Unicoi Outfitters Fishing Report - 4/19/24

Prime Time continues up here! Last nite’s rain was minor and our trout streams will be clear for your Saturday adventures.  Sunday will be a different story with the storms rolling in, so you’ll have to wait til early next week for your next rematch after Saturday.

On trout waters, pick your time and match your technique to it. Drift some nymphs or soft hackles before lunch. If you’re a dry fly fan, match the midday midges or prospect broken waters with a tan caddis.  But if you really want to score on top, then go late, stay late, and take full advantage of the evening hatches that are in full swing. I did last night!

Pond bass and bream are prime, while lake stripers are starting their downriver trips after their early April spawning runs. You can still catch some fish upriver, but most will soon be back in flat waters, keying in on the shad and herring spawns in the dawn shallows.

Don’t miss this month! It’s been great and should continue for several more weeks.  Folks who dive deeper into this note will find our specific recipes for success here:

http://blog.angler.management/

 (Link in bio)

Take a look and you’ll know why my shoulder aches after last night’s epic trip, and why some of y’all should should book a half-day getaway ASAP with Iz, Wes, and Caleb. Take a break and cash in on this hot April action. We sure are!

Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.

www.unicoioutfitters.com

Wes’ Hot Fly List:  

Dries:  Rage Cage Caddis, tan elk hair caddis, parachute light cahill, tan sparkle dun, Drymerger March Brown, parachute Adams, griffiths gnat, yellow stimulator, or small micro Chubby Chernobyl as a headwater dry for your droppers.

Nymphs & Wets: 

Gold ribbed hares ear, pheasant tail nymph and soft hackle wet, holy grail, soft hackle partridge, biot epoxy stone, squirminator for the Sunday rain, fast water prince.

Streamers & warm water:

(Trout) Squirrely bugger, sparkle yummy, bank robber sculpin, and mini shimmer buggers for stockers. (bass & stripers) Cowens somethin’ else, gray/white clouser minnow, finesse changer, polar changer, crittermite, jiggy craw.

Headwaters:

They have seasonal flows and only a slight stain that will clear in a couple hours. Spoilcane ran 60 degrees at 11AM today. Toss your favorite tan or yellow dry fly and have fun with all those little wild residents while flows are still good and temps are perfect.

https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no=02330450&legacy=1

https://littleriveroutfitters.com/pages/fishing/report.htm

Last Sunday afternoon I watched a true small-stream craftsman at work. Despite the high sun and clear water, DNR’s John “Deadly” Damer picked apart his favorite headwater stream. He drifted his tan X-caddis right next to submerged logs and deep under rhododendron branches to coax a nice handful of wild browns to hand.

UO buddy RonW: “I went up to the Burnsville, NC area for a men's weekend at my friend Rob's Mtn house, which sits at 4000'  in elevation and has a rather gorgeous creek running right thru it.  We did the same thing 2 years ago around the same time but I didn't catch, let alone even see a single fish then which has had me wondering ever since. The water is too clear, too big and too high up not to have fish in it, specifically Specs.  

We pulled up about 1:30pm after the 4+ hr drive from home.  We are in T shirts and it's about 62°.  The temperature dropped 15° in 10 minutes and then dropped even more, which had me reaching for a down jacket.

With me being the only angler in the bunch, you know where my mind was at. I rigged up my rod, tied on a #12 black stone fly with a #18 Frenchie and walked the 100' down to the creek to find a perch as I'm fishing waderless.  It immediately started snowing, which has always been magical to me. Fishing in the snow in a high elevation MTN creek is as good as it gets for me.

 I'm working one of the bigger plunge pools on his property from the top of a big boulder, staying out of site as much as possible.  After about 5-6 minutes of dredging this run my line goes tight.  There were a good 10 seconds where I couldn't see it as it was trying to bulldog me under the boulder I was standing on. I get him out and into the current and finally get a glimpse, of what is definitely the largest wild brookie I've ever had on the line. My heart is beating out of my chest as I'm yelling for my buddy to bring me my net. He gets it to me after a long minute and I hooked and land  my largest wild brookie to date, I'm guessing it was 10.5" - 11".  

It started sleeting and then turned to a light rain which was my cue to head back to the cabin.   Day 1 = PB brookie in less than 10 minutes.

Day 2: Sat morning I woke, had my coffee and went down to the creek. I hook and land my 2nd largest brookie to date on my 3rd cast on a red tag dropper.

