UO Fishing Report - 8/6/26
Here you go, a day early, since I’ve gotta work the fly shop tomorrow and then hang out with many of you here in Sautee that evening. Our summer pattern of heat, humidity, and heavy, pop-up storms continues up here. Freestone stream trouting remains a challenge, but there are still some morning opportunities to be had for early risers. Some DNR stockings should continue, but they’ll be lighter loads than the spring allotments. Watch for more browns than bows, too.
Pond action is still pretty good for anglers avoiding the midday sun, while reservoirs are slow as expected at this time of the year. River bassin’ should be good, but most streams have been high, muddy messes that have kept our folks off the water.
Distant travelers have done pretty well and their fish tales will help get us through our summer “catching drought.” As will another fine community event, so join us tomorrow night in Sautee for our August First Friday gathering.
Catch all the details in our full report, here:
https://www.unicoioutfitters.com/fishing-reports
Get up early to find a few trout and pond bass, and to dodge the afternoon storms and hot water. At least our days are finally getting shorter. Now we just need the nights to cool down. But we have air conditioning and some free supper fixins tomorrow nite in Sautee, so c’mon up and see us
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, stimulator, chubby Chernobyl for dry dropper fishing.
Nymphs & Wets:
Drowned ant, UV green weenie, root beer midge, pheasant tail, small buggers, squirmy worms in dirty water from afternoon storms.
Streamers:
Jiggy bugger, muddler, micro peanut envy.
River stripers:
Mop tail changer, bangtail, clouser.
River bass:
Crittermite, stealth bomber, Boogle bug, hairy fodder, coyote.
Bream & Carp:
Hybrid worm, carp it bomb, gill scorpion, amnesia bug, mini jig bugger.
Headwaters:
They’re either low, clear, and hot or high, muddy, and hot. It just depends where the storm pops up. My 4PM recon today really shows the effect of these localized storms. Dukes at Smithgall and Smith above Unicoi Lake were both low, clear, and a warm 68F.
In contrast, the Hooch on the lower end of the WMA, sits between those two watersheds. It was high, muddy, and a warmer 69F.
You still have some shots at little wild fish, up real high, in the mornings. Dredger hit the upper Tallulah yesterday morning, in search of little wild bows in the low, clear flows. He had to work for them and covered a lot of ground, but found enough to be happy. Refusals were aplenty, but the consumers preferred his para-Adams over his caddis and stimmy offerings. It was a fun day under the shade with his 7.5 foot, 3-weight outfit.
Former Rabunite Banker, who now resides over Dawson way, filed this report on a north slope stream in our forest: “I fished morning only got off at 11.30 to get home for an important conference call. Caught a few on the new fly pattern, nothing large. For some reason it was slow in the dry fly bite early am. Mainly helped a chapter newbie on his first visit to IDBIS Creek. He mainly fished an elk hair beetle both alone and with a sinking black ant dropper. After I left he went downstream to another section I showed him and fished on well until mid-afternoon. Just got a report from him and he got seven in the afternoon, so a fast learner. For your report, Water temp early am was 62 and water level and clarity just about perfect from all the t-storms lately. “
Join Banker’s Gold Rush TU bunch and get in on their action:
Dredger took prospective Rabunite “KM” to the Smokies on Monday morning. They enjoyed the quick dose of turkeys and elk on their way in for a parking pass. The river was clear and 3 degrees warmer than Dredger’s trip last week, and the action was a lot slower. They still managed a handful of fish, mainly on a dredged frenchie, with a couple of wayward reservation fish succumbing to a tan mop. We need another stretch of cooler nights to turn those fish back on.
August 8th stocker update:
Stockers:
Tomorrow’s list will likely be short as stocking season winds down. Watch for another large allotment of browns. Why? The Walhalla brown eggs are taken in November from the SCDNR partners, about 3 months behind the rainbow eggs that DNR receives from federal broodstock hatcheries in TN and MT. So those browns reach stockable size later in the season.
Go early in the day and high in elevation to have your best shots at willing mountain stockers. Or you can go to a cold tailwater if it isn’t too muddy from tributaries after storms. Web reports show the Hooch fishing well.
As always, find the 2026 master list here to find those creeks that will still get stocked late in the season.
Private Waters:
Forget em til October. Low, warm, and in their summer siestas til fall brings cooler water temps. Call your favorite shops and guides in August to book those prime fall weekends.
