12 Foothills Meeting: Clarkesville Library - 178 E. Green Street

03 The Fly Fishing Show- Atlanta, GA February 3-5 2023: Gas South Convention Center

09 Foothills Meeting: TBD

18 Rabun Rendezvous - Dillard House, Dillard, GA

After a two year absence due to COVID, the Rabun Chapter is back to hosting the (in)famous Rabun Rendezvous! The 2023 Rendezvous will have all the familiar Dillard House food, fellowship, bluegrass music, raffle and auction items that have made past events so much fun. This year the Rabun Rendezvous will be held Saturday, Feb 18. You and your Chapter members are invited to the Rendezvous!

Georgia Trout Camp  

The Georgia Trout Camp was founded in 2004 by the GA Council of Trout Unlimited.  

Chairman Charlie Breithaupt, Secretary Kathy Breithaupt, and Executive Committee member 

and owner of the Atlanta Fly Fishing School, Mack Martin, proposed the idea to the GA Council 

Executive Committee in September of 2003. A unanimous decision was made to support the 

Camp financially and philosophically.   

The mission of our Camp is to introduce boys and girls ages 13-15, to Trout Fishing and 

Coldwater Conservation ideals. Our Camp is a six-day overnight camp, and we are housed at 

Tallulah Falls School in Tallulah Falls, GA. We skipped 2020 due to Covid concerns and had a 

weekend camp in 2021. In 2022 it was business as usual with our typical 6-day 5-night camp.  

The camp is supported financially by the GA Council of Trout Unlimited, private donors, 

and camper tuition. We have made every effort to keep our costs reasonable for the campers.  

Our tuition which includes room and board, transportation, and equipment is $700. The cost 

per camper does not cover the expenses, so we supplement our finances with our Fly-Fishing 

Dream Trip raffle that we have held successfully since 2005. 

https://go.tulocalevents.org/georgia-tu-dream-trip 

We accept 12 campers and average about 30 volunteers. Since 2004 we have graduated 

over 400 young conservationists and anglers. We also enjoy our Young Mentors. These are 

select Camp graduates who would like to return to camp for a mentoring experience. Our 

volunteers are TU members (who have an approved background check) who are invited to join 

us during the day, and spend the night in the dorm, as space allows. Meals are included.  

Our curriculum includes: Casting, Knot Tying, Fly Tying, Stocking the River or Stream 

with the Department of Natural Resources, Stream Entomology, Stream Etiquette, Reading the 

Water, Conservation Work with the US Forest Service and GA DNR, Equipment and 

Maintenance, Camaraderie, Fun and Fishin’! 

To learn more about our Camp and/or apply go to www.georgiatu.org and click on the 

“Education” tab.  

 

See you on the River!  

 

Kathy  

 

Kathy Breithaupt, Ph.D. 

Chairman, GA Council of Trout Unlimited  

Our goal is to sell at least 2,000 tickets = $20,000.  Each Chapter will receive $3.00 per ticket sold.

The Project Healing Waters group usually meets the 1st & 3rd Wednesdays, 2nd & 4th Tuesdays and virtual meetings 1st & 3rd Saturday of each month at the American Legion Post #7 in Gainesville, Georgia.(2343 Riverside Drive, Gainesville, GA 30501).

As the weather warms and the rains hopefully fall, they will start offering some fishing opportunities. They have a great group and good time at their meetings. All Veterans are invited.

This program could not be offered to our Veterans without the support of the Foothills TU Chapter, the Gold Rush TU Chapter and Unicoi Outfitters. They have really began to grow in numbers and programs because of all of the hard work by the volunteers who are TU members.

For more info: contact Deborah Scott

https://www.facebook.com/deborah.scott.391

Dear Bruce, Foothills Trout Unlimited Board of Directors and Chapter Members:

As you can imagine, the past few years have been challenging years for Casting for Recovery Georgia. Due to Covid-19, CfR Nationwide made the difficult decision to cancel all retreats in 2020. In 2021, with lots of safety precautions put into place, the Georgia program was successfully able to hold one retreat last November. In May of this year, we were able to hold another retreat for any woman with any diagnosis of breast cancer. All of the women who attended those retreats told us how important and meaningful their retreat experience was, especially after so much isolation due to the pandemic. They were grateful to be able to share their experiences and seek advice from other women with breast cancer diagnoses, as well as our wellness team, including oncologists, social workers and a registered dietician, all experienced in working with breast cancer survivors. We are so grateful for all of our dedicated volunteers & supporters who helped make these retreats happen.

Now we are actively preparing to hold our last retreat of the year and our 1st retreat for women with a diagnosis of metastatic stage IV breast cancer since 2019. CfR Georgia started hosting 2 retreats per year in 2016 but due to Covid vulnerability, the decision was made to postpone metastatic specific retreats. Casting for Recovery now has a National medical advisory board, responsible for keeping us with all things Covid and making recommendations for retreat safety.

There is no cure for breast cancer. Women with a metastatic stage IV breast cancer diagnosis know that their time is limited but they don't know what that time frame is or what their health will be during that time. They want the opportunity to experience a week-end, free of the day-to-day challenges of balancing family & work and still finding time for themselves.

