintance. We caught up a bit and exchanged hot tips. I clued him in on current trout action and he reciprocated with some FL flats intel. I can’t wait to head south and put it to use! Where? Well, I don’t believe I said.
Chattooga DH is at 2.2 and dropping. Try the legs and eggs combo in the pools and Euronymphing in pool heads and runs. Wes has the fly patterns nailed down for you. A tiny pheasant tail dropper is a good bet, too, as resident fish now start recognizing those BWO nymphs in the drift.
More wading flow intel here:
https://rabuntu.org/about/educational-programs/secrets/more-winter-trouting-tips/
Tailwaters:
UO buddy RonW: “Kurt and I fished the Dam today (1/7) in hopes of tangling with our first fish of the new year. We had boots in the water just after 9am, water temp was reading 44F.
I started off with a conehead muddler on my 6wt with an intermediate sinking line. 1st cast of the day I hooked up with a colored-up brown who came "unbuttoned' after a short fight. Soon after that I lost that fly, which is the downside to fishing a sinking line in close proximity to wood and rocks. After several fly changes and lost flies, I finally hooked up with a feisty snit rainbow on my Rubberlegged Ostrich Herl Bugger. Kurt started hooking up left and right on his euro rig on a mixture of flies (hares ear, egg and squirmy).
I dug into my pack for my spare spool, off came the streamer line and on went the floater with a euro leader. Shortly after I made the change, I hooked up and netted some buttah on a weighted peach egg. We fished our way back up to our exit point, each picking up a few more fish before we bailed at 1pm.
It was another fantastic day on the water, albeit a costly one for me as I lost about 10 streamers, including a few game changers. It's a good thing I tie all my own!”
UO buddy Ryan (MFS):
“MadFishinSkillz and friend Pedro hit the Hooch tailwater last Sunday despite the dreary overcast skies and rain forecasted. Pedro, on only his second trip ever learning to tight line nymph, landed a beauty of a wild brown and narrowly missed another while swinging his flies at the end of a drift. Despite the crystal clear water, 5x and a size 14 hares ear jig were enough to fool that one. We had to bust out the rain jackets after about 2 hours of fishing to make sure we didn’t allow a little bit of soaked clothing to send us home early. MFS was able to flop a fish stick off the line following a brief fight and then landed another small brown, which snaked out through a hole in the net before photo evidence was taken. It was clear the bite was off with the cold storm front incoming and potential pressure change, so that was about it for a 10am-2pm fishing session.
On the way out we spotted a box tortoise that was clearly struggling to get up the erosion receded banks, and it was clear he’d rather be among the forest leaf litter considering he was pointed that way. He got a lift about 30 yards into the forest as we did our good deed for the day.”
Private Waters:
UO manager Jake: “Ryan and I hit Rainbow Point on the Soque yesterday morning prior to the big front. The water was up and had a small amount of color due to recent rains. We spent all morning nymph fishing with various flies, but the big difference-maker in generating bites was getting down to the fish. This time of year, I find that the amount of split shot is way more important than the bugs you choose. If I am not hitting the bottom every few drifts, I don't feel as if I am fishing effectively. When the water temps are cold, the feeding window of the fish decreases drastically, and if you don't get your offerings down to the fish, they are probably not going to play the game. The top-producing flies for us yesterday were small yellow eggs, diamond midges, and ruby midges. These three flies have been my top producing flies over the past few weeks, and I expect them to be the front runners until we get into a warmer season.”
Athens Jay’s buddy, Charlie, pinch hit for Jay this week: “ Got in a morning fishing on private waters. The flows were still high and the water off colored with the the rains over the past few weeks.
Fishing was solid using streamers bouncing the bottom with an occasional sharp twitch. Weighted olive and black wooly buggers worked well along with a grey ghost! They needed to be deep, if you weren’t leaving an occasional fly on the bottom - add weight!
Surprisingly, egg patterns were largely ignored - the fish were looking for something bigger. An extra long mop pattern with black and purple dubbing worked well also.
It was fun fishing the grey ghost - a favorite pattern of one of my mentors. It just goes to show those classic flies still work.
