I’m heading out to fish Dukes Creek up by Helen, Georgia tomorrow (Saturday 6/6). This is “special regulation” water and holds trophy Trout, and I mean TROPHY. There are Browns and Rainbows in there in the the 5 to 15 pound class. The creek is catch and release, single hook, barbless fishing only. In Georgia they define “single hook” the way I always wanted New hampshire to. Single hook means “single point”. No treble hooks here. And for the barbless end of it, you’d better really crush those barbs down. The way the CO’s check them is to stick the hook in their shirt and if it catches on the way out you’re busted. $150/per barbed fly in you possesion.
Speaking of heading up north, in the northern part of Georgia there is a TU chapter named Rabun. The members are known as Rabunites and as it turns out have their own fishing language. I found an article that gives examples and found it rather amusing as I hope you will:
How to speak Rabunite.
A Flatlander and a Rabunite meet in the parking area at THE RIVER about dark-thirty. The Flatlander asks, “Did you have any luck?” To which the Rabunite replies, “Shonuf did – lucky to be here on THE RIVER today.”
“I mean any luck fishing?”
“Hadda couple of raisdums so I switched to a tandum rig — ya know, a tractor-trailer rig. Then had three burndums and upcapped a couple more. Got below a bug factory just when the switch went on. Then I hipolum three gooduns and invited them to dinner. They wuz dumplins, all sidewinders and drifters. It’s OK to eat them. They’re like Doritos; the hatchery will make more of em. WAAaah WHOooo! Knowhutimean??”
A foreign language? No, not really. You have heard of “street wise” and “street slang”? Well, this is kinda like that. Rabunites talk in “RIVER slang.” To help you converse with Rabunites you encounter, here is a glossary of terms:
Flatlander – resides south of Tallulah Falls
Rabunite – usually a member of Rabun TU
raisdums - the fish just came up to look and went back down
tandum rig – 2 flies
tractor-trailer rig – attractor fly with a wet fly or nymph on a dropper
burndums - definite contact with the fish
upcapped - fish getting off before netting or fondling
bug factory – shallow water over a cobble bottom on a slight gradient
switch went on – trout feeding frenzy begins
hipolum - immediate removal of the fish from the water
gooduns - any trout, Flatlanders call them “NICE FISH”
invited them to dinner – put them in the creel
crispy critter – A small trout (usually 7 inches or less) fried golden brown and eaten bones and all! Yum-Yum!
fodder – A whole mess of crispy critters. Fodder of brookies is the main staple diet of Rabunites when West of Hiawassee.
dumplins – freshly stocked trout dumped from the bridge
sidewinders – stock trout with some fins missing
drifters – stock trout with all of its fins missing
churning butter – When playing a wild brown trout and it rolls showing that beautiful ‘butter’ colored underbelly, the angler tells his partner it is “churning butter,” meaning it’s a wild brown trout.
earning its wings – When playing a trout and it jumps and goes airborne (usually a rainbow trout), the angler tells his partner the trout is “earning its wings.”
bronze wings – for one airborne jump
silver wings – for two airborne jumps
gold wings – for three airborne jumps
platinum wings – for four airborne jumps
a ruby - it earns one ruby for every jump in excess of four
Example: A trout that jumps airborne 6 times has earned platinum wings with 2 rubies.
A Few Other Rabunite Terms
fondling – handling trout for a “grip and grin” picture
horsum - identified by a piece of fish lip on the hook
brokoff - a defective hook or a tree in the wrong place
defective knot – a broken tippet with a little “pigtail” on the end
chopper - trout stocked by a helicopter
keeper - same as GOODUN
Georgia nymph – a cricket; you know like, “Jiminy Cricket”
passenger train – using 3 or more dry flies at one time
freight train – using 3 or more wet flies or nymphs at one time
haulin heavy freight – adding sinkers to a freight train
pig farm – a stream where the trout are fed trout chow
gold is where you find it! – discovering seldom fished trout waters
Dr Pepper fishing – Remember the old Dr Pepper advertising slogan: “10, 2 & 4”? An angler (usually a flatlander) who starts fishing about 10 AM, takes a lunch break at 2 PM, and quits at 4 PM is said to be on the Dr Pepper fishing schedule. Then in the parking lot the Dr Pepper angler often tell the Rabunite just getting ready to start fishing: “You are wasting your time, they need to stock more trout in here!”
got your thermometer wet – When you and your partner are wading wet and one of you wades in deeper than his crotch, the partner says: “I see you got your thermometer wet.” Then he might ask: “Just how cold is it?” The answers can vary greatly!
West-of-Hiawassee - more good places to fish, like the ‘DREAM TRIP’
Where? - “I don’t believe I said.” (I.D.B.I.S.)
