UO Fishing Report - 5/8/26
Now that’s the kind of rain we needed- pouring cats and dogs on Wednesday evening. While that one big storm isn’t a drought-breaker, it was a nice start and recharged our streams for at least a couple days. The cooler weather behind the front is helping to extend our spring action, too. For trouters, May bugs are hatching at dark, headwaters are clear, DH season is almost over, stockers are abundant, and tailwaters rock along. All smaller streams have already cleared up from their muddy stormflows, but big rivers are still dirty.
Ponds are on fire, while reservoirs are giving up many more bass than stripers.
Don’t miss this last month of great dry fly action on the region’s bigger trout waters. The bugs are hatching and trout are looking up. Make sure you come up with a box of hatch-matchers and a headlamp with fresh batteries. You can even consider wet-wading now.
Stop in either UO shop for those hot bugs and even hotter daily intel. Good luck!
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
www.unicoioutfitters.com
Sautee: 706-878-3083. Open 8-5 daily. (2454 GA Hwy 17, Sautee-Nacoochee.)
Clarkesville: 706-754-0203. Open 8-5 from Monday thru Saturday.
Wes’ Hot Fly List:
This May list is still holding true:
Dries: Parachute Adams, tan elk hair caddis and micro chubby during the day, #14 yellow stimulator and 16 yellow sally, para light cahill, emerger caddis, and sulfur Drymerger as dusk hatch matchers. Add a couple #8-10 green drakes and coffin flies if you’re lucky enough to find thise helicopters on bigger streams this month.
Nymphs & Wets:
Squirmies, Mops, and buggers for stockers. Frenchie, sexy Walts, hares ear and pheasant tail soft hackles and nymphs as droppers for DH and wild fish. Add a sunken ant, too, for daytime prospecting.
Mountain streams: Pheasant tail, prince nymph, small Frencie, soft hackle partridge for blueline wilds.
Streamers:
UV polar jig, sparkle minnow, small buggers and leeches for stockers and a few DH and Tailwater fish.
Reservoir Bass & Stripers:
Cowen’s somethin else, low fat minnow, game changer, Clouser.
River bass:
Topwater: Boogle popper, stealth bombers
Steamers: Thrasher, leggy boi, feather changer, clouser minnow.
Bottom bouncing flies: crittermite, crawfish jambalaya, jig bugger.
Bream:
Boogle bugs, gill scorpion, bream reaper, girdle bug, prince nymph.
Headwaters:
They’ve already recovered from our midweek monsoon and are low and clear once again. Dukes at Smithgall was a perfect 58F at 3PM today.
Stealth is your best friend. Try your favorite single dry fly after sneaking up on them. Add a soft hackle dropper to prospect any deeper pools. Don’t forget your ants, especially a wet ant dropped under your micro chubby or elk hair caddis.
Rabunites Rick and Nanette hit a Smokies headwater stream midday on Monday and had limited success. They said many more wild bows came up to inspect their yellow Sally dries, but only a few ate due to the high sun and low, clear water before the storm.
Dredger and Athens Jay came later at 5PM and did better on Dow stream, bigger water as the shadows fell. Their tally was equally split between bows and browns, with one stray brookie from distant, downstream Cherokee waters. Afternoon fish ate a frenchie dropper under a big, fluffy Adams. A few bugs flew at 630 and they switched to a double-dry combo of a smaller Adams and yellow Sally trailer. They had more looks than eats, but still caught a few more. Size 16 cahills danced at dark, and their hatch-matchers (cahill with a Sally dropper) brought several more bows and browns to hand before both the bugs and fish went to bed at 830.
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hand before both the bugs and fish went to bed at 830.
Delayed Harvest:
Last call! This is your last weekend of special regs on GA’s Delayed Harvest streams, so take advantage of it. Then bring your kids and a bucket of worms UO next Friday to take some fish home for supper before summer’s hot water does them in. NC’s DH season extends til the first Saturday of June.
Smith DH was slightly stained, low, 64 degrees, and full of fish today at 3PM.
Try dry/dropper combos with small nymph and soft hackle droppers on 6X. Switch to a small, single dry as the shadows grow and fish start to rise around 730 or 8PM.
UO guide Sydney: “I had a guide trip with two flyfishing rookies on Smith DH. They both caught their first fish on the fly and had a great time! We caught and released a nice mess of trout on dry/dropper rigs, with a squirmy fished under a micro chubby.”
Bigger streams like the Hooch and Tooga are still stained from the heavy rains, but are already fishable again. Toss squirmies and big streamers in the stain! They’ll clear quickly over the weekend. Carry Adams, cahills, sallies, caddis, and a headlamp for the hike out after the dusk action.
Rabunite Boomer hit his border river last Friday: “The river was showing out tonight. Mountain laurel in full bloom, mama mergansers and chicks, and frolicking otters. Sunny, light breeze, deliciously cool.
Started fishing around 6pm and immediately landed a couple on my soft hackle hare’s ear dropper.
Then slow til dark 30. Switch turned on around 8:15, and it was fast and furious for 20 minutes. My 14 PMD parachute seemed to get a look on every drift, hooking up about ~6 times. 3 to hand, 3 LDR. 2 browns and a bow, all healthy fish but not too big.”