With all the run off, I would expect wooly buggers, mops and squirmy worms to fish well next week also. ”
Reservoirs:
UO manager Jake: “Jimmy and I spent Saturday morning on Lanier chasing stripers. We found some birds and fish working right off the bat, and we were able to land a nice 8 lb fish out of the school.
After the sun climbed higher in the sky, we kept cruising and looking, but the surface activity had died off. We ended up pulling into a ditch just off the main river channel, and spent the next hour our two chasing spotted bass. We ended up catching 4 nice size spotted bass (and missed a few more) on a jigging spoon to finish out the morning.”
HenryC: “Lake Lanier continues to produce some nice striped bass fishing. There are also some some really nice white bass being caught on fly too.
While there is still some surface feeding fish showing up, the best pattern is the large schools of subsurface fish you can locate and catch using a sinking fly line. Your electronics are going to help you locate these fish and once they are found, catching them isn't that hard. Somethin' else flies and small Clousers are your best bet. This pattern should continue for another few weeks if we don't get a big freeze. Water temps are slightly above normal for this time of year. Fish can be found all over the lake (north/south) and in both rivers.”
There’s more great winter trouting tips and reservoir intel in today’s WRD fishing blog. Check out the Lanier fish attractor sites.
https://georgiawildlife.blog/2023/01/13/georgia-fishing-report-january-13-2023/
Mentoring kudos:
They go to Jake and several of his UO sidekicks for their instream lessons to a fun bunch of high schoolers last week. Those kids are our next generation of angler-conservationists!
So, if you’re new to the flyfishing game, go celebrate your beloved Dawgs second straight trophy during some weekend parties or parades. But if you’re a fly-flinging-finatic like us, dress warmly, follow the sun, and pull out your low-and-slow game. Enjoy a few frosty fish in the clean, cold air of your crowdless mountains. You’ll be glad you did, and you’ll sleep darn well that night. Good luck and congrats to the Dawgs and all of their fans. Call 706-878-3083 or come by our Helen store for some warmth and a handful of hot Wes flies.
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
Would you like to up your trouting game? Then get a coach!
Whether you’re a brand-new flyfisher wanting to know the basics, or an experienced angler wishing to refine your technique, consider booking a guided trip with us. Whether it’s a three-hour Gilligan Special for you and a friend, or a half-day, 1-on-1, instructional session, your investment will pay great dividends over the life of your sport.
https://www.unicoioutfitters.com/guided-fishing/
During my decades of streamside travels, I’ve seen so many fly anglers struggle. They’ll eventually pick up the game thru trial-and-error, but that’s a very long road when compared to the rapid shortcut of quality instruction.
We have experienced guides who have helped anglers from Georgia to Colorado. Book a brief instructional trip soon with Jake, Wes, Israel, Caleb, Devin, or Palmer and I’ll bet your spring trout season will be much more fun and productive. Trust me on this one: you’ll be taking a lot more pictures on all your future trips!
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
This annual party has been going on for almost four decades. We attend and support the Rabunites annually. Come up to Dillard on February 18 and enjoy live bluegrass, pig-pickin’, bucket raffles, a silent auction, and all-you-can-eat Dillard House vittles. Swap fish stories with scores of fellow trout addicts, young and old.
Details here:
https://rabuntu.org/events/the-rabun-rendezvous/
Join us on 2/18 and support a great cause, Rabun TU’s annual conservation and education agenda.
It’s been a very good, warm week of fishing up here. The midweek monsoon shut down action for a brief time, but recharged our streams well. Small and medium streams have already returned to fishable levels, while bigger ones (Nan, Luftee, Toccoa) are gonna take more time to drain off. Trouting was great as water temps rose near 50F. It will still be good as water temps slide down a bit to the mid 40’s. Eggs and small nymphs are still hot. Rains don’t return til Sunday evening.
Ponds and mid-GA rivers also woke up with the warm air and rain, while Lanier was pretty good, too. Stripers are still a “hunt and shoot” game, with as many misses as hits. But the hits are big fish!
We have a boatload of trip reports from our staff and our angling buddies, who took full advantage of holiday vacations. Don’t miss our details in our full fishing report, linked at our home page. Wes’ hot fly list and guide/avid angler reports from as recently as yesterday will boost your chances of success. We have a ton of pics, too. Good luck and, for one last time, go Dawgs!
