Personal Reports - The following reports are colored by my personal preferences (I guess most are). Many are for Callaway Gardens as I guide fly fishing on the private lakes there. I also do guided trips on the Flint River and Brigadoon Lodge on the Soque River in north Georgia.
I fish West Point Lake a lot too, but exclusively with a fly rod. There are no reports that include far-flung locations on the lake (unlike some "bass-masters" on the lake I don't like to "set the water on fire" while racing from one spot to another). And there're a few "alternative species" report as I love to take those big carp (and cats) on a fly.
"Live like you'll die tomorrow (fish every day),
.....fish like you'll live forever (catch & release).
June 30 - Callaway Gardens - 6:30 am - Fished with Calvin B., a doctor from Chattanooga (henceforth & forever to be known as "Catfish Calvin"). We started on Wren with the idea of making a few casts from the bank to any visible action before heading to another lake. Within 10 minutes, Calvin had hooked a big bluegill, a fat cat, and a nice bass (on rattle buggers and clousers). So we launched the tubes and fished til lunch. Skys were heavily overcast but rain stayed away. Took many fish, including numerous 4-5 lb catfish within 2' of the bank. Cats aren't jumpers, but they really thrown some water when they feel the hook in the shallows and they had the drag singing on Calvin's little Abel. After lunch at the clubhouse (our waders looked great next to all the golfers bright pastels!), we headed to Upper Falls. Found fish heavily concentrated in scattered spots. In one place against the dam, we took 3 bass, a dozen big `gills, and a fat shellcracker. Down under the 15th, water was flowing in from a culvert/creek. Fish were stacked there, and Calvin was nailing them as a thunderstorm blew in fast. Hard as it was to quit, we took our 9' lighting rods and retreated to a golfcourse shelter til the storm passed. We were rewarded with a hot spot that got even hotter. The increased flow had brought the fish right up into the mouth of the creek - don't know how many we took from that 5 sq ft area or how they all packed themselves in there. The sun began to peek out and we fished out a fine afternoon.
June 27 - Callaway Gardens - 7 am - Fished with Marshall L. from Greenville, SC. We fished the corner of Robin & took a bass on first cast with tarantula. Turned out not to be a bad omen as we took many more throughout the morn on Upper Falls; and managed to dodge the rain in the process.
June 20 - West Point Lake - 6 am - Fished Yellow Jacket at daylight, with 3 fish off the rip-rap at first lite and a coupla more off bank wood before the wind blew me off about 10am. No hybrid in the whitecaps.
June 17- Callaway Gardens- 3 pm - Fished Wren Lake with a group from Georgia Ag Credit. Ron and Jeff had thrown the fly before, but Donna got the first fish - a 4 lb cat, of all things, on a wooly bugger. Before it was done everyone had several more, including Donna who proved the first was not a fluke.
June 8-13 - Last Chance, Idaho - Spent 5 days fishing with Norman P. on the Henry's Fork and surrounding streams. Legendary country, and with good cause. Oh, the rivers!!! And the little creeks !!! Salmonflies were moving on the Henry's Fork and we threw stimulators as big as bass bugs. Water was still up everywhere, but the fishing was still plenty good. Highlight is hard to choose. Maybe the float down the Fork, machine-gunning casts to the bank as we raced with the current, and seeing the flash of the trout as he came up to blast the salmonfly. Or maybe the wading along the Firehole in Yellowstone, with the geysers spewing steam and boiling water, and those wild trout who seemed to love the prince and "bite-me flash" nymphs. Or maybe it was the little nameless winding 4' creek down below Big Springs with little wild brookies nestled up next to the meadow bank. Suffice it to say, I'll be back there. And if you haven't been, make plans. I think you could fish new water there for years, and, from what I saw, love it all.
June 6 - Callaway Gardens - 6:30 am - Fished Upper Falls daylight til noon. Bass were shallow early chasing bait on the bank. Carp in the cove mid-morn, but wouldn't eat today. Bass were also at the culvert where water flowing in, sitting in 12" of water - took a bunch there, plus many blue-gill.
