The Toccoa River is often called Georgia’s best trout river. I don’t know if this is entirely true, but I have had some great success, and great trips on this river.
One of the things I like about this river is the diversity of the water. I have had equal success on the headwaters, and the tailwaters. I have also taken many visiting anglers to this river, and have found it a great place to teach beginners, and give more advanced anglers the shot at some big fish.
Overall, it’s a great river, and recently, I had a great trip on it.
Best Flies To Use
Well, this is an interesting time of year, and also, an interesting year as far as rainfall. We’ve been fairly dry, so the river is a bit low.
This isn’t all together a bad thing, but, it does mean that if you are headed to the Toccoa River, most of your trout fishing will take place early in the morning, or later in the day.
On my most recent trip, I had great success in the morning fishing an Olive Wooly Bugger with a Pink San Juan worm dropped about 15-18 inches underneath.
I also had great success fishing the Elkwing Caddis. I didn’t use a dropper at all on this fly—the Caddis was enough.
Other patterns that are working include the Zebra Midge, and the Copper John. Deep nymph fishing is very effective in the deep runs of the river, especially on the headwaters.
Red Eye Bass
When the sun gets high, you will find the trout fishing gets pretty tough. This was the case on my recent trip. Don’t let this discourage you!
When this starts to happen, I think it’s a great time to start bass fishing.
Bring along some streamers, definitely bring some Clouser Minnows, and bring along your eyes. You will find bass, specifically Red Eye Bass, hiding in the shoals, on the bottom right near the rocks.
They will be out of the current, and feeding on smaller fish like trout fingerlings, bait fish, and even tadpoles.
I put some split shot on my leader to sink my Clouser, and get that thing in those rocks. You will need to watch out for hang ups, but the reward is there. Red Eye Bass fight hard, and are a lot of fun to catch.
This could be a great pattern to use not just in this river, but in your own local river where shoals are present.
All told, the fishing was great on the Toccoa recently, and it should continue to be.
See ya on the water…