Unicoi Outfitters Fishing Report - 2/14/25

This week’s theme is “work around the rains.” Streams are just starting to drop from this week’s four inches of rain. Headwaters and midsized WMA streams have already dropped to fishable levels today, while large trout streams and our warm rivers will need more time to recede to safe fishing levels. So head high for your best trout bets.

There’s some hope for tomorrow, while Sunday will likely be blown out by the violent overnight storms in the forecast. Last week’s delayed harvest stockings have spiced up those GA streams, while a new NC DH stocking plan for 2025 gives us hope for a fun spring to our north.

It’s still a bit early for spring runs in our lakes and warmwater rivers, but GAWRD is providing great weekly intel on the status of those runs.

Catch Wes’ weekly update to his hot fly list and the latest fishing reports here:

http://blog.angler.management/

Stop in either UO shop (Helen, Clarkesville) for your February supplies.

Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.

www.unicoioutfitters.com

Wes’ Hot Fly List:  

Dries: Micro chubby Chernobyl,  orange stimulator, parachute Adams,  little black caddis, little black stone. 

Nymphs & Wets: 

DH streams: squirmy worm, Twister egg, Frenchie, pheasant til, Duracell, micro girdle bug, ruby midge, gold ribbed hares ear.

Mountain streams: Pheasant tails, frenchies, micro girdle bugs, prince nymphs.

Streamers:

Sparkle minnow, Jiggy fry, CDC squirrel leech, muddy buddy.

(Bass & stripers) Somethin’ else, Clouser minnow, micro changer, jerk changer.

Headwaters: 

They are still a tad high but very fishable. Spoilcane was high, clear, and 46F at 10am today. 

The Hooch on the WMA looked good, too.

Dry/dropper combos should put you on fish. More will hit the dropper until warm afternoons boost stream temps again and get more fish to look up.

Foothills TUer Bob sent me some nice pics and just a few cryptic clues, so I’m surmising that he had a good day at Smithgall during a recent high-flow event, and might have used a leech pattern to fool these beautiful wild bows.

GATech 5Rivers clubber Will: I know I’m too late for today’s report, but I caught a few good fish today (2/7). It started at Smith DH where the fish couldn’t resist a size 20 pheasant tail. There was certainly no shortage of fish, and  they were very willing to eat.

Then I headed to a blue line to take advantage of the warmer water temps, and the brookies were certainly munching! I ended up lucky enough to land my personal best southern Appalachian brookie- a 9” male with a humpback and the first signs of a kype. After releasing him, he stayed right next to me recovering while I watched him in awe for a solid minute. What a day!”

Delayed Harvest Streams:

Most fished well before the floods and they should fish well afterward. You’ll just have to wait for flows to drop to fishable levels before getting back on them. Watch those USGS gauges 

https://waterdata.usgs.gov/ga/nwis/uv?site_no=02176930

and refer to your smart phone notes taken after your past trips, when you wrote down the flows that you could negotiate.

https://issuu.com/coastalanglermagazine/docs/atllr

The combination of fresh stockers and high, stained water has spelled success for Smith DH anglers yesterday (water temp 50F) 

and again this morning (48F at 11am). 

The squirmy worm hatch was in full force as I walked along the creek.  As long as the water stays high and stained, big and bright or buggy flies will be your best bets, so toss squirmies, eggs, buggers, and rubberleg stones.  Then drop back to smaller, natural-colored nymphs as the water clears. Use your submerged boot as an index of clarity.

Winter breaker Kason was out of school and having a great morning today (14th) with his champion fishing guide, his father Josh.  Deep-dredged squirmies under an indicator were being inhaled in the softer seams of a deep pool. 

Kason caught a handful of bows and a real pretty brookie while I stopped by.

 After I left, Josh texted me,  exclaiming that Kason just got a brown to complete his first-ever GA trout slam!

The stream got crowded by my noon departure, so go early or late this weekend to avoid the most competition for honey holes.

UO buddy Hillis had a nice day on Feb 7 at Smith DH. He said: “ Jeff, I had a Great day fishing Smith today. Caught several, all on a Walt’s Worm. Started fishing around 10:00. Almost immediately I had a really big one hooked, but unfortunately it broke my tippet. Later I had another large one hooked, and it took off like a rocket and broke off. Finally I managed to land a big one. All the other fish I caught were decent but not large. I caught rainbows and browns.

