Check out this year's raffle quilt, yet again another work of art. Get your tickets as soon as they go on sale as this one is a beauty.

No further calendar events

Contact Steve Westmoreland with questions: stevewestmoreland1@gmail.com. Cell-770-403-0609

February 5th and 6th - Fly Fishing Show-TBD

March 6th - Raccoon Creek- GA DNR- Cohutta Chapter and NPHS 5Rivers

March 27th - Sweep the Hooch: CRK, NPS, All TU Chapters Welcome

April 3rd - Rock Creek, Murray County: Lead- Coosa Valley. Supports: Blue Ridge Mountain and Cohutta

May 1st - Kids Fishing Day- Rock Creek; TBD

June 5th and 6th - GA Trout Camp: Atlanta Fly Fishing School

July 10th - Lovinggood Creek: Lead- Oconee River. Supports: UGA 5Rivers, Gold Rush, Foothills

July 17th - Wilkes Branch: Lead- Upper Chattahoochee. Supports- Rabun, Savannah River, Middle Georgia

August 14th - Pretty Branch or Cooper’s Creek: Tailwater with Boy Scouts

August 21st - John’s Creek- Floyd County: Lead- Blue Ridge Mountain. Supports- Coosa Valley and Chattahoochee-Nantahala

September 25th - Outdoor Adventure Day: Georgia DNR

The Upper Chattahoochee Chapter of Trout Unlimited has an incredible conservation project going on Crayfish Creek a few miles downstream along the Chattahoochee River from Buford Dam just below SR 20. This project is gaining a lot of attention on the local, state and national stages.

This is the kind of project we need to be proud of as fellow Georgia TU members and should be an inspiration of the good that we do and can do in other places. Check out this fantastic project at: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/38658907b7e1480e84deac6ccf52e559

chairman@georgiatu.org; knc615@windstream.net 

The Project Healing Waters group meets the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month at the Oakwood VA Clinic (4175 Tanners Creek Drive, Flowery Branch, GA) at 9:30 AM. Right now, they are currently tying flies and building fly rods. As the weather warms and the rains hopefully fall, they will start offering some fishing opportunities. They have a great group and good time at their meetings. All Veterans are invited.

This program could not be offered to our Veterans without the support of the Foothills TU Chapter, the Gold Rush TU Chapter and Unicoi Outfitters. They have really began to grow in numbers and programs because of all of the hard work by the volunteers who are TU members.

Did you know that you can make on-line purchases and designating our TU as a charity to receive a donation from Amazon as part of the purchase?

To access amazon for the charitable donation you need to go to this link. Your purchase will generate a donation to Foothills TU. Go to the attached link and then save it to your favorites bar and each time you access it and purchase the donation goes automatically goes to us.

Are you new to town? New to fishing? A terrible fisher?

Fear not, help is available thanks to the Georgia DNR.

Below are a few links to get you started on your way to becoming a professional fisherman or fisherwoman.

Fishing Report: https://georgiawildlife.wordpress.com/category/fishing/

Reservoirs:

Trout:

Follow GA DNR:

You can also check out NGTO for Dredgers Weekly Fishing Report"

I will admit it I am greedy. I like to catch as many trout as I can. Most of the time it means fishing a double nymph rig. Having two fish on at once is a treat. Heck when I throw a dry dropper rig, I am almost always tempted to drop two flies below the dry because that rig is so effective on a tailwater I frequent.

That being said, don’t overlook the benefits of rigging up with less. Fishing a single nymph is the best set up in many circumstances.

Most of the time, you will find fish are eating the fly you are fishing lowest in the water column. If that is not the case, then the upper fly is the preferred food choice OR the fish are feeding mid water column and higher. If they are feeding higher a dry dropper or suspension nymphing rig with one fly at the right depth with most often be your best choice.

When suspension nymphing or euro nymphing your casting accuracy in greatly improved slinging a single fly and often keeps you connected to your flies better resulting in more indicated strikes. This is especially true in pocket water and areas that are turbulent with many micro currents. When fish are holding tight to cover accuracy is key as well.

Single fly flinging also results in better drifts. If you are fishing a multi fly rig, it is not uncommon to have the flies floating in different current seams with different speeds. That can cause one fly to lead or drag the other along looking unnatural. It can also result in slack in your system underwater causing missed strikes.

Another benefit of a single fly rig is an improved hook up ratio. Since your connection is often better and with less slack between indicator and fly, you will pick up the take quicker and be able to engage the hookset faster.

