Jimmy Harris
Senior Member
I apologize for being a day late on this but maybe some of you will have some time off next week and be able to schedule some time on the water. So, here ya go:
Jeff Says,
Flows are good after a slight bump from 12/16’s half-inch of rain. Water temps are tolerable - for the fish. As for us, we should wear wool socks and fleece pants under our waders!
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/ga/nwis/uv?site_no=02176930
Fish in the forties will be slower than their former selves at fifty degrees, so expect lower overall catches. But the water is still above 40, so you’ll still enjoy some catches if you employ the standard winter mantra of “low, slow, after lunch, and in the sun.” And the best news is that we have a slight warming trend toward Christmas. Every extra degree counts! And keep an eye out for possible holiday gifts from the GAWRD elves.
http://georgiawildlife.com/Fishing/Trout
For trout, hit the afternoons with your winter techniques of deep and slow with eggs, rubber leg stoneflies, small buggers, and maybe a small nymph dropper off the back. Good nymph patterns: pheasant tail (nymph or soft hackle version), hares ear, rainbow warrior, lightning bug, prince. Aim for the sunny spots!
Use a short tapered leader and then a long piece of 3x or 4x tippet to slice through the water column. Finally, knot a foot of 4x or 5x tippet to connect your long leader to your fly, and get some good, drag-free drifts along the bottom.
(See “Winter Chuck and Duck” in here: https://rabuntu.org/about/educational-programs/secrets/)
For stripers, find the bait via the birds or your Humminbird (fishfinder). Henry C says most predators are still deep and on small bait, but birds will show you some surface action. Do more searching than casting and you’ll catch more stripers.
Enjoy the latest angler reports and tips:
Headwaters
Jimmy slipped out to a local headwater stream last Sunday afternoon. He tossed a dry/dropper combo on his short blueline rod and picked up a nice handful of wild rainbows in a couple of hours. One was a real trophy for the tiny stream and stretched to ten inches. None were brave enough to come up to his parachute hares ear dry, and all preferred the small, tungsten prince dropper.
Smith DH
Web posts and other anglers report decent fishing in the colder water. Stealth and deep-dredged eggs and small nymphs are producing. Weekends are busy and your success will be lower if you’re fishing behind a bunch of folks. Try these two techniques. Tip 1: rest a pool when it’s finally yours. Eat a snack, rerig your leader, and admire nature around you for 20 minutes. Then catch them with stealth! Use lighter tippet (6x) and small flies (#18 and 20 pheasant tails, zebra midges, WD40’s, rainbow warriors) that will be different than the standard fare that has pounded them for hours. Sneak up and toss in without false casting and spooking the nervous residents. Tip 2: go on an uncrowded weekday. And Euronymphing works well on any day.
Chattooga DH
Our friend @certifiedflybum reports, “Sunday was a great day to be outside. The sun was bright and warm on our backs, but the fish did not care that it was nice out. The colder weather, plus rainwater from the day before, kept the trout tight to the bottom in deep pools or soft pockets of three feet or better deep water, it's December after all. Success finally came by changing one's mindset from fall to winter techniques, keeping line drifts painfully slow or to a near stall giving the fish time to consider moving on the fly. In the early afternoon sunlight, the fly of the day was an orange bead head with white chenille weighted to tick the bottom. And in the late afternoon, casting dark micro streamers with a bit of flash into soft water and suspending the flies in the drift working the edges of sun and shade got motivated trout curious enough to bite. The slow conditions made the few that did play the reward of the day.”
Where are these places? GAWRD shows you here:
http://georgiawildlife.com/Fishing/Trout
All streams are on the interactive map. And you can also scroll down to “artificial lure streams” and click on the DH stream names for individual maps.
Lake Lanier
Hank the Yank sez, “Stripers are still scattered all over the lake as the weather is cooling and water temps get into the mid 50’s. Fish are starting to bunch up a little more which hopefully means sinking line bite will start soon. Best bets are to still look for surface feeding fish or toss flies on loons. The south end of the lake is still best by far.”
Stay distant and safe. If you go, then go local and slow, and be careful in the outdoors. We don’t want to add any more work for our healthcare heroes during these very tough times for all Georgians.