June 2 - Callaway Gardens - 2 pm - Fished with Bob C. and his buddies, Jeff and Allen. On Upper Falls, we got off to a slow start, but as the sun got lower we began to get the bass and big bream. `Wound up the day with 30+ and had a real good time. These guys were glad to just get out of Atlanta for the day - sometimes I guess I forget how lucky I am down here fishing several times a week.
May 31 - Callaway Gardens - 8 am - Fished Mt. Creek Lake with Pat T. & his CA bud, Bill. Didn't catch a lot of fish - the wind was tough in the trolling-motored boat - but the blue-gill were big and the bass aerial. After lunch we fished the catfish in Wren Lake as a big-fish-fighting tune-up for Bill's upcoming Alaskas trip. Then after Pat & Bill headed home, John B. & I fished the Chapel Lake - a slow start but about dusk we found the fish (or they got active - who knows) and began to get the shellcrackers, bluegill and bass.
May 28-29 - North Georgia - Headed out at 4 am on Friday w/ Joel D. & fished 4 streams in day-long trip to Clayton. A terrific day - fished a variety of water. Most fun was probably a tiny, plunging creek where a 10' cast was a long one. The fish here were nailing a #10 Chernobyl Ant - Joel said it must have made `em mad, they hit it so hard. Hooked a couple of real good fish, but of course these guys knew just what to do & we didn't land them. It is truly amazing how big a fish will hide in these little creeks - they were laid up in the deep holes and took nymph droppers.
On Saturday, we hiked in early to the Big Bend Falls area of the Chattooga. Phenomonal fishing on a great river - fish were in the deep runs, in the pockets and in the riffles. `Saw a bait fisherman with a 20"+ rainbow he'd taken from the base of the falls. We kept a few for dinner and impressed the wives tremendously with our hunter/provider skills. Don't keep many fish (stockers or not), but these were fine charred on the grill and we gave proper thanks to the fish gods and the DNR. And if everyone who kept trout had to hike outa Big Bend, there'd be a lot more fish in north Georgia I guarantee.
May 25 - XXX River - 6 pm - Fished w/ Alfred W. on this tailwater. Think they changed the generation schedule on us as water was rising when we arrived, instead of falling like we planned. Fished the plunge pools and run of an old mill dam on side channel. About dusk, the hybrid showed - good, strong 2-4 lb fish that ate the clousers.
May 23 - Callaway Gardens - 4 pm - Fished w/ Norman P. First we hit a little private pond belonging to a friend. Pond was kinda small & so were the fish so we headed to Callaway. Fished Upper Falls til dark, taking many fish, on top & below.
May 22 - Flint River - 5 pm - Fished above Sprewell Bluff after a quick storm came through. Fishing big wooly to discourage the red-breasts, I took 4 good shoalies plus a couple of smaller ones (and three kamikaze bream).
May 19 - Callaway Gardens - 5 pm - Fished Upper Falls for the first time in a while. This is really the problem for me at Callaway - too much good water. Upper Falls was beautiful as always, with the golf course on two sides and fish on my first two casts. A good evening's fishing, especially when it got near dusk, the water glassy still, and the fish rising everywhere - bass slurping out in the middle and the bream swirling hard around the banks. The nicest thing about fishing a home water is the lack of urgency that sometimes comes even when you see this many fish. Knowing that you'll be back soon, it's not necessary to try and catch them all right now! So, after winding up on the far end, I leisurely finned back across the lake just dragging my fly as the fish splashed and the color leaked from the sky. Of course next time, I'll probably be casting hard til the sky is black.
May 16 - West Point Lake - 5 pm - After a severe, 85-hour work week I had to hit the lake. Actually went hunting the carp again, but the water was up considerably and they had pulled out of the shallow water. So I had to resort to bass fishing (sounds like a strange statement, I know - but catch a 10-30 pound carp and then talk to me!). `Found the bass mainly suspended out from the bank. A few smaller bucks chasing shad on top but bigger fish mainly deep. Left just before dark, the week of work a distant & unimportant detail.
