All of the tickets have been sold for 2021!

Thank you for your support and good luck to those who did.

Proceeds Benefit Georgia TU Coldwater Conservation and Georgia Trout Camp.

No further calendar events

Contact Steve Westmoreland with questions: stevewestmoreland1@gmail.com. Cell-770-403-0609

March 27th - Sweep the Hooch: CRK, NPS, All TU Chapters Welcome

April 3rd - Rock Creek, Murray County: Lead- Coosa Valley. Supports: Blue Ridge Mountain and Cohutta

May 1st - Kids Fishing Day- Rock Creek; TBD

June 5th and 6th - GA Trout Camp: Atlanta Fly Fishing School

July 10th - Lovinggood Creek: Lead- Oconee River. Supports: UGA 5Rivers, Gold Rush, Foothills

July 17th - Wilkes Branch: Lead- Upper Chattahoochee. Supports- Rabun, Savannah River, Middle Georgia

August 14th - Pretty Branch or Cooper’s Creek: Tailwater with Boy Scouts

August 21st - John’s Creek- Floyd County: Lead- Blue Ridge Mountain. Supports- Coosa Valley and Chattahoochee-Nantahala

September 25th - Outdoor Adventure Day: Georgia DNR

SOCIAL CIRCLE, GA

Tuesday, February 16, 2021 - 08:00

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division (WRD) announced today the appointment of Scott Robinson to Chief of Fisheries. Robinson is a longtime employee of the division, most recently serving as Assistant Chief of the Fisheries Management Section.

As chief, Robinson’s responsibilities will include coordinating and managing the statewide fisheries program, development of fisheries management budget, and supervision of Georgia’s public fishing areas. Additionally, he will oversee the drafting of fishing regulations statewide.

“Scott will continue to be a great asset to the Wildlife Resources Division,” said Ted Will, WRD Division Director. “His 25 plus years of service has prepared him to lead the Fisheries Management Section and continue the great work they are doing, and I look forward to seeing his accomplishments in this new position.”

Scott Robinson is a Certified Fisheries Professional, and past-president of the Georgia Chapter of the American Fisheries Society. He worked on state, regional, and national fish habitat conservation issues with the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies for nearly a decade. In addition, he has served as a Fisheries Biologist for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, working in a variety of roles in fish hatcheries, fisheries management, habitat conservation, and aquatic education, and most recently as Assistant Chief of Fisheries where he oversees operations of the state fish hatchery system and aquatic education programs.

Robinson holds a master’s in Fisheries and Wildlife Biology from Clemson University. He is an avid angler and hunter, and currently resides in Covington with his wife and the only “kid” left in the house, the chocolate lab.

For more information on fishing in Georgia, visit https://georgiawildlife.com/fishing/angler-resources or contact a local Wildlife Resources Division office (http://georgiawildlife.com/about/contact).

The Upper Chattahoochee Chapter of Trout Unlimited has an incredible conservation project going on Crayfish Creek a few miles downstream along the Chattahoochee River from Buford Dam just below SR 20. This project is gaining a lot of attention on the local, state and national stages.

This is the kind of project we need to be proud of as fellow Georgia TU members and should be an inspiration of the good that we do and can do in other places. Check out this fantastic project at: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/38658907b7e1480e84deac6ccf52e559

The Project Healing Waters group usually meets the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month at the Oakwood VA Clinic (4175 Tanners Creek Drive, Flowery Branch, GA) at 9:30 AM. Right now, with COVID, everything is halted.

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.

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.

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"

Things are definitely looking up. Vaccinations are hitting the streets, COVID numbers continue (hopefully) to go down and fish are starting to move up in the water column to those chunks of protein sitting in that water film. Those chunks being flying insects.

The warm weather has probably fooled some of us a bit looking to wet wade or encounter aggressively feeding fish. Turns out those nighttime lows have still been keeping the water temperatures down, so many fish are still hunkering down lower in the water column which also included the stocked lakes. As this warm streak continues, those fish will start to look up as more bugs start hatching. Really one of the best setups to fish right now is the dry drop combo. It gives you the option to cover both scenarios, but don't be afraid to add a bunch of weight and dragged a bugger or leach on the bottom There will still be good numbers of fish down low.

For flies, it depends on where you're fishing. Stocking trucks are about to hit the streets and delivering some fresh (never frozen) trout to your local watering hole. Those fish will still be a little too greedy and will pounce the junk flies. The same goes for the DH on fresh stocking, but expect those fish to wise up quick due to heavy fishing pressure. The rest of the more wild and educated fish will be looking for the naturals. Pretty much brown is your choice of color for naturals without getting too specific in flies, but if I had to name only one to use it would be a Hare's Ear. It covers just about every insect we have here and you can just change sizes to match to local buffet choices.

We are finally getting to that point in the year where we can really start relying on a dry fly bite. Here in the South, we are fortunate to have a short winter giving us some of the first dibs at dry fly fishing in the country. Our dilemma here is our insect life isn't as prolific as other parts of the country, so sometimes we end up fishing some smaller sized hatches. Now with age, come the challenges with smaller flies and tying those things on. Sometimes it's just luck getting that tippet through the eye and man, if you can see a size 22 on the surface, then you have some serious peepers. This is where adding the parachute option to your dries helps pick that fly up, even for the keen eyed eagles amongst us. Blue wing olives can be found on many of our local haunts and this fly is just about the perfect option. Do keep a variety of sizes of this fly. I've been on the Toccoa before and they were only keying on one size only and I had none of those. Lesson learned: variety of sizes of effective flies.

For tying instructions: https://howtoflyfish.orvis.com/fly-tying-videos/dry-flies/715-parachute_adams_with_a_twist

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.