NOVEMBER, 2006 UNICOI NEWSLETTER

Well, we're finally into our "real" season in north Georgia. Water levels are continuing to improve and water temps are good and cold. The trout are happy! Just about every place we've been the past couple of weeks has been fishing well, even before we got some good rains. Here's a little information for you:

Dukes Creek is getting back to her old self. That means you can have a world class day or you can go home wondering if you know how to fish at all. Until just this week, the water remained extremely low and clear but there was some great fishing to be had. Mostly in water that was broken enough or deep enough give the fish some sense of protection overhead. There were still great pods of fish in some areas that looked like schools of bonefish and were just as skittish. Our advice is don't spend too much time on these fish as they will be tough to catch. If you just can't pass them up, make a few casts to see if you can fool them early but then move on. Don't spend your valuable fishing time on these guys, it's just not productive. With the rains we've had this past week, things are getting even better at Dukes but you still have to be discriminating in which fish you go for. For your best results, continue to fish the areas with broken surface water and the runs deep enough to give them cover. You may want to try something like an egg or Y2K Bug with a small Lightning Bug dropper. This combo can work very well in the fast riffles that are 1 1/2 to 2 ft. deep. The need for the fish to make a quick decision can really work to your advantage here. In the deeper runs, we've been having good success on big stoneflies: black or gold stonefly nymphs dredged on the bottom. Hares Ears and Pheasant Tails can be productive when dropped off the back of the stoneflies.

Smith Creek DH is fishing very well. Remember, even after a heavy rain, Smith Creek does not typically get too off-color since it is buffered by the lake. On a Foothills TU outing there this past Saturday, we caught fish along the entire length of the DH and on a variety of flies. Hot Pink San Juan Worms were the ticket in the shallow riffles while prince nymphs, woolly buggers and pheasant tails produced in the deeper water. Egg patterns and even chartreuse deer hair inch worms bounced on the bottom accounted for quite a few fish. There seems to be less fishing pressure on Smith Creek this fall than in the past. If you're looking for a quick and easy trout fix, this could be your best bet. Remember, you must check in at Unicoi Lodge and you must have a parking pass. Smith Creek still has some areas impacted by the Katrina tornadoes last year and casting can be quite a challenge in these spots. We recommend you use a 7'6" rod or even shorter for the best results. Tie on a tapered 7 1/2' 5X leader with a small strike indicator and some shot to get your fly down. We're frequently asked where to put the strike indicator when nymph fishing. Just remember that your fly, even with a lot of weight, is not hanging directly under your indicator, most of the time it's either up or downstream at about a 45 degree angle. So, try to locate your indicator at least one and half times if not twice the depth of the water you're fishing. This gives you a better chance at presenting the fly in front of the fish.

The Toccoa River DH is our newest darling. And, from the looks of the early response, it's the darling of many Georgia trout anglers. Since opening day, the Toccoa DH has seen a lot of anglers. Some have been very successful while others have struggled. This is not unusual on new water and over freshly stocked fish. It will take the fish a while to disperse and take up residence in all the good spots. Unicoi Outfitters along with members of the Blue Ridge and Blairsville TU chapters, assisted DNR in stocking the river. We can assure you, there are plenty of fish in that section. At this point, they are all rainbows, varying in size from 10" to 18". We've already had reports of larger fish being taken so there are obviously some resident fish here also. About half of the DH is directly accessible from the road but the middle half requires a short walk. For more details on accessibility, we have put a map of the DH on our website. You'll find the link to it on our homepage (http://www.unicoioutfitters.com) and it can be printed off for handy reference.

The Toccoa River tailwater continues to fish well, with some trophy fish being brought to the net. With the opening of the Delayed Harvest season, the tailwater has been somewhat ignored by a lot of anglers and that's understandable considering the access issues below the dam. However, a great day of fishing would be to work around the TVA generating schedule and fish the tailwater for half the day and the delayed harvest the other half. The tailwater section has some great blue winged olive and midge hatches during the cooler weather. What can be better than dry fly fishing in the winter?!

The Chattooga DH has always been one of our favorite rivers and the delayed harvest section just strengthens the bond. The rains this past week briefly sent the gauge over the 2.0 mark (it can be hazardous wading above 2.0) but it has already dropped back down. That high water should have helped disperse the fish better. Some of the shop guys have already landed fish in the 20" plus category up there and it will continue to improve as we get further into the season. We do have some sad news about the Chattooga DH. Since the opening of the season on November 1st, there have been three vehicles broken into: two in the South Carolina parking lot and one on the Georgia side. The thieves are targeting specific flyfishing gear and are a brazen bunch operating in broad daylight and right along the roadside. If you plan to go fish there, you probably want to consider taking only the gear you will carry on-stream with you and don't leave anything of value in your vehicle. Their favorite method is to break out your windows and grab the gear. We don't want to discourage you from going there, just be aware of the problems. Both SC and GA DNR officials are fully aware of the problem and, hopefully, will nip it in the bud quickly.