May 9 - West Point Lake - 6 pm - Yellow Jacket Creek - Fished the bridge rip-rap and found only one small spot. Moved to hooked cove to avoid jet-boat & bass-master wakes and took several largemouths of docks on windblown side. Way in the back of the cove I saw carp wallowing in the flooded grass. Still excited about a 39" grass carp a week ago, I thought I'd try the "common" variety. Eased the boat back in there and tied on about 4' more tippet and a rubber-legged dragon. `Chose the fly because it's small, rides hook up, and seldom fouls. Threw it right up in the grass and let it sit til a carp was right in front of it, then bumped it just a tad. The carp took, and then took off. The bow of my boat was mired in the bank, the stern in about 1.5 ft. He ran thru the grass, back around and under the boat. I had my rod (the whole rod, handle & all) down in the water pointed at him as he headed for deeper water. Finally manipulated it free (a Laurel & Hardy act) and played him to the boat. He wasn't near as big as my grass carp last week, but let me tell you, this "common" rough fish will pull just about any other freshwater fish backwards across the lake.
May 4 - West Point Lake - 5:30 pm - Yellow Jacket Creek - Fished back of cove and found smaller largemouths swirling bait - took 3 on poppers. Moved to bridge rip-rap and got two spots on clousers with a sink-tip line - one was 18". Moved down to cove off main river channel and caught three good largemouth right off bank at old road bed.
April 28 - Private Pond, LaGrange - 4:30 pm- Fished w/Norman P. at a local pond from float tubes. We'd heard bass/bream were great here. Fished around the bank aways and picked up only a few, including 2 nice bass. On the windy side of a shallow island, we saw the fins, tails and sipping mouths of huge white amur (grass carp). We cast tied on dry flies and edged within casting range. Luckily, the wind was rippling the surface of the water and the fish were less spooky than normal. The trick lay in anticipating their direction of travel and casting just in front. I saw a tail right near the bank and cast about 6' in front of it. As my fly (#8 tarantula) landed , I saw a mouth open and lightly twitched the fly. The water exploded, as about a dozen carp blasted from the shallows - one of them firmly attached to my fly line. These fish grow big (sometimes comsuming their body weight in vegetation in a single day) and are very strong. From a float tube the initial part of fighting a carp is basically a matter of holding on for the ride. After quite some while I could get him close to the tube, but then he'd see me and give a quick flick of his tail (dousing me with about a gallon of water) and was gone again. Finally I was able to land him and hold him against my chest like a bag of cement )for Norman to snap a photo. Right at 39", I have no idea of what he weighted but am almost glad he wasn't any bigger.
Norman hooked up next, on a Royal Wulff, I think. A repeat performance on almost every account, tho' in his mini-size tube he couldn't even lift the fish without tipping the tube so we took his pix supporting the fish in the water.
April 25 - Flint River - 6:30 am- Started the day on the Hooch below West Point. Found a few small hybrid & white bass. Hooked one big hybrid, but the second time he circled me in the current he came off. We packed up & headed for the Flint River at Big Lazer. Good move - water was perfect), low & clear. And fish were hot! Shoalies were shallow and in skinny water. I even hooked a couple that I sight-casted to. They liked my Chernobyl Ant) - first time I used it on shoalies.
April 20 - Callaway Gardens - 2 pm - Fished with Bill T from Atlanta. `Had the pleasure of fishing with Bill back in October. This time the company was just as good (maybe better, as we both knew what to expect) and the fishing was great. We took dozens (literally!) of big bluegill, and a couple of bass on Hummingbird. The fish were right on the bank and eager to take our Tarantula topwaters. Then we moved to Robin for the finale with numerous bass and a big shellcracker in the fading light.
April 18 - Callaway Gardens - 2 pm - Fished with Mike W. and his wife, Marie. Vets of West Point Lake and conventional tackle but new to flyfishing. We did a quick casting lessons and hit Hummingbird Lake to avoid the winds. If you know Callaway it's that beautiful, long, narrow lake surrounded by woods on 3 1/2 sides right at the 3-way intersection in the Gardens. The "NO FISHING" sign beside it makes it look even prettier. We took big bluegill and redbreast on poppers, plus one big bass on a wooly bugger. `Really nice folks who, I bet, will be flyfishing some more.