 I tried several flies with very little success until 1:00 or so when I put a Walt’s Worm on and that was the silver bullet. Before that I met a guy on the stream fishing a brown wooly and having a lot of luck with it. He gave me one and said it was guaranteed to catch fish, but unfortunately for me it didn’t work. I tried drifting and stripping it with no luck. I then put a strike indicator on and dropped a Walt’s worm off the end of the wooly and whammo I started catching fish, all on the Walt’s Worm. I gave one of my Walt’s Worms to a fellow fisherman who was fishing with a tenkara set up and not catching anything. He tied it on and caught a fish almost immediately. He was so grateful, said it was his first fish caught on the tenkara. It made me feel really good. Usually, almost always, it’s the other guy giving me a fly that works. I had to leave and wasn’t able to stick around and see if he caught anymore. I hope he did. Following my fun day on Smith my wife and I had a late lunch at my favorite BBQ restaurant. Could not have asked for a better day.”

Private Waters:

Nacoochee Bend fished well for our guests earlier this week. Plenty of fresh memories were made by our guests, the Veterans Fly Fishing group, based in Dahlonega.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DF_Q3QBB7pe/?img_index=4&igsh=eWxkNDF4cTJwN2Q3

Interested veterans, here’s more info on their program:

https://veteransflyfishing.org/about/

Tailwaters:

No recent reports. Be on the lookout soon for black caddis squadrons.  Jimmy saw a bunch on the lower Hooch, below trout waters, last week.

NC:

News flash!  Here’s NC’s newly updated 2025 Delayed Harvest stocking schedule:

https://www.ncwildlife.org/fishing/trout-fishing-north-carolina

Also, here’s Ian’s pre-flood Smokies update:

https://randrflyfishing.com/2025/02/05/winter-thaw-in-the-smokies/

And his 2/13 flood video:

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19zcM9bn8F/?

UO buddy Myles recently returned from his road trip and said:  “This past Saturday, I fished western North Carolina with 2 friends of mine. I was able to catch 24, one of my friends caught about 12 and the other caught 8. Lots of pretty wild fish were caught, and even a nice stocker brown about 14".

I was using 6-6.5x tippet with 2 nymphs on my Euro rig. I commonly switch between size 18 and size 20 nymphs with either a 2.5 or 3.0mm bead depending on the depth and current. With a proper tuck cast and drift, I had minimal problem getting 6-10 feet deep in some spots. Silver and Pink beads have been the ticket for me lately, with copper not as favored.”

Warm Rivers:

UGA 5Rivers member Adam: “We fished the backwater of a middle Georgia river this past weekend. The max depth was only about 3 feet. About 90% of all bites were on small red/white poppers. Targeted the "deep" channel just off the bank. Water was low and clear, so sight fishing was effective. We caught bluegill, flier, bass, chain Pickerel, crappie, and even hooked a carp."

GAWRD has some fresh river walleye, stripers, whites, and bass in today’s blog:

https://georgiawildlife.blog/category/fishing/

Lakes:

UO buddy Athens Jay: “Last week I helped some friends introduce their daughter Paige to fishing. She started out a little hesitant, but the first good tug had her hooked. Farm pond fishing is definitely heating up and we caught a variety of species on both fly gear and conventional tackle. A white sparkle minnow worked great on bass species. The bluegill and stocked trout could not resist this abomination!”

UO buddy MD:  “One thing I love about fly fishing local warm water fisheries is being able catch multiple natives over corse of the afternoon. Last Saturday I hit a local lake with my four weight and a buggy little rubber-legged-dragon variation suspended under a chubby Chernobyl. In addition to redbreast sunfish, bluegill, black crappie, and largemouth bass, I pulled in two of my local favorites: redear sunfish (aka shellcracker) and warmouth. Warmouth are just so cool looking to me, and a big shellcraker will often do its best redfish impression, surging toward the bottom as it approaches the kayak. I may even give swollen lakes a try before more rain moves through this weekend.”

No news received this week from our Lanier striper regulars. 

Events:

Ongoing: Dream Trip ticket sales. Win a week of fishing in Yellowstone for just ten bucks, or one of a dozen great runnerup prizes.  Drawing on March 22.  Details here:

https://georgiatu.org/

March 22 : Hoot on the Hooch. Georgia Foothills TU’s annual fundraiser on the banks of the Chattahoochee River at the Helendorf Inn in Helen. All Dream Trip raffle winners announced.