Tailwaters:
No news from our sources . We hope our friends in McCaysville are recovering from last week’s flood. You’ll need to check with local guides and shops to get the latest tailwater conditions. You can 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:
Blown out,for the most part. The Hooch was red mud when I checked both Duncan Bridge and Highway 115 around 2PM today. Highway 115 cleared quite a bit when I crossed it again this evening, but we have more storms in the area. Your chances at fishable waters tomorrow are less than 50/50.
Athens Jay headed the other way: south to the Savannah River for matching wits with wily carp. He said: “Early morning trip in search of the great golden humbler of anglers. We found several but struggled to get them to eat. Lots of refusals but a few eats. Fly tied from skWORM material (Nash Flyworks) to resemble a gob of worms worked best. Don’t judge me. “
Ponds: No recent reports. They should still be fishing well on popper/dropper combos fished early and late.
Lakes:
Still on the slow side due to hot water and surface disturbances by all the other summer lake users.
Dredger visited his Burton Hatchery buddies yesterday. Manager Colt showed off the brand new, wheelchair-accessible, aluminum fishing pier that replaced the two old, wooden ones on the creek, and new aluminum decking on the footbridge to the park. Kids and honorary license holders should really enjoy the upgrades.
Dredger noticed the usual suspects in the creek mouth: a big school of nervous, chunky bream and a half-dozen highly educated, hungry bass circling them. Take your kids to Moccasin Creek State Park some time and give those fish a try.
Afar:
My good friend from DNR, “Deadly” Damer, returned from his annual trout trek out yonder and shared this detailed report:
“ My brother and I just returned from our annual trip to Montana. It was a great time with some memorable moments, some of which I tried to capture below.
We started on the Missouri River below Holter Dam near the towns of Wolf Creek and Craig. Near record high temperatures and inconsistent bug hatches made fishing tough this time, but we still had enough targets to keep us entertained. Trico spinner falls are usually the main attraction for the mornings here on the MO, but we were not able to find the normal pods of up to 30 fish rising to these tiny flies. Just headhunting single fish here and there that were sipping spinners or rising more sporadically for who knows what. The fish obviously taking spinners would generally eat a size 16 or 18 rusty spinner, while the more sporadic bank risers would take a small black foam beetle or sometimes a tan X-caddis. My first fish of the trip was a 21.5” brown that was rising under the shade of an overhanging bush. It was the only active fish we saw as we wandered slowly up a ¼ mile stretch of bank. It took a small beetle presented gently like it had just fallen from the bush above the fish.
On another morning, we sat watching a family of four eagles in a large spruce tree. Directly below the eagles were a similar number of rising trout, both rainbows and browns. My brother got one nice bow in the net after it sipped his rusty spinner then ran into his backing, then it was my turn. I chose to target one of the more sporadic risers taking something just off the weeds about 3 feet off the bank. After creeping into position, I could see this was a big brown. Every once in a while, he would turn lazily to the side and his dorsal and caudal fins would stick up out of the ankle-deep water. Once again, the small black beetle on 5x tippet was my obvious choice, and before I placed the fly I made a mental note to delay my strike so that his big jaws would have time to fully close. For some reason he ignored the first two casts, but on the third he turned and sipped, and I paused then lifted. He exploded toward the main current, jumping twice, and pulled hard downstream, but I was able to chase and get him turned into my net. A quick pic and the 21’’ male sulked away back to the deep water.
Fishing on the MO slowed way down around noon and through the heat of the day. During this slow time, we made a few trips way up high into the tributaries for some small stream action. One of the small creeks where we have had great success in previous years was almost a complete bust. A few takes for each of us on a hopper pattern was all we could manage this time, so we cut our losses and headed back toward town. However, as we crossed the ridge we decided to stop and look at the next tributary and see what was there. We got a couple nice fish on hoppers in the pool below the road, then climbed through the long culvert to find the upstream water completely clogged with beaverdams. Huge fish up to 22+ inches were cruising the slow-moving pools. It was hard to get our flies on the water through the dense brush without spooking fish, but we got a few takes. None of the real monsters fell for our offerings, but we marked them down for next year’s trip.
Typically, evenings on the Missouri can be quite productive, especially the last magic hour after sunset. Swarms of caddis can be seen gathering above every riverside bush or tuft of grass just as the sun goes down behind the mountains, then the fishing can be tremendous. We did not have great luck in the evenings this time, however. Recent reports from local fly shops mentioned poor caddis action, and we agreed. We had to settle for some beautiful sunsets and a just a few fish to hand. Could be worse!