April 16 - Callaway Gardens - 2 pm - Fished with John C. and his dad, Charley. Mountain Creek Lake in heavy wind - we found protected cove and took a goodly number of bass, most on clousers & wooly-buggers.
April 15 - West Point Lake - Yellow Jacket Creek - 6 pm - Fished with Alfred W. In his boat, thank goodness, as the winds were at near gale force. He spent his time controlling the boat while I got most of the fish. Standard WP size, 15.5", in about 15' of water - they took clousers.
April 13 - Callaway Gardens - 2 pm - Fished with David R., his brother Joe, and his dad, Joe. David had flyfished at Callaway before, but Joe & Joe were new to the sport. We did an hour casting lesson and jumped in Hummingbird Lake. The guys said they'd like to catch `em topwater if possible. And we did. While being regaled with Joe Sr.'s babershop tales, we caught bluegill, redbreast and bass on poppers & sliders, many right on the bank. We dragged out of the water at dark. Great guys, great trip!
April 11 - XXX River - 7 am - Fished with Carter N. and Paul H on this tailrace. We landed aboiut 30 hybrid). Fishing stayed good right through to noon (normally when the sun gets up the hybrid move out of the whitewater). All the fish took clouser minnows. Most were laying in the outside bend of runs, either against a sandbar or an undercut rock.
April 11 - Callaway Gardens - 3 pm - A quick lunch and then to Callaway for a trip with Fred S.("Shake") and his grandson, Logan from Marietta. Had a good trip on Mockingbird Lake. Shake got the best fish, a huge bluegill. I missed the photo on that one, but got a smaller one on film. Fred says Logan will be hearing about this for a long time to come.
April 6 - Chattahoochee River - 6 am - Fished the Hooch in Columbus with Dave B., aka "Hooker". As trips with him always are, this was an adventure. Jetboating the rapids upstream right to the discharge dams of a huge mill, we caught big hybrid til the sun got up. Then the "skipjack" moved in. These are ocean fish who've run upstream from the Gulf to spawn. We caught exactly 200(Hooker always counts - I was having too much fun) and quit at about 2:00. When we'd hit 100 skipjack, Hooker even laid down his spinning rod & strung up the Sage, so the second 100 were all on the fly (mainly clousers). `Got a copy of Hooker's new book, An Angler's Guide to the Atlanta Chattahoochee River. If you fish around Atlanta & don't have this book, you're missing the boat (& the fish!). Get it!.
April 5 - Callaway Gardens - 3 pm - Fished Martin Lake with Steve W. and his son Michael who'd come down from Boston to learn fly-fishing. I think they did!! They'd gone out Sundy and caught lots of bluegill on Hummingbird. We added quite a few more, plus bass, and a couple of big catfish. Lookout, you Massachusett fish.
April 3 - Little Schuylkill River, PA - 9 am - Fished the delayed harvest section of this little river about 60 miles north of Philly. Beautiful! Action slow in the morn, but as sun warmed the water we found the fish (or they found us). Thanks to Jeff, who led us there, and congratulations to Keith (my son-in-law) who took his first PA trout on a fly (after taking his 1st Georgia fish on the fly back in December).
April 2 - Ridley Creek, Media, PA - 4 pm - Fished this little creek C & R in the suburbs of Philly. Unbelievable that it exists here. Heavily stocked with big fish, and of course, heavily fished. Probably 2 dozens guys on this little .6 miles section. I struck out here, though I had one big boy on for a second. Next time I'm here I'll hit it VERY early. `Saw one fish that must have been 26" - a palomino, they call it. Looked like one of those "goldens" (albino rainbow?) we get in the annual Callaway stocking.
March 30 - XXX River - 6 pm - Hit it quick after work with Carter N. Took a half-dozen plus (biggest about 3 lb) hybrid in the rain. The fish were really coming up and hitting the top about dark but we had to wade outa those swift shoals.
