Toccoa River, Blue Ridge, GA

I finally got to fish the Toccoa River tailwater this past Friday, Jun 18, 2010. I can't say the fishing was great but the guide and experience were tremendous!! My friend Craig Sasser and I actually fished with Davie Crawford of Deep South Fly Anglers (http://www.deepsouthflyanglers.com/) a new guide service located in north Georgia.

The day began by meeting up with Davie at 7:00 a.m. at the Curtis Switch put in. Our float would be an all day event taking out at Horseshoe Bend Park. I am here to tell you that it was a HOT and stagnant day! The fish were inactive, we saw no real hatch come off, and we never really got into the big boys. With no surface activity the dry flies were pretty much useless. Even the tried and true double nymph rigs almost seemed fruitless. No one actually counted but it is safe to say we brought 12-15 fish to hand for the day. Most were 8 -12 inches but I did hook into one really nice fish that came unbuttoned after about 30 seconds into the fight. It looked like a nice brown as we caught a glimpse of his orange/yellow color.

Craig, who has never fly fished in his life, came along primarily to film the trip for a possible story on a SNTV dvd. Craig captured some pretty good footage of the entire trip. When we reached near the end of the tape we put a rod in his hand and he wound up catching 2-3 fish which were his first ever trout and first ever fish on a fly rod. Craig had been practicing his casting with one of my rods a few days before the trip and with Davie's additional instruction Craig wound up doing well for a first timer. I think we've got a new fly fisherman among us. :)

I'll be fishing the Hooch with Davie sometime later this summer, or this fall, depending on our schedules. The Hooch is another piece of water I've never fished so it goes without saying that I am looking forward to that trip!! Even though we didn't hit the magic trip with large numbers, or large size, Davie Crawford worked his butt off and I have a great respect for him and his business. His boat is an excellent fishing platform as is his oarsman-ship skills. Look for a story on this trip in a future edition of Sportsman's News magazine (available at all Sportsman's Warehouse). I

On Saturday we all (my wife Kim, our son Stephen, Craig, and his wife Rachel) decided to fish the river where our cabin was located. We actually fished there for a couple of hours and then, allowing for the generation schedule and water flow, moved down to Horseshoe Bend Park to finish out the day. I wound up catching 9 on Saturday but it was still very hot and I had to work my tail off to get those fish!

Well, its time to post some photos so until the next time.....tight lines.

Davie tying on a nymph

Craig having a go at it...

One of my fish

And finally the house where we stayed. Awesome is all I can say!!

Not much fishing....

I haven't done any fishing the last few weeks...simply too much work going on around here and trying to get the kids out of school. I do have a trip planned for the Toccoa in a week so I'm really looking forward to that. We'll be filming the trip and I'll be doing an article on it for Sportsman's News as well. Hopefully I'll get some great footage and we'll get it as one of the features on a Sportsman's News TV DVD series. By the way, these are available in all Sportsman's Warehouse locations throughout the U.S. On a side note....my Wyoming mule deer hunt from last October was featured in the May 2010 edition of the DVD so check it out if you get by a Sportsman's Warehouse.

That is it for now so until I return from North Georgia.....great fishing to all.

As a post script to our Cherokee trip - Kim and I went to Troutfest and I had the opportunity to meet one of the truely great fly fisherman in the world. He is a true gentleman and a man I respect greatly. Lefty Kreh.

Cherokee, NC

I'm just now getting around to posting about my recent trip to Cherokee, NC. My wife and I went up May 12 - 14 to fish the trophy section and some of the other areas of the reservation. Not having been there before we were not only worried about what flies to fish but where to fish.

We decided to go by Rivers Edge Outfitters to buy our license and get some advice (and spend some money). Let me tell you, there isn't a more friendly and open bunch than those fellas at REO!! Brandon, the manager, and Chris, one of the owners, didn't hesitate to recommend flies or places to start from. While we didn't have much success with the trophy fish we certainly had a great time with others. We actually wound up bringing 22 to hand over the two days with one being my personal best Brookie at 15".

I'd like to write more here but I'm actually writing a story for Sportman's News (www.sportsmansnews.com) the official publication for Sportsmans Warehouse (www.sportsmanswarehouse.com). I've been pro staffing for them on some hunts but will be doing more fishing stories and videos going forward. Their presence in the western US is well known but they only have three locations east of the Mississippi - Lexington, KY, Columbia, SC, and Chattanooga, TN. The stories and video I do will be to help these eastern stores (mostly Chattanooga since they are so close to the trout streams of TN, NC, and GA.) I encourage you to check out the Chattanooga Sportsman's Warehouse as soon as you can!!

On to some photos.....

Sipsey Fishing, Mar 7th.

Got out for a little while this past Sunday on the Sipsey. The first time fishing since my last posting. Myself and a couple of friends decided to try a different part of the river for a change. I wound up pretty lucky as I caught 8 fish using a mid-size (probably a size 12) flashy green wooly bugger in about a 2 - 2 1/2 hour period. My buddies weren't having as much luck despite fishing pretty much the same thing I was using.

I called them down to take over my area since I had to leave to get my new 4wt Pflueger Trion reel spooled with some line at the fly shop. I will learn one day to not give up my fishing hole as within about 5-10 minutes of me giving it up Jerre landed a football rainbow that was 14" long, 8.5" diameter, and weighed 1.73 lbs. It was Jerre's largest rainbow and matched the two large trout I had caught earlier this year. With the constant generation the past few months, it seems to have really fattened up the fish. Especially the hold overs that have migrated to areas that not many people fish.

The pictures are limited in number but the first one is of two of my friends trying to catch some fish in the area I had vacated/ The second one is Jerre with that beautiful rainbow. By the way, the fish was released unharmed after some photos were taken.

First fish of 2010!!

After weeks of cold and what seemed like 24 hr running of the generators on my home tailwater, I finally got to do some fishing yesterday!! The temps were in the mid to upper 40's and there was a steady light drizzle all day long. I started and finished with a size 14 green copper john under an indicator with an almost dead slow drift. The Sipsey normally has little flow during times of no generation and that is something we are trying to work with AL Power on....getting a minimum flow standard established. Hopefully that will happen sometime this year!

I wound up fishing about 4 - 5 hours and brought 6 fish to net. While I have caught more fish in term of numbers, I have never caught the size of a couple of fish that I caught yesterday on this tailwater. Of the 6 caught two of them were 14" long and no less than 8" in diameter! The Sipsey is a put and take stream with 7 stockings throughout the year. Our normal stocked fish is 7-9" in length so their size should tell you how long they've been here.

Enought jibber jabber.....Here are some photos from my outing yesterday. I can only hope that 2010 provides the same quality the rest of the year as I had yesterday!