My Fishing Reports - September 97
Unless otherwise mentioned, these reports are for West Point Lake. They are colored by my personal preferences ( I guess most are). No reports on live-bait or deep-water fishing (I fish almost exclusively with a fly rod - usually shallow water), no reports that include far-flung locations on the lake (unlike some "bass-masters" on the lake I don't like to "set the water on fire" while racing from one spot to another), and no catfishing reports (`though I'm dying to catch one of those big carp on a fly).


9/27 - North Georgia
.....am.... Chattooga River, West Fork - With friend, started at first light and fished from Overflow Rd. bridge upstream - even with recent rains, water stiil low enough for relatively easy wading and quite clear. Caught several rainbows & browns, usually in deeper runs, with hare's ear nymph, wooly-worm (in both black and yellow), and on elk hair caddis. The caddis took most fish after it had sunk - don't know if this was indicative or not.

.....pm.....Sarah's Creek - Was staying friend's cabin in Clayton and he wanted to see other nearby streams, so we decided to make a quick stop at Sarah's Creek and move on (as it turned out, we didn't move on). With rains and bad weather so far this week, I thought it might not be as crowded as usual. For those who don't know Sarah's, it's quite small, very pretty, and normally very crowded with campers and fishers. Today, it was even smaller(with water way down) and even prettier (with only a couple of campers and no fishers!).

We found fish in pods, laying in runs in water 8 - 18" deep. They were spooky, but would rise to drys and also took nymphs(if you were concealed and the cast didn't spook `em). Oh, and are they fun to hook in water like this. Most were only 8-12", but my theory is that true fish size (not pounds or inches, but fun) is inversely proportional to the size of the water in which they're caught. Under this theory, these fish were comparable to 5-10 lb bass in a lake!

Once I was spotting as partner cast. I was behind a tree not 10' from the fish he was casting to - there were two of them, good-size rainbow almost side-by-side in a gentle run about 8" deep. The creek here was maybe 6' wide. His first cast was slightly wide and floated just outside their feeding lane on my side of the creek. The fish seemed to ignore the fly, and then, as it floated by he must have decided he liked the looks of it. With a quick flick of his tail, he u-turned and came after the fly, chased it about 12" and took it like a bass on a popper - mouth agape and fins splashing the surface. What a sight - I've never seen a take like this.

There are fish who live in my dreams - a leaping snook in the Everglades, a big brown trout up near Burrel's Ford, a couple of largemouth (one landed, one not), a school of probably thousands of hybrid churning an acre of water on West Point, and a big seatrout (?? - I never saw it tho' it was on for 5 minutes) off a culvert pipe draining a marsh at Cape San Blas. This little rainbow will join that group, and may well be my favorite. He had us laughing out loud on the bank of of this little creek.

Sarah's Creek has changed a lot since I was last there several years ago, with main-made structure and by beaver work. There is a large beaver dam and pond only a short way above the first camping area - we took fish out of it, too, though backcasts are akin to threading a needle. The fish there took a yellow wooly-worm as I slowly stripped it in.

Maybe it's time to go back and revisit a few more of those old, neglected fishing spots.


9/23 - 7pm- Yellow Jacket Creek - With buddies, caught scattered hybrid throwing to swirls and blindcasting in cove. Only occassional schools. They used roostertails & thing w/popping cork; I threw lead-eye, white #1/0 clouser minnow w/fly rod. Took one nice spot on rocky point w/ clouser. Moved to McGee, but no action there.

9/21 - 6 am - Yellow Jacket Creek - 1 nice largemouth shallow point before light. As it got light, began to notice scattered surface swirls all over creek mouth - by good light, hybrid were coming up all over. By 7:30 several hybrid schools had herded on shad into a cove - with another boat we caught many for about 1.5 hours. Good fish - almost all were 2 to 3 pounds. They were catching `em on roostertails; I used lead-eye, white #1/0 clouser minnow. The key for most fish was to let fly/lure sink quite a bit before beginning retreive, though occassionally they'd get `em right up on the bank (bashing shad onto the sand). Oooooeee!!!

9/16 - 7 am - main river & Yellow Jacket Creek - Took spots and one small white (plus one large catfish - they're actually kinda fun on a fly rod) of shallow flat - no hybrid. At dusk, many spots (some good size) of long rocky point in creek channel. All fish took orange/white #2 clouser minnow.