March 28 -Callaway Gardens - Robin & Wren Lake - 12 pm - Fished with Charles S. (Milwaukee) & Bill S. (Atlanta). Charles just starting with fly rod, though he was experienced angler. Bill was completely new to fishing. Had a great time - these guys learned quickly, & caught fish, and enjoyed it. Finished the day with a big brookie for Bill and a nice brown for Charles. We'd finished early so Gib & I decided to fish Hummingbird Lake that last hour before dark. Turned out to be well after dark when we quit as the fish were turned on - caught lots of buck bass right on the bank and then the big bluegills started chasing bait to the top over the creek channel. Guess we caught a coupla dozen before it was too dark to see - nice way to finish the day!
March 26 - West Point Lake - 1 pm - Fished with Brian F. in the back of Jackson Creek. Very windy, but we managed to find the crappie on drop-offs in about 15' of water. Took around two dozen on small clousers & sparkle buggers.
March 20 - Callaway Gardens - 1 pm - Fished with Andrew W, and two of his buddies, Tyler & Eric. The trip was a 13th birthday present for Andrew. Must I admit I grimaced a bit when told clients would be young teens, but lemme tell you, Andrew was a fisherman. A very nice cast, excellent technique, patience, and a great attitude. (Starting baseball soon up in Dallas, I bet he's good at that, too). Tyler had thrown the fly some too, but Eric was a novice. By the end of the day his cast looked like a picture - these guys were all right! Took a mixed bag of fish, including bass, bluegill, shellcracker, redbreast, catfish, brook trout, and catfish. Plus something big that Tyler hooked on a little green san jaun worm, buzzed out all his flyline & was into the backing in a jiffy. And then the flyline/backing knot popped - I managed to chase after and retreive it just before the water come over my waders as the fish stopped as soon as the line went slack and he'd run parralel to the shore. Unfortunately, the fish popped off as soon as I started to handline him back in. Ooooh, he was big! We'll get him next time, Tyler.
March 19 - Callaway Gardens - 2 pm - Fished with a group of 4 Ohio guys - all new or almost new to flyfishing. Took a few bass & bream on Upper Falls, then moved to Robin. Fished the inflowing creek from the bank. With the sun at our back, had to crawl to the edge and cast sitting down. Everyone hooked up with bass, as they were stacked right in the current eddies. Then moved to the beach and fished the drop-off - every body did well, especially Jerry with his special "presentation."
March 12 - Private Pond, LaGrange - 5 pm - My friend (& banker) John H. took me to a farm pond out from town (this is full service banking!). He'd landed several good fish last weekend & was itching to get back. Told me to bring my bait-caster & some big plugs - told him I just bring the fly rod & he said I'd be begging for his rod. Won't tell you how that ended, but suffice it to say we both caught a lot of fish and John said"...i can't believe you caught all those fish on a fly rod." The bass are apparently turned on everywhere - I gotta get out to West Point soon. But the hybrid & whites will be up the river, the rainbows are hot on the Atlanta Hooch, north GA should be hopping,.......
March 7 - Yellow Jacket Creek - 7 am - Fished the back of YJ with Brian F. & his buddy, Brad. `Hoped to find the white bass, but our only take was a beautiful but small yellow perch (pretty unusual in these parts).
March 6 -Callaway Gardens - Robin Lake - Fished the ski/swim lake with a large group from Birmingham. They took many fish, bass & bream. Fish are still very hot, and most were in shallow.
February 28 - Callaway Gardens - 7 am - Fished with Norman & his buddy, Brad til time for my guide trip. Norman went with his 8-wt, throwing big flies to target big fish. And the joker did it too, taking 3 "hawgs" - all fairly shallow and looking ready to spawn. I had left for the last 2, but luckily he has a witness. My trip was with Morgan P., & his son Christopher, from Eufaula. Wind was ripping, so we first hit Hummingbird Lake which has good windbreaks. Front had fish off a bit, but we did OK, even in the wind. Later we moved to Wren and Christopher became the big gun with two large trout, landed, plus one with a "long-distance release."