Wes’ Hot Fly List:
Dries: parachute BWO, Griffith’s gnat.
Nymphs & Wets:
Jig girdle bug, pink egg, cream Mop, Split case BWO, WD-40, mighty May, flashback Baetis, Root beer midge.
Streamers & warm water:
Simi seal leech, sparkle minnow, finesse changer, Clouser minnow. Cowen’s Somethin Else.
Headwaters:
They’ve got great flows and decent water temps - in the mid 40’s. Most of the flood surge has passed from these smaller streams and they’re looking great. Yesterday (5th) afternoon Spoilcane was clear and 52F, while Smith DH was murky green and 49F. It’s not as warm today as yesterday’s 60-degree afternoon, so be ready for water temps in the 40’s. Expect nearly all hits on your nymph droppers.
UO friend RSquared: “The rain stopped mid-morning on Wednesday. I loaded my fly rod and pointed my old Jeep north heading to one of my favorite Brook Trout streams. Even at that high elevation, the water was running high, fast, and had a little color. The Girdle Bug & Pheasant Tail that has recently given me success produced nothing. I eventually tied on a small egg pattern and started catching a few fish. It was a great spur of the moment solo fishing trip and was my first for 2023.”
UO Regular RonW: “The Trio closed out 2022 in style today at Dukes (12/31). We were met with a steady rain, which lasted all day, and which we welcomed with open arms. We had boots in the water at 8am, stream temp was 44F. I lost my whole rig on the first cast thanks to a familiar "Root Ball", known for hiding fish and gobbling up flies. I re-rigged and on my 2nd cast, landed a beauty of a 16" rainbow. After snapping a quick pic, I got back on my feet only to realize my fly was hung up again. I made a slight upward lift with my rod trying to free them and then it happend. I heard a pop....my custom 10'6" 4wt Kurt built for me snapped in half. To say I was crushed would be an understatement! This rod has been very good to me all across the SE and in 3 different countries. I wiped away the tears, I mean rain drops, and headed back to the truck to rig up my backup rod. No sense in crying over spilled milk or broken fly rods!
The rain picked up and so did the catching. We hammered em' all day long. Tons of wild bows for all. I caught 7 in about 5 minutes in one little run while the guys watched. For a few minutes, I felt like I knew what I was doing. I also had several nice fish to the net. A few 15/16"ers , an 18" and a couple right at 20" .
Eggs, squirmes and girdlestones were all I needed. We bailed around 2pm, just in time to get home for the 4pm kickoff. Water temp was up to 46° when I left, thanks to the warm rain.
All in all, it was another fantastic day on the water with my brothers! 2022 was a great year and I can't think of a better way to close it out. Cheers to 2023! “
Ian and Charity at R and R Flyfishing took advantage of the warm spell and hit some thawing Smokies streams. They fooled some nice wild rainbows by dredging his favorite park nymph patterns. Check their Facebook feed at:
Check them out at Virginia’s Wine and Flyfishing Festival, too.
https://www.vaflyfishingfestival.com/2205-2/
Subtract a few degrees from this Luftee gauge and you’ll have an idea of high, cold park conditions.
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no=03512000&legacy=1
Byron’s Smokies daily intel here:
https://littleriveroutfitters.com/
Notice that big streams still have high flows and likely are not wadeable for a few more days.
Delayed Harvest:
Make sure you bring a dry change of clothes in your vehicle. If you dunk, you sure want to get out of those drenched, icy clothes before hypothermia bites you.
The Hooch and Tooga gauges are great indices of river conditions in our area. Always check them out before your drive north.
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/ga/nwis/uv?site_no=02330450
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no=02176930&legacy=1
Smith DH:
It’s been fished hard by winter vacationers, but veterans with a good game are still scoring well. That game is stealth, light line, and a good drift. If the water is high and stained, you can get away with 5X tippet. Once it clears, drop to 6 or 7X and improve your stalk.
UO young gun Ben: “Smith Creek fished well the other day. Simple egg patterns worked well, as did a small France fly dropper above it. Putting the old European nymphing in to play worked for me. I was even treated to this brookie double, which was quite a tussle on 7X tippet.”
