Time for Delayed Harvest Fishing

Outdoors

Yes, it’s hard to believe, but another Delayed Harvest (DH) season is here upon us. Most of the DH waters are marginal at best. This means that the trout will more than likely not survive during the warmer water of summer months. This allows many anglers to practice catch and release during the DH season, and others to harvest these fish once the DH season ends. It is a win-win situation for many anglers!North Carolina’s DH season opened October 1st, 2014 and continues through June 5th, 2015. The NC Wildlife Commission stocks many streams during Oct and Nov, and again from Mar-May. Georgia’s DH season begins November 1st, 2014 and continues through May 14th, 2015. The DH sections of these waters in both states are marked with signage. Anglers fishing DH waters must release all trout immediately and use and possess only artificial lures with one single hook per lure. This means no nature bait, no scented bait, and no treble hooks as used on many spinning lures like Roster Tails and Mepps. See the Fishing Regulation for complete information about these waters and their rules.

North Carolina has over thirty waters listed in their DH program. Matter of fact, you can make the drive to three different streams from Ellijay in 1 ½ hours or less. Georgia has only five waters listed for their DH program. They are Amicalola Creek, Chattahoochee River, Chattooga River, Smith Creek and the Toccoa River. Both states stock these waters heavily with trout. I mean hundreds and hundreds of trout are planted for an angler’s enjoyment. Sometimes, it can be like catching fish from a barrel. We even get the prized – Brookies placed into some of these waters!

Early in the DH season, these fish will be in pods after stocking has taken place. It is not unheard of to catch 10 even 20 fish from one large pod. These pods will slowly disappear as the fish move and spread out more. A week or two into the season and you can begin catching them in feeding lanes and other normal holding areas. A big rain event can help spread these fish out as well.

As a guide, I still like using traditional fly patterns. But, there is no denying that fresh stocked trout will devour about anything, especially bright, flashy colored flies. A simple setup to search the water with is a standard dry/nymph rig. Tie a 12” to 24” piece of tippet off the bend of the dry fly hook and then place a nymph at the end. This rig allows you to use the dry as a surface fly as well as an indicator. And the nymph being subsurface where trout feed about ninety percent of the time!

Dries can be Stimulators, Caddis, Mayflies, and so on in sizes 12-16. Droppers (or nymphs) can be naturals too with the likes of a Hares Ear, Pheasant Tail, Prince, and so on in sizes 14-18. DH fish do not mind chasing streamers or Wooly Buggers in sizes 8-12 that are line stripped across current, or giving a reaction strike to other items like San Juan Worms, Squirmy Worms or other junk flies like colored eggs or Y2Ks. Remember, these fish early in the season will just about strike a bare hook even though I haven’t personally tried that yet! Stockers don’t stay uneducated for too long as anglers begin pounding them. As the season rolls on, it may be necessary to remain more on the traditional smaller flies. It will not hurt to have some smaller patterns like rainbow warriors or midges in sizes 18-22.

We made a trek up to North Carolina to test one of their DH waters. We fished Fires Creek on October 6th to check on how the NC Wildlife Commission was coming along with their program. Fish were still in pods but fun when you found them. Water temperature was 51 degrees. We found many pods along the 1-mile plus stretch of the DH water. By now, the trout should be spread out more and the fishing more enjoyable throughout.

The Toccoa Tailwater has been warm and murky due to Lake Turnover. This is coming close to the end (we hope) and we will resume our float trips around the middle of October. We are looking forward to many more good trips down the river! We also offer float trips through the Toccoa DH section as well.

Contributed By: James Bradley
Reel’em In Guide Service

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