OCTOBER, 2006 UNICOI NEWSLETTER

OCTOBER, 2006 UNICOI NEWSLETTER

As we all know, gut feelings are almost always verified sooner or later. It's no secret that, among private trophy trout streams in north Georgia, Unicoi Outfitters' management strategy is totally different from most everyone else in this business. We made a commitment years ago to the following:

1- We will never mislead you as to the quality of the fishing experience. If the fishing is not good, we'll tell you.

2- We recognize that these streams require subtle management and are not naturally occurring. While a percentage of these fish are streamborn, we do supplement the population when needed to preserve the quality of the fishing experience. There is always some hooking mortality even with catch and release. We still think they are a blast to fish and a great place to improve your skills or learn new fishing techniques from our professional guide staff.

3- In our opinion, the best fishing experience is one which most closely mirrors what is found in the wild. With that in mind, we do not choose to have a stream full of nothing but 10 pound fish. We think it's much more exciting to set the hook with that fleeting moment of surprise and mystery over whether you are connected to a 10 inch fish or a 10 pound fish. That's exciting!

4- We are truly blessed to even have the opportunity to be in this business and it is our responsibility to spread it around. That is why we are so committed to providing an environment that is not intimidating to the novice and, in fact, is inviting to them. Likewise, we are also responsible for these magnificent natural resources entrusted to our stewardship and we are committed to protecting them through monitoring and through education.

5- We acknowledge that flyfishing on private waters is not inexpensive. Our guests are making a decision to entrust their valuable time and money to our judgement and expertise. It is our obligation to provide them with the best value experience possible. A guided trip with Unicoi Outfitters is typically more moderately priced than unguided trips on many other private trout waters in the southeast.


So, back to that gut feeling thing. September, 2005 through September, 2006 has provided about as much challenge as we ever hope to experience in the fishing business. From Hurricane Katrina and her tornadic babies to the four month drought this past summer, our abilities have certainly been tested. After the tornadoes slammed Nacoochee Bend, we decided not to mechanically remove all the downed timber from the river bed but, instead, pull it over against the banks to help stabilize them and provide more fish habitat. Unfortunately, the city of Helen chose to drag everything out of the river and clean up the banks. Now they have no tree canopy over much of the river. By leaving the sycamore, river birch and poplar stumps in place at Nacoochee Bend, we are already having new trees sprout up to 10 feet in height. It doesn't look like a manicured lawn and it will be years before things look "normal" here, but it's going to be much better for the fish in the long run. Our first gut feeling was right; do what's best for the fish and not just what looks good to us and the fishing will recover.

There has been much discussion over the summer about fish kills from high water temps and, to be honest, we were concerned that we had lost most of our fish at Nacoochee Bend, River North and Frog Hollow. We suspended fishing at Cannon Falls and Noontootla Creek also this summer but were fortunate that the water temps there remained fairly moderate and the fish survived in great shape. This is where gut feeling number two comes to light. We have been preaching for some time that, regardless of what some anglers seem to think, our fish were tough and a challenge to catch. That they are no pushovers when it comes to hooking and landing these guys is proven on a regular basis when experienced anglers come back with their tails tucked between their legs. How tough they are has been only a supposition on our part but now we have proof. Yes, we lost fish over the summer as did every private fish-for-fee venue in this corner of northeast Georgia. When water temperatures get into the high 70's and even low 80's, trout are going to die. We have already restocked the Bend, River North and The Frog and fishing is great right now. The amazing discovery was that some of the fish in these streams didn't die! When things began cooling off and we started walking the banks looking for some sign of life, we were simple astounded to see trout finning in the best runs and pools! Okay, we probably expected to find a few small fish that made it through the summer but what we didn't expect was survival of the big guys. Yet, there they were; some 25 inches and larger. Talk about tough! We're considering an advertising campaign touting angling for the toughest trout in North America. Any trout can survive a Rocky Mountain summer. Shoot, even if it gets hot out there, summer only lasts 8 weeks. Some of our trout survived over 10 weeks of high 70 degree water! That's tough!

Water levels are still low (the Chattahoochee is actually running fewer cfs now than it did at the height of the drought) but water temps are in great shape and the trout are active. For all our friends who put off fishing this summer due to poor water conditions, now is the time to relieve some of that pent up fishing angst.

Here are your best bets for the next two weeks before the Georgia Delayed Harvest season opens on November 1st:

All of our private waters will be among the best fishing streams in the state.