Day 3: Sunday am I woke up, had my coffee and then ran down to the creek of course. On my 1st cast I land another chunky brookie on the black stone.  I went back up to the cabin to finish my coffee and start packing and cleaning up.  I got another 30 minutes of fishing in a little later on with no luck so I decided I had fished all I needed to. 

To sum it up this epic weekend....3 days and 3 fish in less than an hour total fishing. 2 of them being my PB and my 2nd PB, both out of the same hole.  An epic high elevation hike, great food, great company and some much needed hydrotherapy in one of the most special creeks I've ever had the pleasure to fish.”

Delayed Harvest: 

These streams continue to fish well for anglers with a good game and hatch-matching skills.  Stocked fish are now experienced and a lot smarter, requiring our better techniques, whether dead-drifting or skittering.

Smith DH was low and clear and made the fishing tough for rookies. One veteran angler had good luck on an olive cone head bugger that he showed me. Try a dry/short dropper combo on 6x tippet and aim for the shade during the day and the shadows after 7pm. Come late and stay til slap-dark for the best action.

UO friend Nan:  “ On Monday I only cast SHORT on the Nan DH and remembered to hi-stick the slow pockets. Caught a lot of fish!

We had a fun Wednesday morning on a Chattooga DH guided trip donated to the Rabun TU Rendezvous by our chapter member, Zac.  Water still a little high for me (waded to thigh deep) but bottom was good and I felt stable. Lots of fish caught on nymphs, since adult bugs and risers were scarce that early in the day.  An equal number were missed, too.  I got to cast long a bit, which made this Everglades flyfishing veteran very happy.

Lots of different fishing techniques this week. My brain is full of great memories and my back and shoulders are sore! PS: don’t forget your bug repellent!”

Dredger had an epic evening yesterday (18th) on Chattooga DH. He arrived at 4PM to clear, moderate flow and 62-degree water temperature. Tiny caddis adults and swarms of midges buzzed about in the hot sun. Dredger tied on something he could see, a #16 tan caddis, and started prospecting “cover.”  

He found some willing risers by dead drifting the broken water of riffles and by skittering his dry in the runs and shallow pool heads, especially in the shade. The action was steady for the next 3.5 hours and only got better as the shadows grew.

Some #16 cahills started emerging at 730 and sparked more risers. He stayed with his caddis, since it still worked well. At 8PM the cahills got thicker and the fish got pickier, so he switched to a tan sparkle dun. That was the ticket.  Best fish of the day was a 14-inch bow that inhaled the dun at 8:15. Last fish was fondled at 8:35, when Mother Nature finally turned her switch off and the river went to sleep. An equal mix of bows and browns made it another memorable day of dry fly flinging. Go soon, while the bug buffet is in full swing. Don’t forget the hot intel on page ATL-1 here:

https://issuu.com/coastalanglermagazine/docs/atl_7f5d7dec6f4ea9

Stocked Waters:

Stocker fans should have another long list of choices later today. If you’re brand new to flyfishing, pick a large, stocked stream and toss a small, black or olive woolly bugger to score early success in your new sport.

https://georgiawildlife.com/Fishing/Trout

Private Waters: 

UO-Helen manager Wes: “Private waters fished pretty good on Monday and Tuesday. Lots of bugs came out due to the warmer water and air temps. Soft hackles, pheasant tails, and chubby Chernobyls were the best producers.”

UO manager Jake’s clients had a good trip to Rainbow Point on the Soque. His hot bugs were drifted girdle bugs and yellow soft hackles.

Iz told me this morning that his clients had some great days this week at Soque Camp. His secret to success was dead drifting soft hackle wets. Bugs were hatching (mainly midges), but nobody came up to play in the higher, discolored flow. The deeper drifts did much better.

UO guide Caleb: “I had a very productive day at Soque Camp earlier in the week. The streamer bite has turned off while the dry fly bite is turning on!  A yellow micro chubby produced some strikes. Dredging, of course, brought in the most fish. Natural stonefly patterns and lightly weighted, yellow nymphs were my go-tos. Sulphurs are moving!””

Tailwaters:

No recent reports. Thanks to heavy rainbow stockings, should be fishing well around the rains that discolor them.