Good luck as you work around the storms and high water. It’s nice to see our rivers recharging, so we’ll accept this single step back for two steps forward for spring fishing success.  Check those USGS gauges and know the flows before you go. 

https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/02330450/#dataTypeId=continuous-00065-0&period=P7D&showMedian=false

Stop in either UO shop for more breaking intel and our best February bugs.

Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.

www.unicoioutfitters.com

“Adaptive Dredging”

Here’s a winter trouting tip for y’all: try some adaptive dredging.  When nymphing my favorite large streams this season, I’m often faced with changing habitats as I work upstream. I’ll quickly adapt my nymph rig to the pool condition in front of me. Here are my quick and easy adaptations to varying winter waters.

First, the bugs. My favorite winter patterns are small weighted eggs, heavy sexy Walts worms, or tungsten Pats rubberlegs for a lead/anchor fly and lighter Frenchies (silver or copper bead), France flies (black or brown beads), or tiny pheasant tail nymphs as droppers for picky fish.

Next, the techniques.  For pocket pools in boulder fields and the fast runs among them, I’ll start with a Euronymphing rig with a long piece of tippet, maybe a couple feet longer than the average depth.

When I move upstream to a fairly shallow, flat pool, I’ll simply twist on a Lightning Strike slotted football indicator to that tippet, at 1.5 times the water depth, and fish the indicator rig.

When I move up to a deeper pool, I’ll substitute an Airlock indicator for the smaller football float. Again, I’ll place it at 1.5 or even 2 times the water depth and fish the suspension rig. Sometimes the Airlock goes on the colored sighter line above my tippet or even on the leader above the sighter. (The Oros brand indicators work well, too)

When I wade further upstream and hit the next batch of pocket water, I simply remove the indicator and go back to contact (Euro) nymphing.

These rigging changes are quick and easy and keep me fishing rather than rerigging. Give them a try and see if adaptive dredging works for you, too, this winter.

Unicoi Outfitters Fishing Report - 2/7/25

Our warm spell continues and it’s a mighty fine time to wet a line.  Trout streams are really low and clear, but they’re warmer and the past week’s bite reflects that.  Add a fresh dose of GA DH stockers and you have the prime ingredients for success this weekend. Carry some dries with you, too, and catch some bonus fish on top before the rains come next week.

Lakes are much slower to respond to rising air temperatures and shallow stripers are still scattered and temperamental. But they’re still worth a shot during our false spring of sixty degree days. And you can always chase spawning walleye while waiting on the stripers to bunch up.

Catch Wes’ weekly update to his hot fly list and the latest fishing reports here:

http://blog.angler.management/

Stop in either UO shop (Helen, Clarkesville) for your February supplies.

Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.

www.unicoioutfitters.com

Wes’ Hot Fly List:  

Dries: Micro chubby Chernobyl,  orange stimulator, parachute Adams, blue wing olive, little black caddis, little black stone. 

Nymphs & Wets: 

DH streams: Twister egg, Frenchie, Duracell, micro girdle bug, ruby midge, little black stone, RS2, gold ribbed hares ear.

Mountain streams: Pheasant tails, micro girdle bugs, prince nymphs,  root beer midge.

Streamers:

Sparkle minnow, Jiggy fry, CDC squirrel leech, muddy buddy.

(Bass & stripers) Somethin’ else, Clouser minnow, micro changer, jerk changer.

Get to know more about Wes here:

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1AuiA1U7Th/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Headwaters: 

Low and clear, but warn enough to give you plenty of hope for some dry fly action.  Two different speck chasers visited the shop last week and said they had great outings for natives “high in the mountains.”  Their fine pics proved their point. Try single, fluffy dries to start. Only add a dropper if it’s a slow morning or a deep pool.  For forest road updates, try the Chatt Forest Ranger District offices: Example: Tallulah Falls RD:  706-754-6221. 

Delayed Harvest Streams:

They’re low and clear, but also warmer  and restocked here in GA.  Try some junk flies first (buggers, eggs, and squirmies) and dry/dropper rigs next. Don’t forget to twitch them.

UO buddy and new flyfisher Tanner said: “thanks for the flies and advice before my Smith DH trip. Got one on a dry fly and one on a woolly bugger.  I lost the only dry fly I had. I’m gonna have to get a few more because several fish came up and bumped my white indicator.”

