FOOTHILLS TU
A Message from our Chapter President
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No major announcement this month, just we look forward to seeing you at all of our meetings this year.
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JULY
14 Foothills Meeting: Cancelled
AUGUST
11 Foothills Meeting: Cancelled
SEPTEMBER
08 Foothills Meeting: TBD
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PROPOSED 2022 VOLUNTEER CONSERVATION OPPOTUNITIES
Georgia Trout Unlimited
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Contact Steve Westmoreland with questions:
September 17th: Johns Creek- Floyd County: Cohutta and Coosa Valley
November 4th- 5th: Becoming an Outdoors Woman- BOW- Location TBD- GA DNR
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HONORING JEFF DURNIAK
Make a Gift or Pledge
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Either I was asleep at the wheel or this just came out, but you can now honor our good friend Jeff Durniak by making a gift in his name to support the Coldwater Fisheries Student Research Endowment at the University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. This fund provides research support for outstanding students studying coldwater fisheries, providing resources managers with vital information, and preparing the next generation of professionals to conserve, protect, restore, and sustain coldwater fisheries.
Jeff spent 34 years with the Georgia DNR, with 24 of those years serving as the North Georgia Region Fisheries Supervisor. Jeff has always been a champion for coldwater and supporting our natural resources. He has been a staunch support of TU, especially our local chapters. He has always been a great mentor for newbies and supporter of the fishing sports. Please, if you will, consider making a gift/pledge in Jeff's name at: https://www.warnell.uga.edu/honoring-jeffrey-peter-durniak
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CRAYFISH CREEK
Embrace A Stream Project Needs Your Help Today
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The Upper Chattahoochee Chapter of Trout Unlimited's project on Crayfish Creek may reach it's goal by the end of the year, but they are not there yet. Numerous hours of volunteers have been logged to remove two old culverts and cleanup of both invasive plants and debris have occurred.
A contractor has been selected to cleani up the degraded banks, but additional funds are needed to get to that remaining estimated cost budget. As of right now $180,000 of the estimated $200,000 has been raised. The finish line is right there and they are so close, so we hope you'll consider donating.
But wait, there's more. There are going to be some volunteer opportunities this fall to assist with the project, so please also consider donating some of those incredible muscles you built up during the COVID shutdown.
One more thing, spread the word about this wonderful grassroots project. This project is but a small example of what this country's foundation has been built on. It's the small ideas put on by the people that get traction from the smallest places and builds into some of the greatest things you've ever been part of. Please spread the message about the wonderful effort to save and protect one of the few spawning areas for brown trout along the Chattahoochee River.
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CRAYFISH CREEK
Restoring a Heavily Impaired Tributary of the Chattahoochee River
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UGA 5 RIVERS
Donation Wishlist
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The Georgia Council of TU forwarded on a request from the UGA 5 Rivers club. If you have any extra equipment laying around that you wish you could get it to someone who can use it, check out this letter.
Good morning Kathy,
First off, thank you again for inviting us to participate in the GA TU council meeting the other weekend. We were delighted to share what is going on within the club and to learn more about what else is going on around the state. We are extremely fortunate to have such a strong community that supports our efforts here in Athens, and we could not accomplish our goals without the help of those around us.
I have spoken with our executive team to craft a “wishlist” of sorts for the 5 Rivers club. I realize this list is extensive, but donations of ANY size will be helpful and very much appreciated.
- 10 fly rod outfits (rod, reel, line). Preferably 4 or 5 wt setups
- Extra leaders and tippet (3x-6x)
- Fly selections for both trout and warmwater fisheries
- Boot-foot waders. Neoprene or breathable material. Boot sizes 6-12
- Cash/Check donations that we can use to buy gear and take advantage of the fund-matching program that the council has generously offered
Our goal is to create a 5 Rivers Gear Library in which members can rent out club gear for personal trips and return it to our storage locker once they return. This gear will also be utilized for club outings such as our biannual trip to Brevard, NC and frequent outings to the Chattooga and Nantahala Rivers.
Please feel free to forward this list to anyone who you think might be willing to contribute or pass along their contact information and I will reach out personally. Again, we cannot thank you enough for your support of UGA 5 Rivers, and we look forward to hearing from you soon.
Best,
UGA 5 Rivers
Elijah Dwoskin
B.S. Ecology
University of Georgia '22
404-323-5335
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PROJECT HEALING WATERS
Oakwood VA Clinic
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The Project Healing Waters group usually 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, with COVID, everything is halted.
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.
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AMAZON SMILE
Charity Designation
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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.