Stockers:
The stocking season is still going strong. Check out the newest stocking list here and sign up to get your own copy each Friday afternoon.
UO guide Wes: “I did a half day guide trip on Thursday morning before the rain came in. We fished on some public land around the Helen area. The water was low which made the fish spooky, but we were able to cover water and fool around 10 rainbows in a few hours of fishing. The best patterns were eggs & soft hackles.”
Three TU volunteers helped GADNR staff with Tuesday’s “Trout Fishing with Mom” event at Unicoi State Park. The fat, freshly stocked brookies and bows cooperated for all of the guests, including a good number who caught their first trout.
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UO buddy RSquared: “I caught double digit stockers this morning, so now I can do my afternoon farm work with a smile.
The spring fed creek that meanders through my little town over in AA (Almost Alabama) received 800 rainbow trout from the Summerville Hatchery Thursday. I would speculate that other NW Georgia streams also received a fresh batch of salmonids. (Ga. DNR will publish the weekly stocking report Friday afternoon) For the next couple of days, they should willingly take almost any offering. However, the survivors learn fast and soon become more selective in their choice of flies.”
Private Waters:
UO manager Jake secured some great favors from his friends, the owners of Larry’s Lodge and Fishwater, enabling the Casting for Recovery retreat gals to fish trophy waters last Sunday. Despite the low, clear water, Jimmy’s stable of volunteer guides put their guests on some nice fish. Many were fought and lost, but some came to the net and posed for pictures. Awesome memories were made for our special guests. To learn more about CFR or to donate to the program, click here:
Photo essay here:
UO guide Sydney: “We had a tough time on private waters due to low, clear flows before the rain. An egg on light line worked for this fatty! “
UO buddy Tim said he had an invitation from a friend with private land on the Soque. He put his golf clubs down and blew the dust off his fly rod. And was glad he did. Rumor has it that he might forgo the links a bit more often for extra swings with that fly rod.
Tailwaters:
Heavy spring stockings and plenty of cold winter water make them a best bet. Check with local shops to make sure they’ve cleared up after the storm and the muddy tributary inflows.
Warm Rivers:
Our bass rivers are blown out right now. Give them a couple more days to clear up before hunting spots and shoalies. The Hooch at Highway 115 was chocolate Mike when I crossed it at 11AM today.
UO buddy RSquared: “Recent rains raised the water level of the smaller tributaries to the Coosa River. While it is still a little early, this will allow stripers to start moving up into some of the smaller tributaries. Clouser Minnow’s, Cowan’s Coyotes, & other steamers will produce fish. Redeyes & panfish remain active & aggressive. I’m still catching them on top. Anything will work- - long as it is yellow!”
Ponds:
Ponds are still in their prime, with topwater action going strong. We just restocked with boogle bugs at both UO stores, so get some soon before they sell out.
Athens Jay: “Pond topwater fishing is still hot. Bass and big bream are really into my yellow boogle bug poppers right now.
Piedmont pond report:
Grateful for the much-needed rain, I took my paddle board out for an afternoon adventure. The wind was relentless and I spent a lot more time struggling to avoid being swept away than I did casting. Fortunately, when I was able to make a decent cast I was frequently rewarded. There was much evidence of substantial bluegill spawning activity that peaked around the last full moon. A few big bream were still up shallow, but it required considerable stealth to get them to eat. Bass were cruising the flats and were much easier to fool. I caught bluegill on both a yellow Boogle Bug and on a red Squirmy. Lots of bass ate this sucker-flavored jig fly that I hope will work well for river fishing. It’s mostly rabbit dubbing loops with an ice dub prop on each shank (chocolate brown on top, tan on bottom). The fins and tail are orange marabou. It has three shanks behind the hook, and one in front. It also has two sets of dumbbell eyes (one on the hook and one on the front shank) à la Fletcher Sams Tweaker. This makes it keel with hook point up.
UO buddy Splatek called us for some UO intel and put it to good use.,his two sons had a big time float fishing along the Unicoi Lake shoreline and then bank fishing their local Atlanta pond for abundant bream. He quipped: “Can you say “obsession?” Wearing out the local bluegill on a mini magnet lure.”
Lakes:
UO guide Joseph: “Fishing on the pond has been good over the past week. Although fishing for stripers has been tough over the past few weeks, bass fishing remains good. Lots of fish are being caught on live bait however fishing with artificials and flies hasn’t been the best.
I had a nice Lanier outing yesterday morning with Davis and his father Patrick. We saw a lots of bass schooling and just a few small groups of stripers that we were able to capitalize on with spinning gear. All the fish we saw were around offshore structure.
Bass fishing should only get better from here in the coming weeks and we are just around the corner from some amazing topwater fishing.
If you’d like to get in on the action visit my website at www.josephclarkflyfishing.com or give the UO Sautee store a call at (706)878-3083.”
Don’t miss May. Get out there soon to catch shallow bass, bedding bream, and rising trout. We’re taking advantage of the action and you should, too!
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
www.unicoioutfitters.com