February 27 - XXX River - 4 pm - Went with Norman P. to the Shallow Water Fishing Expo in Atlanta - worked the Callaway booth a while & talked to some nice folks, visited the vendors and threw the new Sage SPL (wow!), and saw Lefty. As good as talk about fishing is, it doesn't beat the real thing so about noon, Norman & I headed for the river. Unfortunately, we spent 2 hours in a traffic jam in route. Finally got to the river about 4. David C. had beat us there & was already into the hybrid. We waded the shoals & squeezed into his spot (he said he'd been there awhile & his arm was already sore). The fish weren't huge (3-4 lbs), but we had enough fun to make us forget that Atlanta traffic.
February 21 - Callaway Gardens - 8 am - Fished Hummingbird & Wren today til mid afternoon. Temps were cooler, but the fish are still turned on like it's springtime.
February 19 - Callaway Gardens - 7 am - Robin Lake - Fished with a great group from Alston & Bird in Atlanta. Tracey was the novice of the group and landed bass and bream in numbers near to those of the old pros, Chris & Mike. Joe said he was new to the fly rod, but he threw a pretty loop and took his share of fish. Chris had told me he was involved in the Chattahoochee "green-belt" project (info here) and the Nature Conservatory. I later discovered that he's in fact chairman of the Chattahoochee River Coordinating Committee and of the national Trust for Public Land; he also holds and has held numerous other executive positions with both of these. It's a comfort to me that a man in a position such as this takes his fly fishing very seriously. Check this organizations out and support them if you don't already.
February 10 - Callaway Gardens - 7 am - It's not really February - that's just what the calendar says. According to the fish it's sometime in April. Fished Bluebird early in the am. Carried 2 rods in the float tube (one with a full-fast sink line), planning to plumb the deeps and find the big ones. `Turned out the big ones were not in the depths, but rather in the shallow cove about 6" off the bank. `Took 4 nice bass (one about 17"), plus 11-12" bluegill starting to show spawn colors. Took out for lunch and moved to Hummingbird Lake. Caught a few bass and bream, again fairly shallow. Then found some big bluegills hanging on little artificial island. Trick was to toss fly right against the island and let sink. Took four big hump-headed ones this way, then what I thought was another. `Thought, that is, until I put on a bit of pressure and the line took off, straight down, against the island pier and he was gone. Hummingbird is about the smallest lake here, but there's a VERY big fish there - I'll be hunting him. Late in the afternoon, I moved over to Wren (the trout lake). Fish were hitting the surface and chasing bait in shallows. `Casting from the bank, I took, on 3 consecutive casts, a bass, bluegill and trout. Checked the water temp in the shallows (on this sunny north bank) and it was seventy degrees. No wonder the bass are shallow - they think it's time to spawn. `Just for the heck of it I tied on a foam slider (Carter Nelson's foam-head wooly bugger) and took 4 bass (and missed a dozen) casting to swirls and spalshes. The bass were bashing the topwater - wake up, it's the middle of April.
February 7 - Callaway Gardens - 7 am - Decathalon going on this morn, so I fished Wren as access was easy. As I walked up to the lake and dropped the float tube, I saw a couple of swirls out in the lake. I'd rigged my rod at the car, so I quickly shot a cast out. The green sparkle beaded wooly bugger statrted to sink and then line straightened and came tight. There was definitely some weight there and he took off - I figured trout. When I got him up, turned out to be a big "whiskered trout"(ie, catfish). Don't let the old scavenger, bottom-feeder talk fool you, the cat is a game fish (but I'll fish for anything). Weather and water was perfect - fished in shirtsleeves and took several trout, 2 largemouth and a couple of bluegill.
February 2 - XXX River - 12 noon - Started the morn fishing a small private lake in Pine Mountain with Carter N. We were catching a few fish and I told Carter about a note I'd had from a river-fishing buddy, "Hooker", via the North Georgia Trout Online bulletin board. He'd caught a 14 lb striper plus several others on the river the previous Saturday. Didn't take long before we'd talked ourselves into a little river fishing ("let's go where the smallest ones are 3 or 4 pounds...."). We hit the shoals as the water level was dropping from an AM generation. Water was stained & wading was tough, but we managed 3 nice hybrid, mine, on a clouser and Carter's on a epoxy-eyed streamer. The 14 lber didn't show up, but even the "small" ones are a blast, especially in this swift water.
