North Georgia Trout

 My family went on vacation to the alpine village of Helen, GA this summer. I love this area, and love the trout fishing even more! My total was 4 rainbows and 5 browns. I definitely noticed how much more particular browns are about what they strike are compared to rainbows. All the browns I caught were relatively small, but still fun on the fly. I saw two browns that were over 17 inches and one rainbow over 17 inches in my time exploring the creeks and rivers around the area. I caught three of the browns on different colors of my favorite fly, elk hair caddis. The other ones i caught on a green woolly booger. The most exciting part of fishing was the wildlife I got to see. I was throwing on a brown that was about 18 inches, when I heard the trashcan lid slam. I didn't think anything of it, until it happened again. In the back of my mind I thought bear, but i couldn't see anything so I let it go. Then it happened again and I looked back to see a black bear cub staring at me. I got in the car and cranked it up and it ran off, beautiful creature though.

Chauga....God Bless You??

A couple days ago I woke up and decided I would test out the water under the Cassidy Bridge on the Chauga River. There weren't to many trout to be seen, but i could see a couple stockers. I learned from my trip to New Zealand that nymphing is an important tool to a fly fisherman, so I am determined to learn the technique no matter how much frustration it may cause me. I started the morning using a prince nymph, I had a strike or two but I was trouble with setting the hook to late. I decided to change it up and tie an egg pattern behind my prince nymph, and finally I was able to land a 10 inch rainbow. I finally landed a fish, so it was time to move to a different, more comfortable technique. I moved to one of my favorite pattern #16 elk hair caddis (dry fly). I got a couple small rainbows, then i changed to old faithful, the grizzly woolly bugger. I landed a few more on this. As it started to warm up I decided to call it a day. I ended up catching 8 and releasing them all!

There Fish on the Bottom?

I went offshore one morning in December with my good friend Kenneth in search of some Black Sea Bass. We caught about 20 nice size Sea Bass, but decided to drop down a little larger bait fish. I ended up pulling up this massive Spot Tail Bass. Kenneth was also able to land another one about the same size. Another great day out on the big pond!

New Zealand Nymphing

Bringing in the bow

Prince Nymph

I had the privilege of taking a trip across the world to the north island of New Zealand, where I was able to do a bit of Fly Fishing. My girlfriend and I went out one crisp morning with a guide. We headed out to the crystal blue water around 7:30 am, it was a beautiful morning with frost still on the ground. During the winter fish stop feeding off of flies and move to a more plentiful food source, nymphs. I don't have a lot of experience nymphing, so this was a new technique for me. I missed several fish, which was frustrating, but in the end we landed 3 nice fish one of which was about 3 pounds. I landed the larger Rainbow on a #14 Prince Nymph. This was a great day on the water, but that's not all we were able to do in New Zealand.  I jumped out of a plane and went bungie jumping, two of most exhilarating experiences of my life.

East Fork of the Chattooga River...FISH ON!

Rainbow

My Beautiful Girlfriend's first Brookie

Today my girlfriend and I had a great day on the East Fork of the Chattooga River. We caught six brook trout and one rainbow.We only successfully landed two on the fly, with my girlfriend landing one of them! I didn't see many trout rising to the dry fly, but occasionally they would rise..give it a look...then forget about it. Then we switched over to powerbait and corn...the oldest trick in the book. I caught a decent sized rainbow with this method. We could not have asked for a more beautiful day! On a different note we found time to visit the hatchery and check out some of the trophy fish! Kristen found it very entertaining to feed them, and I admit...so did I!

Little Brookie

Holy Mackerel

King Mackerel (Charleston, SC)

Spanish Mackerel (Charleston, SC)

I didn't become fond of fishing in my early age like most fishermen. I became curious of the sport as I got older. Some of my first fishing trips in my beginning years of high school live bait trolling for Mackerel. Trolling with live bait is a lot different than dragging dead baits. When trolling with live bait the boat is barely moving forward to give the bait the ability to look alive to the massive predators beneath it. Large King Mackerel are usually loner fish (aka smokers because they are only good to eat if they are smoked).

My Set Up

I have 3 different fly fishing set ups. My first set up is a bass pro shop set up (White River, 4 weight reel on a White River 4 weight rod) this combo was only around 90 dollars for the whole set up. This is a great set up for a beginner fly fishermen. Now I just use this for pond fishing for brim or bass on small top water plugs. My second set up is my saltwater set up. I have a G Loomis Venture 7 reel with 8 weight line on it, and a bass pro hobbs creek three piece eight weight rod. My trout fishing set up begins with a the rod from bass pro...it is a 4 piece hobbs creek 5 weight, and to go along with the rod I have a Orvis Battenkill Mid-Arbor Reel II with 5 weight line on it.