Georgia Fly Fishing Blog

Posted By Kent Klewein on August 26, 2010

There’s nothing like driving north for seven hours only to find your planned smallmouth fly fishing trip is a bust when you get their. That’s what the Bent Rod Media boys and I found, the first day we floated the New River. We had received mixed fishing reports both positive and negative before we left for the trip, but decided to move forward with the trip anyhow. Though we didn’t get skunked during our float, the measly dozen bronze-backs we landed forced us to reevaluate our fishing plans the rest of the trip.

New River Smallmouth on the Fly.

When the New River is on, it’s ON! Fifty to hundred plus fish days is not uncommon with a fly rod.  We threw everything at them during our float, but no particular pattern in the end really turned the smallies on. Instead, as we pulled up to the take out the first day, all we could do was debate about what each of us thought created the slow fishing.  Was it the multiple fronts that lead up to the trip, the significant water level drop during out float, or the fact that every fish we did catch was completely gorged to the max.  I guess we’ll really never know, but one things for sure, I’m really happy we decided to change our game plan to wild trout fishing for the remainder of our trip.

So our second day, we moved locations and I got the pleasure of being introduced to a fantastic wild trout stream loaded with rainbows and browns.  The first day we landed around sixty trout between us, with several of them in the 14-18″ range.  We had our opportunity to land a few in the twenty-inch class during our visit. Those big fish takes however, came on streamers and despite some good hook ups, the big boys failed to end up in the net.

Our third day we finished up around 2:00pm with a trout count around thirty fish.  I won’t say the name of the stream since I’m sworn to secrecy, but supposedly the stream has the fastest trout growth of all streams in the area. It was absolutely amazing to see how healthy and fat the trout were.  For instance, the sixteen inch trout we caught had big thick bodies of twenty plus inch fish.  I”m talking three-to-four inches across the backs…., it was awesome.

Click on the Photos for Larger Views

If we wouldn’t have changed our game plan the second day and stuck out the New River for the remainder of our fishing, the trip could have very well been a complete bust.  However, we adapted to the current fishing conditions, changed locations, and got into some epic wild trout fishing for August.  Next time you find yourself in this situation don’t be afraid to completely change up your fishing itinerary. More than likely it will save your fishing trip.

P.S. That means packing enough gear that will allow you to change species and fish effectively.

Keep it Reel,

Categories: Fly Fishing, Uncategorized
Tags: Bent Rod Media, fly fishing blog, Kent Klewein, Murphy Kane, new river, Reel Job Fishing, Ryan Dunne, smallmouth fishing, wild trout fishing