Warm Rivers:

No recent reports. Watch today’s WRD blog for any breaking news:

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

Reservoirs:

Our reservoir stripers  typically run up the rivers during the first half of April on spawning attempts. They’re successful on the Coosa, but not in our other, shorter rivers where the eggs settle into the sediment.  You can still find sone stragglers up there, but the majority of fish will now head downstream for more abundant groceries in the lakes. Find them in the shallows early and late, and especially at dawn when the shad and herring spawns kick off soon. Find more hot lake intel in the WRD weekly reports.

Ponds:

Athens Jay is still wearing out his pond bream. He said the recent secret weapon has been an unweighted pats rubberlegs dropper under his popper. That slow-sinking bug has been irresistible.

 

Afar:

Ray Van Hassel from afar landed this beautiful 23 pound Dorado on the Upper Parana River in Argentina.

There’s your mid-April update. As expected, it’s been quite a month so far. Get out there soon and cash in on the remaining weeks of this awesome spring action. Just carry the right dries and streamers to match the bug and shad hatches and you, too, can earn a sore shoulder. Take plenty of pics!

Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.

www.unicoioutfitters.com

Unicoi Outfitters Fishing Report - 4/12/24

 

Welcome to Caddis and Cahill Time!  Trout waters are warming and the bug buffets have started.  Don’t leave home without your box of prime dry fly patterns and a bottle of High-n-Dry dessicant.   

There’s only a slight bit of temporary bad news to temper our Saturday enthusiasm. Region watersheds received from 1.5 to 3 inches of rain over the last two days, so large rivers are still high. They will hopefully return to safe wading levels by Sunday or early next week. The good news is that small and medium streams have already dropped to safe wading levels and should be prime by tomorrow. Catchable trout fans should again see a long stocking list from GAWRD later today.

On the lake front, bass are heading into the shallows, while stripers remain scattered. Lakes and ponds are approaching their prime time as their shallows warm and bass start bedding.  Striper catches are down, but average size is still compensating for numbers. If you’re lucky enough to locate some stripers, be ready to battle fish weighing in the teens.

Check out the hot intel from our guides and friends and Wes’ hot fly list here:

http://blog.angler.management/

 (Link in bio)

It’s warming slowly this afternoon and the wind is howling!  I’d pass on tenkara and Euro techniques today. But, by golly, the weekend is sure looking sweet. Check river gauges, consult your past notes on safe wading levels, and be ready to match the hatches with your double-dry rigs.  Stop in either UO shop to stock up. Good luck during our April prime time!

Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.

www.unicoioutfitters.com

Wes’ Hot Fly List:  

Dries:  Rage Cage Caddis, tan elk hair caddis, parachute light cahill, Drymerger March Brown, parachute Adams, BWO, stimulator, or small micro Chubby Chernobyl as a headwater dry for your droppers.

Nymphs & Wets: 

American nymph molted brown, soft hackle partridge, holy grail, girdle bug, pink tag jig. Prince nymph, peach egg, and brown pats rubberlegs for stockers.

Streamers & warm water:

(Trout) Squirrely bugger, sparkle yummy, bank robber sculpin, and small olive woolly buggers for stockers. (bass & stripers) Cowens somethin’ else, gray/white clouser minnow, finesse changer, polar changer, crittermite, jiggy craw.

Headwaters:

Our streams are looking great and temperatures are prime: in the mid-50’s. Both Spoilcane

 and Smith DH were just a bit high this morning, but already clear.  

Grab your short blueline rod and toss your favorite buoyant dry this weekend. It’s hard to beat a tan caddis, cahill, or small tan chubby for Blueline prospecting.

https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no=02330450&legacy=1

Be careful in the Smokies. Those mountains got a lot of rain and are running high. Hopefully their headwaters will also be fishable this weekend.

https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/03512000/

https://littleriveroutfitters.com/pages/fishing/report.htm

Delayed Harvest: 

It’s on!  Warmer water, a dose of fresh stockers, and abundant bugs make DH streams a best bet this week. Try dry/droppers to start, but be ready to switch to double dry rigs as soon as you spot some buzzing bugs or rising trout. We had our best luck on tan caddis and cahill combos. Fly sizes were chosen to match the hatching bugs. Carry those two patterns in sizes 14 to 18 to be ready for each daily hatch.