January 31 - Callaway Gardens - 12 noon - Norman & I decided to ignore the rain, the cold, the 20 mph wind and 6 hours of Super-Bowl pregame shows and go fishing! Planned to float the trout lake, but Norman wanted to wade the edge of Robin (the beach & water-ski lake) as the level way down and we could wade to near drop-off beyond the lifeguard towers here fish often hold. That was a real good idea! If you don't know Callaway, the beach at Robin stretches about a half mile all the way around one end of the big lake. We began catching fish almost immediately. By 6 o'clock when we quit, the bass tally was somewhere around 75, with numerous big bluegill thrown in. It was ridiculous - we're thigh deep in water off the sand beach, rain pouring, wind howling and whipping whitecaps, and we're looking back-and-forth at each other and giggling like kids as we released yet another fish. The fish were taking soft; and with sink-tip lines it was hard to detect the strike , as the wind pushed slack into the floating section of line. We got the hang of it, but intermediate full-sinks would have been better. Most of the fish were on a rattle clouser, a small deceiver and big sparkle woolies. Some of the bass were in less than 4' of water. What a strange day - don't know if it was the blue moon, warm weather in past weeks, or just the bass wanting to munch a bit before the game. Whatever - I've got a guide trip set for Tuesday morning and I sure hope this guy doesn't wanna trout fish!
January 26 - Callaway Gardens - 2:30 pm - Hadn't fished in a week - couldn't take it any longer. Slipped out of work and over to the Gardens. Fished Wren Lake in the springtime weather. Right after getting in the water with a rattle-bugger dragging behind the float tube I took a big bluegill. Otherwise a slow start, til finally a big bass way deep sucked in the bugger. Next was a football brookie, who bashed me like a hit-and-run. As I got round on the sunny side, I saw real nervous bait flashing the shallows right on the bank, with an occassional splash & swirl. Changed to a muddler and took, almost in succession, a rainbow, a largemouth, two `gills, and another brookie. This was worth waiting for!
January 19 - Private lake, LaGrange - 11:00 am - Fished with Carter N. on this little 5 acre lake here. What a great day - spring weather & many fish. Caught big "Callaway-size" bluegill and numerous nice bass. Most fish were deep (6-14') and took my "rattle-bugger", Carter's sculpin, and a new jig-head fly he's tying. Carter noticed several of the bluegill we caught spitting up little-bitty "bloodworms(?), so I tied a #18 black nymph on as a dropper off one of Carter's jig-flies and took our biggest bass of the day (about 13"). No, he wasn't huge, but relative to that #18 fly stuck in his lip he looked giant. Thanks, Sue, for letting us fish your lake. We'll be back.
January 17 - West Point Lake - 7:00 am - Fished with Norman P. & Paul H. out of Highland Marina. Hunting gull activity, we headed down to mouth of Whitewater. Bait on the fish finder so we cast a bit. With sinking line and weird little white muddler, I took a 5 lb hybrid and then a small white bass. The hytbrid was a blast, but he was our only good fisd for ther morning.
January 13 - Callaway Gardens - 9:00 am - Fished Wren Lake in prep for a trip this afternoon. In about an hour and a half, I managed a bass, 2 browns and a brook trout. The bass came on on of my first casts to a shallow cove before I even launched my float tube. In the afternoon I fished with David W. and a group of 8 guys visiting Callaway for their national sales meeting. They'd had almost no fly-fishing experience so we had a quick casting lesson before we hit the water. On the lake, everyone managed to take trout, plus a few bass.
January 3 - Callaway Gardens - 9:00 am - Fished the creek - took a nice brown and a huge, fat brookie. Home for lunch.
January 1 - Chattahoochee River - 9:00 am - Fished the Hooch above Atlanta with Norman P. Not a great catching-day, but nice weather and a nice 12" brown trout on my first cast of the new year. I took a coupla more - all on my peacock sparkle "rattle -booger".
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