UO Fishing Report - 8/28/26
It’s still hot and dry, and our mountain streams are low and clear, for the most part. River bassin’ has been good, while headwater trouting has been poor. Tailwater trout and fresh mountain stockers are still providing good action for trouting fans, both bait and fly. We can sure use some overnite low air temperatures around 60 degrees to rekindle the trout bite up here. In the meantime, we’ve been heading real high in the mountains to find a few fish. Check out all the details in our full report, here:
https://www.unicoioutfitters.com/fishing-reports
Stop in either UO shop for the best daily intel and the best bugs for your September adventures.
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:
Dries: parachute ant, para Adams, yellow stimulator, griffiths gnat, yellow humpy, and small chubby Chernobyl for dry/dropper fishing.
Nymphs & Wets:
Drowned ant, UV green weenie, frenchie or pheasant tail, sexy Walts worm in higher flows/deeper water.
Streamers:
Jiggy bugger, muddler, micro peanut envy, small buggers for stockers
River stripers:
Mop tail changer, bangtail, clouser.
River bass:
stealth bomber, Boogle bug, hairy fodder, Cowen’s coyote, big black bugger.
Bream & Carp:
Hybrid worm, carp it bomb, gill scorpion, amnesia bug, mini jig bugger.
Headwaters:
While GA streams were still low, clear, and baking, Rabunites Dredger and “EMT” migrated north to the park yesterday morning (27th). They found some water just barely cool enough to fish (64F) and gave it a shot. The stream was very low and clear and the fish were in full fright mode, with limited appetites in skinny water.
Although a few fish took halfhearted swipes at their dries, the handful of trout fondled all came on dredged nymphs. Ants were ignored, but a #16 copper frenchie brought a few wild bows and a brown to hand.
Two big downstream migrants preferred the heavy #12 sexy Walts worm that bumped along the bottom in two deeper, shady runs. It was all about finding the deeper, shady pockets and runs, which were rare in the low flows.
A herd of elk, a lone bull lunching along the road shoulder, and a late angler lunch at Haywood Smokehouse topped off a nice day in the park. Although the catching was slim, the fishing was still fun, considering our August weather and water conditions.
Stockers:
This week’s stocking list is slim again as we near the end of the 2026 stocking season. You still have a good shot at some hefty, end-of-growing-season stockers. Try the Tallulah, upper Hooch on the WMA, Rock, or Cooper. Just go early or detour to an icy tailwater.
As always, find the 2026 master list here to find those creeks that will still get stocked late in the season.
Private Waters:
Forget fishing them in til October, but book your trips now! Call your favorite shops and guides soon to book those prime fall weekends. For guided trips now, hit the tailwater outfitters, who are fishing cold reservoir outflows.
Tailwaters:
Lanier’s late summer stratification (not turnover!) is starting to affect the upper tailwater. More here on Lanier’s stratification and its eventual Xmas turnover:
UO buddy Ryan: “With a low dissolved oxygen level on the upper Hooch tailwater, it seems like fish are less active in slow water and fired up in the bubble lines, making for some hit and miss action. My friend and I floated a nice section of the river where this was very apparent. Some stretches would be devoid of life, while other runs would give up 8-10+ fish. We lost count around 20 on the float and certainly landed 30-40 fish.
Sunday evening I got out again for a few hours wading in the evening and experienced the same situation. It was a slow start but ended up getting into a groove and catching 21, all but 2 being browns, which was sweet! A heavy stonefly did damage on the float and natural hares ear variations, size 18-20, caught all my fish when wading and tight-line nymphing with 6.5x tippet.”
Feel free to contact the Hartley duo for your Hooch intel and maybe a guide trip:
Ryan Hartley: 678-468-0440
Myles Hartley: 678-900-0835
Warm Rivers:
As Wes predicted, this past week has been pretty good for river bass fans. You just have to find shade and evening shadows for topwater action
UO-Helen manager Wes: “The river bass fishing this week has been great. The cooler mornings definitely fired up the fish. I got out for few hours a couple of days this week chasing both shoal bass and redeye bass. Stealth bombers caught most of my fish. The key to getting topwater bites after the early morning hours is to find shaded water.
I also caught some fish on flashy streamers. The flows are very low right now so make sure to cover lots of water to find willing fish.”
Did everyone catch Wes’ great video on streamer techniques this week?
UO buddy RSquared: “Coosa redeyes are still looking up. Yellow is the only color I have used all summer and it is still delivering great success. I’ve only used three styles of lures for the past several months: Small Stealth Bombers, midsize Boogle-Bugs, & sz 8 & 10 Chernobyl Ants tied with a loop knot to a 9ft, 5x leader. Hoping to head south to the Tallapoosa River drainage next week for that elusive warm water piscivore.”
Dredger saw low flows on the USGS gauges and headed north of the border for a Smallie fix on Monday nite. The river was low and clear and good bass hiding spots were limited. He still managed a small handful of bass up to 12 inches and missed a few more. Best bugs were a stealth bomber and an ole mr. wiggly on top and a big, black woolly bomber when the sun was high. A clear, cool evening was topped off with an eagle flyover.
Ponds:
No news.
Lakes:
No news.
Afar:
UO buddy Spangler crossed state lines on his salmonid search last week: “Hey Dredger, some smokies Intel for you for next week. The overnight and morning rain had me worried but it worked out. The trick was the get high (elevation, to be clear).
Hit the Smokies for the first time since spring. Overnight and early rains had the lower elevation streams high and dirty so I started high in the watershed, on a small trib of the mainstream. Water temp was 61, not as stained but higher flow. It was a weird couple hours, I cycled through a few dry flies but finally a big Rosenhopper started getting attention, but a lot of misses or bad hooksets on my part, so they bounced off. I decided to try a another spot so on my way back downstream I tied on a woolly bugger to dangle in the holes where I missed fish on the way up. My first cast was rewarded with a nice Brookie!
After that I crossed state lines into TN and hit a small headwater stream. Another tale of a lot of eats but few to the net. At least I know I was doing the right thing to get bites with the same strategy as earlier: 16 stimulator upstream, small bugger down. Most came on the bugger including a beautiful specimen with a deep red underside that again, bounced off before I could net him! At least this tight stream was my excuse for misses. Even my my 7’ rod was catching overhead foliage, making good hooksets a rare commodity. I definitely need to go back more to practice!
After lunch I went back into NC to check out my starting spot,hoping flows and turbidity had dropped. They had, but water temp was 68 so this was a no-go. I went a few miles upstream and found 62 degree temps, so I resumed there. I worked through a run with a dry/dropper first, then tight-lined the small bugger. I managed to complete the slam here with a brown and some bows but struggled again with strike detection and solid hooksets due to the glare.
Since I still had an hour to fish, I decided to check out another very small stream I had marked. This time I took the 6’ rod and glad I did as this stream was tight. With no real streamside trail, I was climbing through the creek, looking for any pools deep enough to fish. I found a sweet one I hooked a couple brookies on dries and a bugger. I ended the day there and headed back to GA.
Huge shoutout to R&R Fly Fishing in Townsend. I literally took their park fishing book with me and used it during the trip to hit a couple of the spots, since I had to adapt to changing water conditions. It was a really fun return trip to my national park.”
The week ahead looks very similar to the week behind us, so plan accordingly. Cash in on those feisty river bass before fall’s cooler water and higher flows shut down the topwater action. If you still need a trout fix, hit a tailwater or a headwater draining a 5,000 foot mountain- before lunch! Good luck as we plod through late summer together. Got some boogle bugs and stealth bombers? Stop in our Helen shop soon to stock up on them!
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