Shelfish and Dredger hit Nan DH last Sunday afternoon. Shel hit a few on a dry/dropper rig while Dredger drove and scouted. He found fellow Rabunite Bluejay in a sunny, shallow, downstream stretch. BlueJay had a big time on dries and scored several species slams. Dredger returned to Shelfish with that intel and put him in shallower water, where he scored high on a double dry rig. More fish ate his small tan elk hair caddis dropper than the larger lead fly, a para Adams that was easier to see. (See UO’s Monday post)

Dredger awoke Wednesday and checked the weather and water intel. It looked favorable, so he hit Chattooga DH at lunchtime.  He started with a stimmy dry and several nymph droppers in the misty rain and fog, landing a few on the prince dropper.  But he had a bunch of refusals on the stimmy dry. He spent the next hour trying to dial in the right dry patterns til he got it right: a #16 tan elk hair caddis with a #18 cahill dropper. Cahills, caddis, and tiny (#20) yellow stones hatched sparsely through the day, with more popping later as the rain quit and bringing up some risers. He found eager fish in nearly all the soft spots, but it took a twitch/skitter technique to bring them up. That technique beat his dead drift by at least 5 to 1. An equal mix of bows and browns made it one fine afternoon of trout on top. He caught enough to leave hungry fish at 6 and find supper himself.

UO friend CDB covered a lot of water: “Been a heck of a week.  I’ve managed to get out every day day this week. I capped it off by making the long drive to a nice DH water in the rain. After two hours of happily singing Marshall Tucker and Eagles tunes on the drive up, I popped open the hatch of the car and quickly realized there was a vacant spot where my waders and my wading boots typically sit. Because they were still hanging in the garage drying.  I looked down at my beat-up pair of sketchers loafers I was wearing, almost no tread on the bottom, one or two holes, and part of the left sole starting to peel away.  Look like wet-wading shoes to me!  On a positive note, I did remember my raincoat to keep me dry this time. So I had that going for me.  

It was absolutely worth it!  It doesn’t get much better than this past week with the southeast for trout fishing.  

Across both the NC and GA DH waters a common theme emerged. Black Higa’s SOS size 18 were hot for rainbows. Size 14 olive body perdigon style flies with bronze or black heads and orange collars similar to hot spots and firestarters were the best flies for Brook trout.  Size 18 Halo Point jigs were magic for most everything as well.  Olive and bronze leeches performed nicely, but a rig with a big perdigon as an anchor and the SOS or Halo point as the fly was a top producer; especially in the deeper or slower runs. Dropping to 5.5x tippet as well made a difference. Takes were pretty subtle. Set on the winks or any type of movement. It is possible to pick up a fish here and there on a small egg, or a mop fly, but most of these fish have graduated from that stage as Dredger has said before, and they’re becoming a good bit more picky.  

My favorite wild area fished well. Anything with a quill body, like the Halo Point, as well as bronze leeches and wooly buggers. Run them up under the ledges and slide the up under those overhanging sycamore roots. There can be surprisingly good fish in those dark holes. 

Private waters fished solid in the rain. Olive leech patterns were particularly effective. By mid-afternoon red squirmy’s as well as chartreuse squirmy’s were very hot. Stonefly pattern worked reasonably well. Have to go dry my socks and shoes and rest up for next week….”

Stocked Waters:

Stocker fishing should be excellent, again.  Grab some bait, lures, or flashy flies and consult today’s WRD list before heading up here:

https://georgiawildlife.com/Fishing/Trout

Private Waters: 

Our private waters fished really well when they weren’t blown out by stormflows. While our weekends are booked, we still have some good weekdays to choose from. Check your April calendars, pick a few date options, and call the Helen shop for a nice-half day trout fix.

UO guide Caleb: “The Soque took a while to figure out last Saturday with clear skies and even clearer water. Large articulated streamers moved some big fish but small nymphs were the way to go. A hot-headed pheasant tail with a CDC collar ended up in lots of trout mouths!”

UO guide Israel: “The trout were hammering dry flies all Monday morning. A Corn Fed Yellow Sally was the winner of the day.”

UO buddy Nanette: “We took a Rabun Co private waters trip afternoon.  Misting and chilly but water still pretty clear and not too high for us.  Rick caught a 21” rainbow on a yellow stimulator (dry-dropper setup). What a beautiful fish!  We both caught several smaller rainbows, and I even caught a tiny wild one on an Adams. But Rick’s fish was definitely the prize.  I bought the trip as a Xmas gift for Rick and he certainly enjoyed his present!”

