First fly fishing trip-Toccoa River

[Chig]

Went on my first fly fishing trip ever to the Toccoa River in North Georgia. I caught 3 rainbows the first day, there average size was about 8-10 inches. My second day there I caught 11 rainbows, same average size. My third day I caught 5 rainbows and 1 brown trout that was 14 inches. I truly enjoyed it.
I see why you guys love it.

[Frank Whiton]

Hi Chig,

Sounds like you had a great trip. Did you have any problem getting access to the river? Were you camping?

[Chig]

My sister has a cabin on the Toccoa River head waters. The cabin being located on the river was nice, but the head waters were running about 72 degrees. We fished the tail waters of the Toccoa at 3 different public fishing sites. The temperature was ranging from 52-64 degrees at these spots.
I started off fishing with elk hair caddis, but fished a good bit with the Tellico nymph(which I had great success with one day), an olive woolie booger, I caught a decent brown on a royal wolf( I really like this one because of it being so easy to see) I caught some on a sulphur. But near the end, I met an older gentleman that was really catching the fish and he was using a gold rib heirs? ear, I am already trying to figure out when I can go back. I hope to make a trip to some really good waters one day.

[Frank Whiton]

Hi Chig,

The Royal Rulff is my favorite indicator fly. Next time try using a Gold Ribbed Hairs Ear, or better yet a Prince Nymph, as a dropper. An Emerger also makes a good dropper fly.

Here are some of my favorite dropper flies.

Soft Hackle


Caddis Pupa/Larva


Prince Nymph

[Chig]

Thanks for the advice Frank, I need all of the help that I can get. I am actually researching some places here in Alabama to fish. North Alabama is about as far south in the U.S. that you can trout fish to my understanding. According to the Alabama Fish Records, a 9 plus pound rainbow was caught in Tuscaloosa County Alabama. So that gives me some hope. I am in extreme South Alabama on the Florida line, so I have some decent travel to get to the streams. I am ready to go again though. Thanks Again

[BigCliff]

Fishing for bass and panfish in the local creeks can be excellent practice for catching trout in moving water. Those soft hackles Frank showed you work amazingly well on panfish too.

[Chig]

I am the founder of a 2000 acre hunting club default here in South Alabama. We are very fortunate to have 4 fully stocked ponds with large mouth bass, blue gill bream, war mouth, crappie, shellcracker bream, copper head bream. I have thought about fly fishing in them, but it just doesnt seem like it would be the same as moving water. And yes, I agree with you, there is nice river called the Choctawhatchee that moves pretty quickly and has several rapids it also has largemouth and bream. I have not had to buy a fishing license in Alabama for years because I mainly fish these private ponds and the license is not required. So I guess the State of Bama should be glad I started fly fishing because they are getting another license sales from it.
Just so you know, I bought the Genesis Fly Rod Combination Kit from Cabella. It was about $160 with shipping. It came with fly line, backing, flies, a kit, hemastats, clippers, retractable lanyards,leader etc. I had to put the line on, etc. and I liked that. I wanted to break into the sport gently just to see if I like it. I bought a pair of felt sole boot waders from Dicks sporting goods along with a net, wader belt,vest etc.
Then when I made it to my destination I visited a neat little fly shop in Blue Ridge Georgia called Unicoi Outfitters and spent about $100.00 over three days on tackle flies, leader, fly boxes. As you can tell, Im hooked. Unfortunately me being 6 hours from the nearest fly fishing limits my opportunities to fish. Take Care.