While we are on the subject of less, watch your weight. I know, who am I to talk. I have heard many anglers profess that if you are not ticking bottom and getting hung up you aren’t fishing right. I tend to disagree. Yes, I want to be down very near the bottom, but I don’t have to be ticking it all the time. Trout look up. Too much weight and the result can be an unnatural drift and unnecessary hang ups. Moreover, in slow water trout can be sensitive to sink rates and will avoid heavy fast sinking flies.

Finally fishing a single fly rig can be kind to your fly box. I hate getting stuck in a tree and losing two flies at once (or maybe even three).

Fish on –

Big T

Here we sit again on the precipice of a wave of sorts with this pandemic. Whether you believe in the virus or not, the truth is there are people who are seriously affected by this virus. With that being said, I cannot think of a better way of not sitting in a crowded mall than being on a stream. Now, we all know that it seems that everyone is hitting outdoors now, so choose your path and timing carefully so you can enjoy a little space. There are many newcomers to the woods and water who don't quite understand space as we are used to in the "non-city" environment. I find it best just to avoid the popular places on popular days and my frustration level sits very low. The same adage applies as it does during good old stocking season: just take a hike. Most people don't like effort, they want reward so just take a 15 minute hike up or downstream and enjoy the solitude.

Now, the fishing is starting to swing into that winter phase. We went from wild warm temps to some serious nighttime lows, especially for southern weather. There is not a lot of daylight to heat things up, so the water is seeing more cooler temperatures at night. With that are the lower water temperatures. Fortunately, it hasn't been seriously cold to drive the trout straight to the wintering holes..yet, but it is on the horizon so be prepared for that.

DH streams are all fishing solid as to be expected, just avoid those warm weekend days as it does get quite crowded. The junk food bite can still be had, but be prepared for smaller midges and nymphs. Eggs are becoming the ticket now on many waters as we wind down the brown/brookie spawn and slide into the rainbow spawn. It is not just a junk food fly, but you will want to size down on the more wild streams than the bigger egg flies you throw on the DH streams. Eggs are a very very very effective strategy in the winter. Size down on that tippet to get deeper water penetration too.

A few weeks back, I landed a cool gloomy day spot on Dukes with a group of friends of mine who were some Duke's newcomers. Duke's was especially grumpy that day with some higher, but clear flows on the creek. We managed a few fish, but most were a bit of work and a few long line releases. After the rest of my crew called it an eday, I passed by Rocket Roy's Bench. After pausing for a few moments at it thinking back on Roy and the what a character he was (I wish some of you could have met him), I dropped downstream of the bench for a few more casts. Maybe Roy gave me a bit of a blessing as I managed 5 nice size fish in the next 15 minutes in the shadow of the bench. After releasing the trout seen in the pic, I figured that was enough and left a few hours on the clock at Dukes. If you were there guiding me Roy, thanks for assistance. I don't know why I didn't think about dry dropping a size 18 BWO all day until that moment. I'm sorry I forgot to tip you for that.

You may have heard the term recently of Eggs and Legs. Last month, you were shown the Eggs, so here I bestow upon you the Legs. This is a little bit of a variation of the norm with something a bit heavier and on a jig hook. The jig hook works really well in this particular instance as the way the fly will orient in the water will be hook point up due to the nature of the jig. This is almost a necessity with a fly such as this that will get down on the bottom in a hurry and you want this fly bounces over the rocks rather than wedging in the crevices. That is, unless you like wedging your fly into snag and if you do, then go with a standard hook and throw into all the snags you like. Winter is the time when you want to get deep and I like to use heavy flies rather than adding unnatural looking split shot. Mix it up a little and add some midges off the back as well. It seems weird to combine large and tiny flies, but trust me when I tell you it works.

For tying instructions, check out: https://youtu.be/KOyd9Dw5KAU

If you haven't looked at the website lately, check it out. It is up to date and packed full of new information. Check us out. It's where we post all of our information and updates about chapter meetings, projects, fishing outings and any other items pertaining to Foothills.

Also, for even more up to date information, check out our Facebook page. Our Facebook page editor, Ted Jones, does an excellent job at adding new information almost every day. Be sure to "Like" it and share with your friends.

Thank you for your interest in the Georgia Foothill Chapter of Trout Unlimited. We are always looking for new members from the area to join us, so please tell a friend and have them join us at our next meeting.