May we all count our blessings and then put 2020 behind us. Can I get an Amen to that? Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Dredger.
+3
Jeff Says,
Flows are good after a slight bump from 12/16’s half-inch of rain. Water temps are tolerable - for the fish. As for us, we should wear wool socks and fleece pants under our waders!
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/ga/nwis/uv?site_no=02176930
Fish in the forties will be slower than their former selves at fifty degrees, so expect lower overall catches. But the water is still above 40, so you’ll still enjoy some catches if you employ the standard winter mantra of “low, slow, after lunch, and in the sun.” And the best news is that we have a slight warming trend toward Christmas. Every extra degree counts! And keep an eye out for possible holiday gifts from the GAWRD elves.
http://georgiawildlife.com/Fishing/Trout
For trout, hit the afternoons with your winter techniques of deep and slow with eggs, rubber leg stoneflies, small buggers, and maybe a small nymph dropper off the back. Good nymph patterns: pheasant tail (nymph or soft hackle version), hares ear, rainbow warrior, lightning bug, prince. Aim for the sunny spots!
Use a short tapered leader and then a long piece of 3x or 4x tippet to slice through the water column. Finally, knot a foot of 4x or 5x tippet to connect your long leader to your fly, and get some good, drag-free drifts along the bottom.
(See “Winter Chuck and Duck” in here: https://rabuntu.org/about/educational-programs/secrets/)
For stripers, find the bait via the birds or your Humminbird (fishfinder). Henry C says most predators are still deep and on small bait, but birds will show you some surface action. Do more searching than casting and you’ll catch more stripers.
Enjoy the latest angler reports and tips:
Headwaters
Jimmy slipped out to a local headwater stream last Sunday afternoon. He tossed a dry/dropper combo on his short blueline rod and picked up a nice handful of wild rainbows in a couple of hours. One was a real trophy for the tiny stream and stretched to ten inches. None were brave enough to come up to his parachute hares ear dry, and all preferred the small, tungsten prince dropper.
Smith DH
Web posts and other anglers report decent fishing in the colder water. Stealth and deep-dredged eggs and small nymphs are producing. Weekends are busy and your success will be lower if you’re fishing behind a bunch of folks. Try these two techniques. Tip 1: rest a pool when it’s finally yours. Eat a snack, rerig your leader, and admire nature around you for 20 minutes. Then catch them with stealth! Use lighter tippet (6x) and small flies (#18 and 20 pheasant tails, zebra midges, WD40’s, rainbow warriors) that will be different than the standard fare that has pounded them for hours. Sneak up and toss in without false casting and spooking the nervous residents. Tip 2: go on an uncrowded weekday. And Euronymphing works well on any day.
Chattooga DH
Our friend @certifiedflybum reports, “Sunday was a great day to be outside. The sun was bright and warm on our backs, but the fish did not care that it was nice out. The colder weather, plus rainwater from the day before, kept the trout tight to the bottom in deep pools or soft pockets of three feet or better deep water, it's December after all. Success finally came by changing one's mindset from fall to winter techniques, keeping line drifts painfully slow or to a near stall giving the fish time to consider moving on the fly. In the early afternoon sunlight, the fly of the day was an orange bead head with white chenille weighted to tick the bottom. And in the late afternoon, casting dark micro streamers with a bit of flash into soft water and suspending the flies in the drift working the edges of sun and shade got motivated trout curious enough to bite. The slow conditions made the few that did play the reward of the day.”
Where are these places? GAWRD shows you here:
http://georgiawildlife.com/Fishing/Trout
All streams are on the interactive map. And you can also scroll down to “artificial lure streams” and click on the DH stream names for individual maps.
Lake Lanier
Hank the Yank sez, “Stripers are still scattered all over the lake as the weather is cooling and water temps get into the mid 50’s. Fish are starting to bunch up a little more which hopefully means sinking line bite will start soon. Best bets are to still look for surface feeding fish or toss flies on loons. The south end of the lake is still best by far.”
Stay distant and safe. If you go, then go local and slow, and be careful in the outdoors. We don’t want to add any more work for our healthcare heroes during these very tough times for all Georgians.
May we all count our blessings and then put 2020 behind us. Can I get an Amen to that? Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Dredger.
+3