Tailwaters:

RonW: “I made a solo trip over to the Dam yesterday 4/7 and it didn't disappoint.  The water release was scheduled to end at 12:10, I stepped in the water at 12:18, right as it was still going down. 

Surprisingly, I had just about had the whole place to myself. I started off with a dry dropper setup as usual, with a size 22 parachute midge dry up top and a size 20 black France fly off the bend on 3.5' of 6.5x.  It was slow for the first few hours. I only landed 6 fish on mixed droppers that all seemed to be only good for a fish or two. (France fly, Walt's worm, red tag, rainbow warrior and hares ear) 

Fish were rising everywhere around me, some even coming out of the water like mullet. They just didn't want anything to do with my dry. After a half a dozen  changes on my dropper, I found the hot fly. I worked my way down past the wood and then back up, landing another 14-16 fish on that 1 fly. I ended up breaking off my whole rig so I tied on a size 24 parachute midge with the same dropper that just wacked them, and proceeded to catch 6 on top. 1/2 of them were just blind rises, the other 3 were targeted. One fish was rising every 15 seconds in the same exact spot. He probably wishes that I couldn't count.

I bailed right before 5pm, slimed up and grinning from ear to ear. Nothing like a little hydrotherapy to cure what ails ya!”

UO buddy Spangler:  “Had a few hours to fish so opted to try my luck a couple miles below Buford Dam. The wind was absolutely relentless and nullified my attempts to euro nymph or dry-drop. After a couple hours of having the wind blow my fly and line clear out of the water (not exaggerating) I swallowed my pride and hooked on an indicator up onto my sighter. It paid off quick, I hooked into this chunky 17” rainbow. Was the only fish of the day but it made the grind worth it! He ate a little zebra midge style perdigon through a slow run between some subsurface boulders.”

UO guide Ben joined forces with Orvis-Atlanta’s Devin Lancaster (our UO part-time guide) to host a successful instream Euronymphing clinic for Devin’s guests last Saturday.

Warm Rivers:

GAWRD has some fresh intel today:

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

Reservoirs:

AJ: “Had a trip Sunday afternoon. Lots of sun and lots of boats,  so we didn't find much in the way of schooling fish. But we did manage one striper blind casting clay banks and points. Fished Tuesday in the rain (thankful for quality gore-tex!) and had good groups of striper feeding on top nearly everywhere I checked. The only problem was they were usually only up a few seconds at a time. Once I gave up trying to use the trolling motor to get them, I ended up getting a few to eat a Clouser Minnow. Ended the day with 3 striper, 2 spotted bass, and nice white bass. 2 of the 3 striper were double digit fish, largest being 14lbs. Still quite a few gulls mid-lake, but thin out further north. I saw water temps between 61* and 64*. Clay banks and points are holding fish. Use your electronics to check, make a few casts, and then move on to the next. Reach out if you want to go! “

-Alex Jaume

Lanier on the Fly

https://www.instagram.com/p/C4k7uy7OH4P/?igsh=MXMxb2cyODMydDEycw==

UO guide Joseph: “Went out on the lake Sunday morning.  Caught one small striper and lost another at the boat. I was using both intermediate  and sinking lines with 3in clousers fishing points. I also saw a school of bass busting on small bait. If you aren’t getting bit on a particular fly then try changing the size / profile to “match the hatch” of the baitfish at hand.”

Small Lakes:

Athens Jay: “Trout, bass snd bluegill have all liked my girdle bug this spring.”

Athens MD: “A bum shoulder (thankfully NOT my casting arm) has kept me from lifting my kayak on top of my vehicle the past couple weeks, so I've been relegated to the banks on local lakes around Athens. Bass are moving shallow, and gray to light-gray feather gamechangers have been a hit on sink tip lines. I've even had a couple ferocious bluegill try to eat these 3.5 inch flies! Can't wait to get the kayak back in the water. “

 

Afar:

RSquared: “On Monday my son Matt & I took his bass boat north of the state line to the Tennessee River in search of smallmouth bass. We were unable to locate any of the elusive, native smallmouths but we did boat some invasive Alabama/Spotted bass. We also landed white bass and Matt even managed to catch a large 15+ pound catfish on a plastic worm. We also had a great view of Monday's solar eclipse.”

Get out there as soon as the wind dies and the flows drop. You’ll sure be glad you did!

Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.

www.unicoioutfitters.com