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ANGLER MANAGEMENT
Unicoi Outfitters Fishing Intel Blog
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We got this message from our good friend Dredger (aka Jeff) who now takes all the good spots on the streams during the week, but its for good reasons so you get get the most up to date fishing reports.
During my spring trout stream treks I’m running across a lot of metro TU’ers. Right now, In fact, I’m at a windy Smith DH conversing with three longtime UCCTUers. Like me, many of your older members prefer to stay out of the social media frays and are not personally active on sites like Facebook and Instagram.
Feel free to make them aware of the winter resurrection of our fly shop’s blog, “Angler Management.”
It has the same timely angling intel as our social media sites. All of it is entertaining and much of it might help your members, especially new flyfishers, to catch a few more fish.
Why? We live, work, retire, and fish up here in north Georgia. From Jimmy to Jake to Wes and Hunter Pittman( our young buck “grown” by Rodney Tumlin and Mack Martin), fishing is in our blood. And now it’s online, too, for non-Facebookers. Enjoy our UO goodies from bear triplets to Friday fishing reports to the hot flies during my Dark30 trips on both weekend evenings.
Give it a look and a try. We want you returning home to the flatlands happy, and coming back up here soon. On what stream? Well, I don’t believe I said! But you’d better be carrying stimmies, caddis, and cahills as the sun sets!!!
Sincerely,
Dredger
(Charter Rabunite)
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GEORGIA DNR
Fishing Information
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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.
Reservoirs:
Trout:
Follow GA DNR:
You can also check out NGTO for Dredgers Weekly Fishing Report"
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NC DELAYED HARVEST
Stocking Dates
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The DH season is officially open in North Carolina. Remember to check the regulations before you go.
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FISHING REPORT
Chance of Rain
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It's that time of year when you start heading further up the mountain, below a tailwater dam or chasing some warmer water species.
Many of our favorite haunts are just a bit too warm for successful catch and release, but there still are a few put & take streams that still get the occasional stocking or even a few daring holdovers. If you hit those stocker streams, it's a good idea to just plan on keeping what you catch if you're down in the lower reaches since those fish stand a chance of not making it.
If you need that wild trout fix, think about north flowing streams as they get less sunlight and get as high as you can get. I find the mornings to be better since the fish had a full night of cooler temps versus the early afternoon bite where the fish had to contend with warmer water under the July sun. The daily rain drenchers have been pretty good for keeping the streams recharged, so be sure to bring some worms flies, greenie weenies or nymphs with your dries when you head up in the event of a storm to wash some food down. Elk hairs caddis, stimulators or terrestrials are a good bet right now for your dries.
The tailwaters are fishing good as always. The DNR keeps the stocking up on the Lanier Tailwater, so you can always get you're stocker fix there or get into the resident wild browns as well. The browns tend to stick a bit natural while the stockers can still be fooled into trash flies like mops or eggs. Last year, I would make a weekly Friday early evening trip below Buford Dam and strip small streamers on a sink tip with great success. Just keep an eye on those release schedules.
It's also a good time to hit the ponds, lakes and warmer river/streams for panfish and bass. The recent rains keep places like the Hooch muddy, so check those gauges, but the ponds still fish well. Middle of the day is a bit tough, so focus on mornings and late afternoons with small poppers or my favorite the Stealth Bomber.
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FLY OF THE MONTH
Damselfly Nymph
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As we slide out into the warmwater fishing season, I really like to toss these as a dropper when pond/lake fishing. I'll put this behind a leech or popper. You can google this fly and find a million different styles to do this. I keep it fairly simple for efficiency sake and this is the tying pattern i have been sticking with. Even though I fish a smaller size on this, it still takes really good size bass. It's a match the hatch scenario and big fish need to keep the protein diet up, so they will gladly gobble up damselfly nymphs. You can experiment with adding bead chains for eyes or wrapping the hook with weight before tying this up. You can buy the mono eyes or do what I do and that's cut small pieces of 30lb test mono (black), melt the ends with a lighter and form little eyes on the end by touching it or blowing them into shape. This also makes a good stillwater trout fly, so it can live in your lake box year round.
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- Hook: Nymph Hook #10 - #16
- Head: 30lb Monofilament cut and melted ends
- Thread: Olive
- Wrap: Gold wire - fine
- Tail and Body: Olive marabou tied in at the back and wrapped forward
- Hackle: Olive Hungarian partridge
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GEORGIA FOOTHILLS CHAPTER WEBSITE AND FACEBOOK
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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.
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For all information regarding Trout Unlimited in Georgia, check out the Georgia Council website at: http://georgiatu.org/
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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.
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