To get into the Rabunite Camp, here are the answers to the admission quiz:
1) Q: What’s the best trout fishing spot in GA?
A: Alongside a Rabunite
2) Q: What’s the worst?
A: Behind a Rabunite
If you are quizzed on the Rabunite terms and correctly score:
90 – 100%: Master Angler or a Rabunite Guide, soars with the Ospreys
80 – 89%: Accomplished Angler, Fishes with a Rabunite Guide
70 – 79%: Typical Angler, Fishes Behind the Rabunite Guide
60 – 69%: WannaBe Angler, Watches others fish while carrying lunches & cameras
Less than 60%: Just a plain ole ‘Flatlander’
“Fishing is life. The rest is just details”
Enjoy your day.
Old #28
Well, I caught my first Georgia Trout today. Actually, it was pretty slow as I was the only one who caught anything, but it could have been worse. Temps in the upper 70’s, overcast, and the water was cold, as it always is in this section of the river. This section is tail water and is released from the bottom of the Buford Dam on Lake Lanier. Like all tail waters, there is very little invertebrate life and the fish feed on other fish and midges. I chose to try a streamer; an olive heron, to begin the day and on the third cast the S.N.I.T. (standard nine inch trout) took it.
Although this is a fairly small fish, I’m assured there are larger, much larger fish to be had.
Old # 28
Well, yesterday (Saturday April 24th) I got out for the first time in Georgia. I joined the North Georgia Trout Online organization for their “Spring Fling”. A great group of guys and gals. The activities took place at the Buford Fish Hatchery. Evidently, the State of Georgia is a bit more public friendly than the State of New Hampshire. The hatchery is just below the Buford Dam on the Chattahoochee River. The morning was filled with activities both at the hatchery grounds and on the “Hooch” itself.
Like any tailwater, this section of the Hooch can be dangerous because of the releases from the dam. In this section of the river it is state law you must wear a personal flotation device (PDF). The signs along the river state you must exit the river as soon as you hear the signal horn. I’ve been told by those who know they agree with the signs and that the water rises considerable and quickly.
So I put on my PDF and wading gear, strung up the old fly rod, and headed down to the river. It was about a quarter of a mile walk from the hatchery grounds to the river. It was an exceptional morning, about 75 - 80 degrees, bright sun and a slight breeze. The climb down the 60 foot high bank was a bit steep but the Old Guide made it without incident. The first thing I noticed was the wading was going to be interesting. Although it wasn’t difficult there were a lot of flat topped rocks. The problem was there were fairly deep holes around them and stepping off the rock, once there, became an interesting adventure. Tailwater, as anyone who has fished it can tell you, is generally cold all the time, regardless of the air temp.
The State of Georgia stocks the Hooch year round and although the trout (generally rainbows and browns) are not real large they are plentiful. With that said, I must admit my first outing was fruitless. Not knowing the strategies and bug life in this part of the world I was just guessing. I did have one splash at a wood duck herron, but that was all that happened in about an hour’s fishing. It was totally enjoyable, though, having fished for the first time. I have an invitation from one of the regulars to go out with him next Saturday and I’m hoping to get some pointers and catch my first Georgia Trout.
One of the biggest difference between New England fishing and Georgia fishing is here in Georgia (at least in the Northern portion) there is a lot of “Private Water” on the rivers and ponds. The advantage of paying to fish these private waters is the size of the fish. They have some giant Browns and Rainbows here in Georgia. The good news is, not all of them are in private water and the place I’m going to next Saturday is reported to have some “monsters” if you can catch them. Here’s hoping.
Tight lines,
The Old Guide
When I was a youngster my mind pictured a fly fisherman as an older gentleman, perhaps with gray hair, hip boots or chest waders, fly vest, floppy hat adorned with assorted flies, and a 7½ foot bamboo fly rod. In my life, I’ve seen very few who have fit the picture I had in my mind, but I have known and fished with many fly fishermen; and excellent ones too.
Looking back, I can definitely see a progression in my fly fishing life.
In my youth it was all about catching fish and I devoured every book that I found on the subject of flies and how to use and tie them. Gradually, as I became older my approach to fly fishing has changed to where it is now.
As a youngster, catching fish was a measure of myself and the more fish I caught (and kept) the more of a fly fisherman I accounted myself. When I first started off I fished dry flies and became pretty good at it. I remember getting Art Flick’s “Streamside Guide” and became convinced if someone was to fish as Art described in his book he would be a very successful fly fishermen.