New UO friend KenK also had a good day up there on his Euro rig and sent me this pic of a colorful brookie. Match your tippet and flies to water conditions. Low,clear flows suggest you go light on tippet and tiny on nymphs.
Warmwater Streams:
Athens Jay took full advantage of the UGA winter break and gave us several great reports. Here’s one: “ I know it’s supposed to be trout season, but for those of us in the Piedmont, 2-3 days of warm weather can make the local predators frisky. You should definitely have a good safety plan, because rivers have no forgiveness. Always check the USGS gage! 2022 ended with a warming trend and a big surprise. I thought I’d have to bump weighted streamers on the bottom in deep holes, but fish were willing to come up from depths and eat. Large streamers in lighter baitfish colors thrown on a floating line made fish look up. Strip once, then pause and be ready for a solid hook set and a formidable battle. “
Private Waters:
UO buddy Sylvia: “Our trio had a great day Sunday at Nacoochee Bend. We fished a dry dropper rig with bright colored midges hung under chubby Chernobyls as strike indicators. That worked! We fished deep and came up with some nice rainbows. They were all jumpers so it made for a fun day.
Lesson learned for the day: trying to take a river side video of the nice fish you caught by yourself (because your fishing buddy moved to another hole) leads to a wet phone!”
https://reelinginrecovery.org/team
Proud Dad Kevin T said that he and his son Will had a wonderful first time flyfishing at Nacoochee Bend last month. Their UO guide, Palmer, said that Will was “a machine!”
Reservoirs:
HenryC: “Striper fishing over the week leading up to and past New Year's was pretty consistent. Fish were caught on all 3 patterns: deep, on the surface, and on extremely shallow flats. You just had to be at the right place at the right time. We saw 3 fish this week caught on the fly that weighed 20, 20, and 29 pounds! While our numbers caught are okay (not great) the size is noteworthy. Lanier is producing quality fish this winter and these fish are being caught in both rivers as well as on the lake, all the way up to Clark's Bridge. We still have a couple of open guide trip dates left in January. March is arguably our best month and dates are now going quick.
This Minnesota husband and wife team had fly rod stripers on their bucket list and…
mission accomplished!”
UO owner Jimmy paid some dues under yesterday’s bluebird sky: “Well, I, along with at least four other boats I spoke with, got skunked on Lanier.”
UO staffer Ben: “ We striper fished Wednesday night, and they were abundant in the river just above Lanier.”
UO buddy Landon hit Lanier last Sunday and said: “Location is top-secret - along with the 20 other boats that were there! Stripers were coming up good for an hour in late morning, too, right in front of XXX park.
My friend Pat and his buddy came on their boat, too, and fished a small, hard-body, sinking bait. They did well catching them on the fall. Burn some boat gas and watch for birds in the air and bait balls on the sonar.”
There’s more great trout and reservoir intel in today’s WRD fishing blog. Check out the small lake and walleye news, too.
https://georgiawildlife.blog/2023/01/06/georgia-fishing-report-january-6-2023/
Ponds:
Athens Jay: “Pond fishing was good last week as bass and crappie moved into shallow, warming water. Light-colored, weighted streamers tied on long, light fluorocarbon tippet to sink fast we’re the ticket. Just cast towards bank, fish them slow, bumping the bottom, and be ready for the strike.”
Mentoring Kudos!
They go to Athens Jay this week. He reports: “Fans of Brantley Gilbert know that he is passionate about the outdoors.
https://www.brantleygilbert.com/
This week I had the opportunity to introduce him to the sport of fly fishing for the first time. He quickly got the hang of casting and moved on to catching in short order. I think it is safe to say he is hooked, because he immediately asked me to help him select a fly rod and reel of his own. Stay tuned for more reports from this new convert! “
That’s a boatload of intel to kick-start your 2023 fishing year. Grab a rod and go soon to take advantage of our continued moderate weather. THE GAME isn’t until Monday nite, so you have the entire weekend to score your own striper and trout TD’s. Give us a shout at either UO store for hot flies, supplies, and winning game plans. And, for the final time:
GO DAWGS!!!
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