Dukes Creek and Waters Creek both survived the summer just fine and the fish are healthy. Water is very low and clear so the challenge will be about as tough as you can get but it's definitely worth the try. Waters will only be open for the rest of the month of October and, don't forget, you'll need a WMA stamp to fish there. Dukes is open year round and they have already gone to full days with all anglers off the water by 4:30 PM. Recent trips to Dukes have required almost combat fishing techniques. Camo clothing or dark muted colors, long leaders of 6X and even 7X and virtually no false casting because the fish are so spooky. It may take you a hundred casts over the same fish but as long as he isn't spooked, you may just luck up and provoke a take. Try using small woolly buggers, hares ears, Island Park Specials, Serendipities, and midge dries as well as Iris Caddis dries. If they're spooked, you may as well move on and try the next hole.

For the next couple of weeks, you should also consider trying the higher elevation seasonal streams: the Chattahoochee, Coopers Creek, Jones Creek, Tallulah and Wildcat Creeks are just a few of the streams that were cool enough through the summer to remain good trout habitat. The larger lower elevation streams that rely heavily on DNR stocking like the Chattahoochee in Helen, the Chestatee and Nottely Rivers, Broad River and Panther Creek have not received any fish since July or early August so a trip to these areas may find slow fishing indeed.

The upper Chattooga River around Burrell's Ford, the West Fork of the Chattooga in the Three Forks area and the Toccoa tailwater will also be good choices. The Toccoa tailwater is currently experiencing the effects of lake turnover and will probably continue for a few more weeks. This has slowed the fishing down some but we are still having good days there. The water is an awful rusty color due to the turnover and it doesn't exactly smell very good at times but this is a temporary situation that will remedy itself soon.


DELAYED HARVEST FISHING

Since we only have a couple more weeks before the Georgia Delayed Harvest season opens, we want to encourage you to make plans to hit one of these streams in early November. There have been rumors going around that DNR will not have enough trout to stock the delayed harvest streams this fall due to the loss of hatchery fish during the drought this summer. We want to assure you that we have been in close contact with DNR representatives and they have emphatically reassured us that there will be plenty of trout for the DH streams. To their credit, DNR officials made some resource management decisions this summer to preserve a sufficient number of quality fish for stocking the DH streams. A potential disaster was averted due to their heads up management and we'll all be the beneficiaries beginning November 1st.

The rumors have been particularly rampant that the new Toccoa DH would be sparsely stocked in this it's first year. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Toccoa DH was of utmost priority and we'll see the proof very soon. We have spent some time on this section of the river lately in an effort to identify good landmarks and access points that we can pass along to our customers. We have put together a very good program on this section of the river which will be presented to the Blue Ridge Chapter of Trout Unlimited next Saturday morning, October 21st. You can find out more about this meeting by visiting their website at http://www.blueridgemountaintuonline...ng_reports.htm . We will have maps and a slide show to help jump start your Toccoa River DH fishing. This meeting will be open to anyone who would like to attend and we welcome you.


EVENTS

North Georgia Trout Online Fall Fling
November 4th
Buford Trout Hatchery

For more information, visit http://www.georgia-outdoors.com/ngto/. Go to the Events and Happenings forum for more details. This is a fun event and a great place to meet other anglers and learn more about trout fishing in Georgia. Again, everyone is welcome. Come join us.

Fall leaf colors are probably going to be about a week or so early this year. At the higher elevations, there is already a good bit of color in Georgia. If you want to plan a trip with your family to see the leaves, and maybe do some fishing, the next couple of weeks should be very good.


NEW SALE ITEMS

At this writing, we have sold all the Sage XP flyrods and luggage we had on sale. We have, however, placed a couple more reels on sale due to style changes. Stop in either shop and see what we have in the following:

All Lamson reels are now 30% off. Lamson has made some cosmetic changes to their entire line of reels for 2007 so we are discounting our current stock to move it out to make room for the new models. The great Lamson drag system remains the same and these reels are some of the best on the market.

Abel Super Series reels in size 7 and larger are now on sale at 25% off. Abel is making a mechanical change to the clicker on the drag system of these reels. If you're looking for that perfect striper or saltwater reel, check in with us to see what we have in stock.

Socks! This may sound like a strange thing to tell you about in our newsletter but we think this is something you'll really like. We have merino wool wading socks on sale for $8.95 a pair. These are some of the most comfortable socks you'll ever wear and we'll bet you find yourself wearing them for everyday. Most merino wool socks retail for between $15 and $20. This is a great deal on a very important piece of your fishing ensemble.


THANK YOU

As always, we are grateful for your friendship and your patronage. If you ever need current fishing information or specifications and recommendations on gear, please call us at (706) 878-3083 in Helen or (706) 632-1880 in Blue Ridge. Remember, if you no longer wish to receive our newsletter, just reply to this email with the word "remove" in the subject line. On the other hand, if you know someone you think would like to know what's going on with north Georgia trout fishing, please have them send us an email and request to be placed on our mailing list.

Tight lines!
The Liars Club http://www.unicoioutfitters.com