Within a short time I was heavy into the Streamside Guide. Some of the patterns lead me on adventures I hadn’t envisioned. Have you ever tried to find urine stained vixen red fox fur? Not fur or synthetic material of the same color, but the actual stuff. I eventually found some and happily tried tying the famed Hendrickson. I could not set upright and divided wings to save my life! One day while at Bill Hunter’s store in New Boston I met Dick Talleur. During our conversation I mentioned how I was struggling with setting wings on the classic flies described in the Streamside Guide. No problem, he said, and sat down behind the vice out front and proceeded to show me how to set the wings. He had me practice by setting maybe 5 upright and divided wings. I have never had a problem setting upright and divided wings since.
For some reason having tied all those flies from the Streamside Guide didn’t have the results I was expecting, but I did learn how to tie the classic Catskill fly patterns and in general my fly tying improved considerably. But the promise of being a more productive fisherman wasn’t fulfilled.
Eventually, I began trying different methods of fly fishing. Bill Bates got me hooked on Streamers. After reading “Streamer Fly Tying & Fishing” and “Streamers & Bucktails” I was convinced to succeed as a fly fisherman streamers and bucktails were the answer. Yes, streamers and bucktails were going to solve all of those “dry days”. Now I’m off on a quest to tie every streamer I can. Well, once again having tied all those streamers and bucktails didn’t make the dry days much better, although they did improve my success rate some. But to tell you the truth, what tying all those streamers and bucktails really did was to improve my streamer and bucktail tying.
I think you can see a pattern developing here. Each time I read a book on another type of fly I became enthralled with that type of fly and tied a ton of them. I remember the soft hackle, the flymph, the nymph, heavily weighted nymphs, and finally terrestrials.
All of this lead me away from my roots of dry fly fishing. Yeah, occasionally I’d tie on a dry when the situation mandated it, but the days of using a dry fly all day long had long had passed. Now it was “whatever was working” and catching fish was still the name of the game.
Now that I’ve reached old fart status I’m moving back to my roots. Last year I vowed to fish dries more often and use weighted flies only on rare occasions. This winter I voided my fly boxes of most flies with artificial weight, with few exceptions, the cone head muddler among them. My goal is to fish with dry flies most of the time, but when I do go sub-surface I do it, for the most part, without weighted flies. Old habits are hard to break, but I think I’m doing well with it.
I’m beginning to regain that experience which first hooked me on fly fishing. It wasn’t fighting the fish on the other end of the line, although that is great too. It’s the hunt! Locating a fish with a dry fly; seeing the take and reacting too it. Being able to read the water to be able to determine how best to drift that dry to get the the fish, you’re sure is lying there, to take the fly. It’s not like nymphing at all. When nymphing you watching the line to see if it moves in the wrong direction or hesitates when it shouldn’t. Very rarely you see the nymph and the take, but with the dry fly each time there is a take you see it. How fantastic is that?
There is more to my move than just getting back to my roots. I’m also becoming more inclined to give the fish a little room. What do I mean? Well, with today’s technology in rod, reel, line, and flies, today’s fish have no place they can go to get away from the ever present pressure from the modern fly fisherman. Back in the day fish could hide in the depths of a stream or river. It was difficult for the fly fisherman to get his fly deep in the current. Fish on the bottom would have to be enticed to come up off the bottom if they were to be caught. Today, we go down after them. There is nowhere for todays fish to hide. Constant pressure! And we wonder why there are no (or very few) native trout in our rivers; why it’s getting harder and harder to locate wild trout populations.
I’ve decided, for me, I’d like to give our fish back the bottom of the river and once again take on the added challenge of enticing them up off the bottom to my dry or unweighted wet, nymph, or streamer. I may catch fewer fish (I may not), but when I do catch one of those lunkers from the bottom of the river there will be that extra bit of satisfaction that I had mastered my technique enough to catch at least that one. I understand this isn’t for everyone. Hell, just a few years ago it wasn’t for me, but at least part of the time you may want to consider giving the fish back the bottom of the river as well.
However you decide to fish, enjoy your time with the river and the fish.
Old #28
Well, we all made it through 2011!
I’ve been down here in Georgia for about two months now. The adjustment has been a little difficult, but I’m finally starting to get used to the traffic and the fact I hardly ever know where I am. But all that will come in time.
I hope y’all will bear with me for a while. I have to wait until the end of January to get my free lifetime old man’s fishing license, so until then I won’t be posting any reports on how the trout fishing is here in Northern Georgia. Yep, in a manner of speaking, I’m still living in the north country.
I’ve done some research on Trout fishing here in Georgia and it’s beginning to look like I’m in for a treat. I’ve been reading about some pretty good Trout fishing in the Smokey’s just about an hour north of where I’m living. It’s kinda like driving up to Pittsburgh from Littleton but with a lot more traffic.
Well, stay safe in 2012.
Old #28