9/13 - Highlands, NC- 7 pm - While I fished Chattooga this morn, my brothers-in-law played golf and returned with tales of small lake on the course filled with very large trout, but fishable only after 7 pm. So you know where I was at 6:55! And my in-laws were right - many rainbows to 36" visible as they cruised the bottom. Unfortunately, I could arouse no interest from these big guys, but did take two of younger brothers (18" & 23") on yellow weighted wooly-worm; my brother-in-law took about a 19" on a spinner. Highland Country Club combined with my experience at Callaway Gardens (see 8/10). is giving me a new attitude toward golf courses!!

The lakes at Highland CC are fishable only by members & guests during posted hours (except the dam area on the big lake on the road). The lake we fished was well off the road, and very small.

By the way, if you're in Highlands and looking for a fly shop, forget the Stream-Born Angler. I stopped in this afternoon and asked for fishing recommendations. The guy behind the counter was rude and surly as he said he would'nt recommend fishing anywhere (what a butthead!). When I asked he why, he said the water was so low this time of year, the fishing was lousy. When I told him that wasn't necessarily the case, as I had caught about 20 fish on the west fork of the Chattooga that morn, he withdrew further into his sulk. I understand there is a good fly shop in town, but it's not this one!

9/13 - Chattooga River (West Fork)- 7 am - Waded up river from Holcombe Creek Road bridge - water way down & made for easy wading. Took about 20 trout, 9-14", primarily on #14 elkhair caddis and # 12 black wooly-worm. Never fished the West Fork a lot, but with water down it was great!

9/11- 6:45pm - main river channel - Fishing w/friend - only a couple of hybrid schools far off & down quickly. Caught 1 largemouth, many spots and a couple of small whites in shallows. Shad out in thousands and very spooky late, but we couldn't find fish.

9/9- 6:30pm - main river channel - This will be short report, as my arm is still sore. Fished w/2 buddies last nite on large flat adjacent river channel ("Hybrid Point"). About 7:45 the hybrid came in - they caught `em on roostertails & popping corks, I caught `em on green/white clouser on sinking line. Good fish up to 19" in 8-10' of water , and even shallower. Oh, my arm...

9/7- 7am - Yellow Jacket Creek & river channel - Cool, 59 last nite. Two spots on long point in YJ on clouser. Down river to McGee - no schooling, but a few fish swirling bait on top. Saw fish in shallow pushing a huge wake (he was big)- just out of casting range, of course. Moved into cove - took 3 largemouth very shallow on white 1/0 popper - one laying just off roadbed was 19.5". On way out of cove saw schoolies up & took 2 14" hybrid.

9/4- 6pm - Yellow Jacket Creek & river channel - Spot schoolies on long rocky point in YJ. Down river to old McGee Rd shoal - scattered hybrid on top w/ some 16" - took green popper. Saw big school over channel - down by the time we got there but took 3 (one was 18") on white clouser minnow. At dusk moved to long shallow point and took assorted spots, lm & hybrid til dark.

9/2- 6pm - Yellow Jacket Creek & river channel - Tried deep cove up YJ Creek - no action. Moved down river to McGee flats - hybrid up and staying there - half dozen boats all catching good fish. They went down and stayed about 7:45, so I fished shallows near bank for strays - took 2 nice spots & 17" largemouth with #2 green popper. Right at dusk, found hybrid again on Hybrid Point (actually found `em accidentally fishing bank for lm's) - they weren't coming to surface, but would take my popper - caught `em til dark.

9/1- 6:30 am - Yellow Jacket Creek - 19" largemouth and 2 more good ones off riprap at bridge - they were tight to bank and took 1/0 white popper. Out from rocks I caught smaller spots but largemouth were within 18" of bank. Moved to long rocky point - hybrid (small) and spots schooling all over (little wind and, surprisingly, very few boats). Took many on #2 green ("if it ain't chartreuse, it ain't no use" - Lefty) popper. Moved down river to Hybrid Point - no schooling so fished into sheltered cove and took 18" largemouth in shade near old ramp in about 3' of water. By noon traffic was up to yesterday's level - I went home.



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