Rabunites Nan and Rick gave the Nan DH a try.  She said: “Lots of these flying around, but no fish rising to them.  Didn’t see a single fish. Didn’t even see any running in terror from our flies. We dredged with several nymphs and I tried dries late in the sunny sections. Water temp 48. My Helios remains unchristened. But it was a gorgeous day and we had a really good time. Very few anglers. I caught a lot of bugs. Bald eagle flew really low right over our heads and perched about 150 feet from us for a long time. I hope he had better fishing luck!  But at least we witnessed the first true hint of of trouting spring with the Quill Gordon hatch. Hopefully the fish will figure them out quickly.”

New flyfisher and new UO customer Cale visited with us and then went out and caught his first trout on a fly rod. And a brookie at that! Congrats Cale!

Private Waters:

UO Helen manager Wes: “I guided repeat client Frank on some private water last Tuesday afternoon and wow, the weather was incredible for a February day!  We had highs in the mid 70s.  We had a great afternoon catching eager fish in pockets and riffles on streamers and soft hackles.”

Tailwaters:

No recent reports. Be on the lookout soon for black caddis squadrons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9Hq00edl8s

Rivers:

UO buddy RSquared: “In NW Georgia, white bass had begun staging near the mouths of tributaries on the Coosa River. However several days of sub-freezing temperatures the last couple of weeks sent them back to the main channel. I had hoped that the recent warm days would entice the white bass back to the tributaries. However, my former student, Nathan, fished it today with no success. He talked with several other anglers and they also were not finding any white bass and very few crappie. We have several more warm days ahead so my fingers are crossed.”

Lakes:

UO buddy MD:  “Got out to enjoy the beautiful weather in Athens the past few days. No luck on hopper/dropper rigs on my go-to local lake, so switched over to a sink-tip line and a black and brown Barr's meat whistle. Caught several nice large mouth bass in the moving water where creeks entered the lake. It was one of those days where I would've been content simply kayaking some of my favorite water. Since then I've been hard at "work" filling my fly boxes with warm water patterns as this false spring continues.”

UO guide Joseph: “ Jimmy and I had a decent outing on Hartwell last week. The main lake was up to 53 degrees and the backs of creeks were 57. We were able to find some good schools of fish but they were being just as picky as they are on Lanier. We tried three different flies on two different lines and even some conventional lures on spinning rods and still couldn’t buy a bite. After putting the long rods up and heading back toward the ramp, we ran into a group of hybrids eating on the surface. They were much more eager than their bigger cousins. Two casts and two fish on an underspin and they never showed themselves again.

If you’d like to book a trip call the shop at (706)-878-3083!”

Learn more about Joseph here:

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19pR2Xyk72/?

UO buddy AJ: “Lanier has warmed back up into the low 50s and both stripers and bass are moving around. The problem is they are very spread out, moving quickly, and have been very picky. The other problem with this warm weather is all the extra boat traffic, even during the middle of the week. I counted 14 boats out in one small area this AM. Fish are eating a range of threadfin from super tiny up to 2”-3”. Hard to go wrong with a small Clouser, Somethin Else, or Polar Minnow. And definitely play around with your retrieve speed. Hopefully these fish will get grouped back up soon and it’ll be a great spring! Now booking trips for March, so reach out if you want to get out! My website is: www.lanieronthefly.com.”

UO owner Jimmy just called in and said Lanier this morning was frustrating. He saw stripers, but there were scatted singles and just dimpling the surface “like they were sipping blue wing olives.” No fish to hand, but he said it was a fine morning on the lake.

Events:

Ongoing: Dream Trip ticket sales. Win a week of fishing in Yellowstone for just ten bucks, or one of a dozen great runnerup prizes.  Drawing on March 22.  Details here:

https://georgiatu.org/

March 22 : Hoot on the Hooch. Georgia Foothills TU’s annual fundraiser on the banks of the Chattahoochee River at the Helendorf Inn in Helen. All Dream Trip raffle winners announced.

Good luck during this second week of the false spring. Enjoy the “warm” and just tolerate the “wet” with a good raincoat. We need the showers for some stream recharges. Don’t forget a few dark dries, too, for this brief period and for the true spring hatches just on the horizon. Ready for those tailwater caddis flights?

And those stripers will soon be schooling in the shallows again. We are just a few weeks and a few degrees away from their early spring “blooms,” too.

Stop in one of our shops if we can help you out.

Helen:706-878-3083

Clarkesville: 706-754-0203

Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.

www.unicoioutfitters.com