Costs for our retreats are increasing each year, especially for lodging and food services. We have been limited in our fundraising efforts over the past few years since we have not been able to hold any person-to-person events. We are relying on our generous donors and supporters to help us fund our retreats.

The Foothills Chapter of Trout Unlimited has been a generous donor in years past and we ask again this year, that you give consideration to making a donation to Casting for Recovery Georgia's program to provide FREE week-end retreats for more women. Donations can be made at www.castingforrecovery.org or by sending a check to our National office at the Bozeman, MT address below. Please be sure to specify "Georgia" in your donation.

If you would like additional information about Casting for Recovery, you can go to the website: www.castingforrecovery.org or feel free to contact me. Also, please feel free to share this information with the other members of the Foothills Chapter of Trout Unlimited.

We sincerely appreciate your consideration in supporting Casting for Recovery Georgia.

Beverly

Beverly Booth

Co-Program Coordinator, Casting for Recovery - Georgia

M 678.480.8052

PO Box 535, McCaysville, GA 30555-0535

National Office:

109 E. Oak St., Ste 1G

Bozeman, Montana 59715

888.553.3500

The Upper Chattahoochee Chapter of Trout Unlimited's project on Crayfish Creek may reach it's goal by the end of the year, but they are not there yet. Numerous hours of volunteers have been logged to remove two old culverts and cleanup of both invasive plants and debris have occurred.

A contractor has been selected to cleani up the degraded banks, but additional funds are needed to get to that remaining estimated cost budget. As of right now $180,000 of the estimated $200,000 has been raised. The finish line is right there and they are so close, so we hope you'll consider donating.

But wait, there's more. There are going to be some volunteer opportunities this fall to assist with the project, so please also consider donating some of those incredible muscles you built up during the COVID shutdown.

One more thing, spread the word about this wonderful grassroots project. This project is but a small example of what this country's foundation has been built on. It's the small ideas put on by the people that get traction from the smallest places and builds into some of the greatest things you've ever been part of. Please spread the message about the wonderful effort to save and protect one of the few spawning areas for brown trout along the Chattahoochee River.

The Georgia Council of TU forwarded on a request from the UGA 5 Rivers club. If you have any extra equipment laying around that you wish you could get it to someone who can use it, check out this letter.

Did you know that you can make on-line purchases and designating our TU as a charity to receive a donation from Amazon as part of the purchase?

To access amazon for the charitable donation you need to go to this link. Your purchase will generate a donation to Foothills TU. Go to the attached link and then save it to your favorites bar and each time you access it and purchase the donation goes automatically goes to us.

We got this message from our good friend Dredger (aka Jeff) who now takes all the good spots on the streams during the week, but its for good reasons so you get get the most up to date fishing reports.

Are you new to town? New to fishing? A terrible fisher?

Fear not, help is available thanks to the Georgia DNR.

Below are a few links to get you started on your way to becoming a professional fisherman or fisherwoman.

Fishing Report: https://georgiawildlife.wordpress.com/category/fishing/

Reservoirs:

Trout:

Follow GA DNR:

You can also check out NGTO for Dredgers Weekly Fishing Report"

The DH season is officially open in North Carolina. Remember to check the regulations before you go.

Hopefully the holidays were good to you and you were able to wet a line, albeit some of the water like up at Vogel State Park turned a bit solid on top around Christmas. So far, 2023 is shaping up to be a good year. The Dawgs are back to back champions and we received some much needed rain to recharge our streams a bit. While the temps were great for fishing, levels were down, so it was really needed for our water table.

There are still a few bigger streams that are carrying a stain and those might get stirred up again after tomorrow's rain, depending on how much we get. That last bump had 3-5" of rain in most of our NE Georgia area, so it won't take much to get them back up. Keep an eye on those gauges before you make the drive to places like the Chattooga or Nantahala. Smith Creek is generally a reliable fall back, but even that was unfishable last week. If in doubt, give a local fly shop a call and they'll help you out. Flies to keep in mind for those DH haunts are junk in the stain/higher water times and dropping back to midges or similar smaller presentations when things clear up.

If you're into winter fishing, then this is a must have. This is a main staple in the trout's diet once the cold weather hits. This fly is super easy to tie and ready for a variety of colors, although I lean towards a black version and a red version. I'll say the only problem I have with this fly is that it has become increasingly harder to see to tie on as the years move on. I'd recommend getting some cheap reading cheaters from your local store or those flip down magnifiers that go on your hat. Don't be fooled though by the size of the fly. Big fish will eat midges and have caught the majority of my big trout in the winter on midges than the other flies in my box.

If you haven't looked at the website lately, check it out. It is up to date and packed full of new information. Check us out. It's where we post all of our information and updates about chapter meetings, projects, fishing outings and any other items pertaining to Foothills.

Also, for even more up to date information, check out our Facebook page. Our Facebook page editor, Ted Jones, does an excellent job at adding new information almost every day. Be sure to "Like" it and share with your friends.

Thank you for your interest in the Georgia Foothill Chapter of Trout Unlimited. We are always looking for new members from the area to join us, so please tell a friend and have them join us at our next meeting.