The Toccoa Tailwater is fishing well. Rain from earlier this week blew out the river for a couple of days, but things should be returning to normal. Don’t let adverse weather conditions deter your fishing and dress appropriately. We’re primarily looking for that bigger bite and fish this time of year with streamers and nymphing bigger stonefly patterns and wooly buggers, but your traditional tailwater fare of junk, pheasant tails, rainbow warriors, and lighting bugs should all produce. Keep some caddis and BWO dries on hand in case a hatch comes off.
For those of you that want to throw streamers, bring 6-8 weights rigged with floating and intermediate fly lines with 12-20lb fluorocarbon leaders. For flies, we recommend throwing a variety of colors, weights, and varying fly actions to see what the fish like. A good place to start is with two or three colors of Galloup’s Dungeon, Strolis’ Ice Pick, and a couple smaller streamers like sparkle minnows and medium sized buggers. Vary your retrieve and cast past your target just like you would while nymphing. This style of fishing is about quality over quantity and takes a lot of perseverance for success, so plan on committing and fish like every cast is going to have big results.
The Toccoa Delayed Harvest is still going strong. Try all the typical junk flies like y2k’s, san juan worms, and mop flies, but vary your approach – these fish have seen a lot of the same stuff for the last month, so sometimes it doesn’t hurt to throw the one thing in your box that you’ve never seen or tried. We like to throw El Diablos, Tungstones, and anything natural with a hot spot, so soft hackle hare’s ears with orange bead heads etc.
Small streams should be fishing well. I fish dry-dropper rigs almost year round on these creeks because it provides a great way to cover most of the water column efficiently as well as make good drifts delicately. I like smaller chubby cherynoybls, foam PMX’s, and stimulators as my dries and trail them with a stonefly imitation like a small pat’s rubber legs or tungstones. A black or olive Wooly Bugger is also a surefire way to catch fish.
Check the generation schedule before you plan your trip! We do not recommend that you float the Etowah if Allatoona dam is releasing water. We do not recommend wading the Toccoa if the TVA is releasing water. Check the release schedules and be safe!
Toccoa River Delayed Harvest flows
Allatoona Dam Release Schedule- (706) 334-7213
Cartersville Shop: (770) 606-1100
Blue Ridge Shop: (706) 946-3044