After a few days we said goodbye to the Mighty MO and headed south to stay in Dillon. One of the main destination spots nearby is the Big Hole River. Much of the Big Hole was on “hoot owl” restrictions due to warm water, but the flows were actually much higher than expected due to recent large rainfall events and the water looked in great shape. The middle section receives lots of cold spring water from multiple sources and does not suffer from the same temperature concerns as other sections. We have had truly epic days here in the past on spruce moths, but none were anywhere to be seen this year. A few tricos and some fish rising in very localized spots, meant we only caught a few on small spinner patterns. Hopefully we catch the hatches better next time.
We made three separate trips to one of our favorite spring creeks south of Dillon. Each one of these trips was exceptional. This creek has two different meadow sections with slow meandering oxbows, big grassy undercut banks, and deep weedy pools and runs. We fished the upper meadow the first day. This section is smaller and receives less pressure, but you have to walk at least a quarter mile through varying bottom (gravel, muck, loose cobble, weeds, etc.) before starting to fish because the surrounding land is privately owned and the owners have proven to be quite unfriendly. We caught about 60 fish between us that day, with a mix of browns, rainbows, and even a west slope cutt or two. After calling it a day, we drove through a flock of about 100 bighorn sheep on the way back down through the canyon. Tall beers and ribs were on the menu at Sparky’s Garage when we got back into town!
Our next two visits to that same creek targeted the lower meadow. The first day was overcast and we weathered one good shower, but the fishing was so good a little rain (and maybe some lightning) was not going to scare us away! The storms also kept water temps below 65 degrees, which allowed us to fish all the way until 7:30pm. As we would find for just about all the small spring creeks this year, hoppers were just not working well like they normally do. Instead, big black beetles up to size 10 were being inhaled. Fish were pushing big wakes from 10 feet away to come grab our beetle patterns. We ended with over 100 fish on that day, and probably another 60 when we returned a few days later. The majority were browns in the 14-18” range with a few big rainbows in the mix. There’s no telling how many foam beetles were torn to shreds along the way.
There’s a springhead that runs straight into one of the large reservoirs near Dillon. Water temp is a constant 46 degrees, and this cold water often holds large rainbows that come upstream from the lake. Ken and I each managed one of these on this trip, both about 20 inches and FAT. Super tough casting to these fish on totally flat gin-clear water. 5x got the job done; 6x might have been better but we did want to actually land them after all.
A couple of our favorite spring creeks closer to town fished very well too. Tricos in the morning and caddis in the evening, but the common theme for this trip seemed to be “Beetle-mania”. Once the trico spinners disappeared in the morning, we started targeting spooky big browns in their hiding holes with our favorite beetle patterns. Most of these fish were sitting in the darkneess of the grassy undercuts, but I recall sight-fishing to one 20” male brown in the shallow water near a weed mat on the inside bend. On three successive casts, I placed the fly nicely about 2 feet in front of him and he slowly chomped it each time, but each time I pulled and there was nothing there. He just went back to his business, while I got increasing frustrated each time. Perhaps due to my frustration, my fourth cast landed on the edge of the weed mat and got stuck. When I pulled it free it dragged across the water a foot to the fish’s right side, and I thought he would spook. Instead, he turned broadside and slowly chomped again. I swear I waited a full two seconds before lifting this time, and it was on. As I slid that toothy critter out of my net and into the weedy depths, I looked back to find my brother smiling approvingly having watched the whole saga.
On our final visit to that same creek, we were having another good day fishing beetles. My brother and I had just caught and released two tagged trout back-to-back (we reported the tags later once we were off the water in support of an MSU/FWP study). The tags had obviously been on the fish a long time, as they were covered in algal growth and were hard to spot. Shortly thereafter, we came to a somewhat unassuming pool. There was a small back eddy on the far bank with a foam line being pulled along a grassy undercut. It was my brother’s turn to fish, and he had no luck in the middle of the pool, so he tossed one way back in the dark eddy under the bank. Almost instantly, a white mouth not much smaller than your open palm opened and crunched down on his beetle, and both of us said “OH MY GOSH” in unison. Ken did a great job of waiting before setting the hook and the fish was on. After a short fight, the old brown was in the net. This fish was on the skinny side but turned out to be the longest of the trip at a solid 22”.
Looking forward to next year!!!
Events:
Don’t miss our August First Friday event tomorrow nite at our Sautee store.
There you go: slim Georgia pickins for August. At least it’s raining and we are blessed to be safe from forest fires right now. We extend our prayers to those folks out west who aren’t as lucky as us.
If you get up early, you can still have a fun fishing fix. Then swing on by our shop to cool off and plot your next big adventure to our north Georgia rain forest. See y’all tomorrow nite?
Unicoi Outfitters: Friendly. Local. Experts.