The upper Chattooga River is also in great shape and fishing well. A couple of us ventured out to this section a few days ago and had some pretty good success. One fished heavily weighted nymphs and woolly buggers while the other fished a size 14 Royal Trude. Rising wild brown trout on the Chattooga in November, now that's fun! The only other critter having more fun than us that day was a huge otter working the pool just downstream of us. He probably wasn't counting fish like we were, but we suspect he was fairly successful. The Chattooga River, it's a true national treasure right in our backyard.

SAGE SUPPORTS FIGHT AGAINST BREAST CANCER

Sage Manufacturing is proud to announce our partnership with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation with the release of a limited edition pink 'Rod for Recovery.' The mentioned rod is a custom built pink 586-4 VT2 rod with matching components including a travel case. This limited production includes 300 rods and 50 blanks that are available for sale today. For every rod and blank sold Sage will donate $100 to the Komen Foundation, with a minimum guaranteed donation of $25,000.

The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation is a global leader in the fight against breast cancer. For nearly 25 years, the Komen Foundation has worked to eradicate breast cancer as a life threatening disease through research, education, screening and treatment. Sage and its employees are extremely proud to support the cause through a partnership with such a great organization. The 'Rod for Recovery' is an excellent opportunity for anglers to pledge their support along with Sage to combat breast cancer.

Pricing information is as follows: rods $475 and blanks $240.

Unicoi Outfitters will be more than happy to special order these rods for you and will contribute to the Susan G. Komen Foundation an additional $100 for each rod and $50 for each blank ordered through our shops.

For more information about breast health and breast cancer, please visit www.komen.org

HELEN WEBCAM

For those of you who just can't stand missing out on any of the downtown Helen activities, there is now a webcam online for your vicarious participation. Actually, we thought you may want to bookmark this site in order to check traffic and weather conditions before planning your fishing trip. If traffic is too bad, you can reroute your trip to miss the downtown area. It also has time, temperature and barometric pressure. The webcam can be viewed at http://www.helenwebcam.com

FREE SHIPPING FROM ORVIS

We have just received notice from Orvis that they are offering free shipping on select items through November 26th. We just want you to know that Unicoi Outfitters offers free shipping on most Orvis catalog items all the time. If you place a special order for an item in the Orvis catalog through Unicoi Outfitters, we may be able to have it shipped directly to your home or office with no shipping charges. And, if you live outside the state of Georgia, you won't have to pay sales tax on the item. If you are thinking of ordering something for Christmas from Orvis, drop us a line at flyfish@unicoioutfitters.com and give us the catalog item number and where it will be shipped and we'll confirm whether or not we can save you the shipping charges, and possibly the sales tax.

FS RD. #58 (NOONTOOTLA CREEK)

The US Forest Service and the US Department of Transportation are moving toward repairing the Forest Service road which parallels Noontootla Creek in Fannin County. Due to the heavy rains in early 2006, the road had to be closed due to washouts. The road will remain closed until all repairs have been completed which is expected to be in the Fall of 2007. This will be a welcomed event as FS 58 is the primary access not only to Noontootla Creek but the Appalachian Trail and a military training area.

NEW WINSTON WEBSITE

Dear Winston Dealers

We are thrilled to announce the launch of our new, completely redesigned Winston Website. This new website contains many new features including movie clips, video tours of Winston, conservation pages, and flyfishingmovies.com, where viewers can post their own flyfishing videos. But this is just the start; we will be adding more content in the months to come.

Our goal is to share our passion and enthusiasm for the sport with our customers and involve them in the sport of flyfishing in an entirely new way. We hope this will be a great tool for you to share with your customers and we urge you to encourage them to visit our site and perhaps post their movies on flyfishingmovies.com.

So welcome to the new www.winstonrods.com. We hope you like it and look forward to your reviews.

All the best,

Leslie Clark

R.L. Winston Rod Co.

MORE FLYFISHING INFO

We mentioned a few months back that we were really enjoying some of the new internet sites and podcasts dedicated to flyfishing and we even recommended you bookmark some of them for your reading or listening to at your leisure. This month we want to highlight one of the best we've seen. Zach Matthews' "The Itinerant Angler" site is topnotch and the podcasts are extremely well done and informational. Plus, Zach has recently moved to Atlanta so now we can call him a neighbor. Zach's website is http://www.itinerantangler.com/ and is simply loaded with good things. From photography to excellent interviews with the likes of Bruce Richards and Steve Moore, we think you'll enjoy his stuff. We hope you'll visit it soon.

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