Guided Fly Fishing in West Georgia

                 FLINT RIVER SHOAL BASS  -  CHATTAHOOCHEE STRIPERS

                     LARGEMOUTH BASS & BREAM LAKES - GAR & CARP

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2012 Fishing Reports

May 28 - Joel and I hit a local pond this morn for a quick memorial day celebration. Big bass were willing to join the festivities.

For a change of pace, Joel tried my new 5' "half-weight" TFO Finesse rod on some big bluegill.

May 25 - `Fished with old friend and long-time customer Bob C. today. Even better, Molly came along too. We spanked the fish all day long.

May 17 - `Filmed on the Flint today with a film crew working on a documentary for PBS. It's tough when the camera is rolling, but we got shoal bass and spider lilies which is what they were after. I expect to appear completely stupid in the interview - maybe it won't make the cut.

May 12 - `Back on the Flint today with Steve S. and did we have some fun! Weather was overcast, with a light drizzle through the morn. That was OK though, cause we  kept the stoggies dry and the fish were definitely turned on. We used the kayaks to access a set of shoals that's seldom fished, but almost didn't make it since the fish were all over the spot where we made our first quick stop.

May 11 - Fished the Flint with John today. The shoal bass were in the skinny water and very willing to bust the topwater.

May 5 & 6 - Great weekend in Pawleys Island, SC with Lefty Kreh and Flip Pallot. Saturday was a private clinic with Flip & Lefty for a dozen lucky anglers, then on Saturday Lefty was at the open house for Pawley's Island Outdoors. Everybody had plenty of fun and learned even more.

April 12 - Fished with Bill T. today for skipjack, and we had some fun. Bill was one of my first guide customers back over 15 years ago, and thankfully he keeps coming back. You'll find the archives full of Bill photos, and we've spent many hours laughing over the water with bream and bass banging topwater flies. We returned to Bill's hometown today to expand his fish list to include the skipjack - here's the way to do a homecoming...

April 10 - Fished the Flint today with Doug and his son Russ. Russ had never fished the Flint but he caught on pretty quickly, landing numerous shoalies plus some feisty red-breasts.

April 9 - Fished the Hooch at Columbus today with Scott & Russ. The boys had some fun with those big skipjack.

April 6 - Fished the Hooch at Columbus this morn. On the water at 6 am and found white bass busting on top but no stripers.

Once the sun got up, the skipjack turned on. Is this ever fun - little miniature tarpon that smack the fly , then pull, run and jump like crazy. These are  big skips too - just right for a 3 wt or 4 wt.

April 2 - Fished a new lake with Paul this morn and had a barrel of fun. Bluegill galore, bass busting topwater bugs, and a couple of grass carp for good measure. Mine was bigger but Paul busted the leader in landing it - so here's a photo of his.....

March 31 - `Fished the Hooch at Columbus with long-time customers and pals David and Rex. Weather forecast was iffy, but these guys are anglers so we weren't deterred. Since the river here is lit by the Riverwalk streetlights, we started before well daylight. Usually there's a good striper bite before the sun hits the water. Today was no exception, and Rex was bowed up hard before the sun even started to show. He stuck  two in this run.

Then it started to rain, some drizzle and some pouring, and then it was David's turn. It

By noon, we were pretty much drowned rats and the rain still fell. We had expected a good skipjack bite (I have been catching them good over the last couple of weeks). But the skippies like sunshine and they were slow and scattered so we called it a day since we had put pounds of striped fish in the boat.

March 27 - `Couldn't take the telephone anymore, so I slipped out to the Flint this afternoon about four o'clock. It was my first trip on the Flint this spring and it was everything you could hope. The water levels were perfect, and the shoal bass busted the topwater. 

March 25 - Fished the Hooch at Franklin with Bob & Paul. It was a tough day with only white bass for these exceptional anglers.

After an early gang-buster start, I think this run has fizzled for the year.

March 18 - After church this morn, Judy rewarded my attendance by accompanying me to the lower Hooch for a scouting trip. She scored her first skipjack on the fly.

And then, like a good wife, left the big ones for me...

March 17 - Sam fished the Hooch below West Point with me a couple of weeks ago and came back to try the fish above the lake today. Unlike the day before yesterday, they were a bit fickle today but Sam still managed to find the white bass.

March 15 - The water above West Point has cleared and the fish are back on.  Joel spanked the white bass...

 And even better, the big hybrid and stripes came out to play.

March 6 - Unfortunately, the fishery above West Point Lake got blown out with the heavy rains at the end of last week. Fortunately, the water was still clear below West Point and the some fish were willing, if not easy. Here's Sam with a big hybrid from the 16,000cfs flow...

And here's one of Tom's late in the day...

February 29 - Headed back to the river this afternoon to make sure yesterday wasn't a fluke. It was no fluke. The whites seemed to have gotten thicker overnite, and even better the stripers showed today. I put this one in the boat and had one at least as big come unbuttoned.

February 28 - Slipped out with my friend Paul this afternoon to see if the white bass are showing up in the river above West Point Lake. They have and we managed to boat about a dozen in a couple of hours, plus a spot and a kamikaze bluegill.

February 16 & 17 - I was in NC for the Fly Fishing Show in Raleigh, NC and then worked my way across to Harkers Island for a casting clinic with the Cape Lookout Fly Fishing Club. Two of the members were kind enough to invite me along to do a little fishing, so we hit the Neuse River about daylight on Thursday. Chuck piloted and Albert (aka, the "Striper Whisperer") directed us to his favorite honey hole. Sweet indeed, as we were hooked up to doubles within minutes of dropping the anchor. These "down east" boys like their light-weight fly rods, so  we were fishing 3 wt and 4 wt rods with intermediate lines. - mucho fun!

Friday morn we planned to chase shad up the river, but since dawn broke with a heavy cloud cover, we elected to hit Albert's honey hole again for a few minutes. It was a good call. Here's Albert with a 3-wt rockfish...

As the sun started to break through the clouds, we headed up river to look for shad. It's a couple of weeks early for the thick of the run, but we managed to find a dozen or so anyhow. Here's one that Big Chuck stuck...

January 27 - `Got a little busman's holiday with my buddy Paul. West Point Dam was blowing water at the tune of almost 20,000 cfs, so we hit the lower river to see if all the current had the hybrids and stripers excited. It did and they were...

January 6 - Fished the lower Chattahoochee today with David P. David and I have have been fishing together for many years now and it's always a treat. I first met David years ago before he moved to GA for a job at Emory - a friend arranged a float trip on the Flint for us. I think it helped ease the transition from Colorado. Since then,, David's become a serious fan of our warm-water fish as he's fished the Hooch, the Flint and Callaway numerous times with me since that first day. Today was another good one - not a huge number but including this fat 14-lb striper...

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