Photo Essay: Tour de Georgia
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Hey guys –
Well we haven’t slayed them and the biggest fish I’ve caught was a gar, but I probably haven’t had this diverse a weekend of fishing since I got back from Brazil.
On Friday I hit the Flint River with Richie Foster and Kent Edmonds. That was actually my first time to pay a guide myself, and it was totally worth it. Kent did an excellent job educating us about shoal bass, which is what I was paying for, and in the mean time I managed to catch two longnose gar on the fly, which has always been a goal of mine. (All credit again to Kent on those guys).
The Flint as the sun rises; one of the only undammed rivers of its size in the Southeast.
The red dirt of Georgia with Kent and Richie getting ready.
A typical shoal bass.
Kent’s gar fly, which we nicknamed the Bitch Slap.That was Friday. That evening Ian Crabtree showed up at the house, so Saturday we floated the Toccoa with James Buice. It was an off day; lots of sediment in the river, but James and Ian still caught a few fish (I was striking out, so I volunteered to row us about the last half of the section).
Obligatory IA Food Shot.
James reading the tea leaves.
The only fish we got photographed, but not the nicest of the day. James had a probably 3 lb. rainbow to the raft but it popped off as I was going for the camera.
Hahaha, putting their lives in my hands.So, this morning I am about to go downstairs and clean out the canoe. Ian, Lauren and I are going to float the Chattahoochee through Atlanta and try to add some trout, striper, and more shoal bass to the count for the weekend. Stay tuned.
Zach
Edit: I changed the title here to be less generic.
The water level looks good on the Flint…..I hope it stays that way.
Tell Ian that is a nice Barbeque Sammich Bandito pose! ;D
You guys are going to bake today. It’s suppose to hit 96 in the ATL. Dayam.
Very cool about the gar. My wife and I will be chasing them in the next few weeks on the Lower Illinois. It is amazing to see them school in shallow water and chase around the stockers. Is that fly a nylron rope fly? How hard is it to release the fish?
Ok, so, today was actually a blast despite the conditions basically being terrible. My GPS’ thermometer in the bottom of the boat had us at 113 degrees, which must have been the hot plastic temperature. It was at least in the mid-90s. My integrated striper taper shooting line was getting gummy and sticking to the bottom of the boat.
But, like I said, we actually had a blast. Ian, Lauren and I floated from Johnson Ferry to the 41 bridge takeout on the Hooch – about a 6 mile float. The first third was slow water but it had a lot of carp in it, so we spent time trying to get one of those to eat.
As we entered the Palisades region of bluffs, the crowds of people in inflatable animals picked up. (One large dude was riding an inflatable dragon and appeared too drunk to know where he was any longer). We got to a deep pool that I had marked down as a decent striper hole, and I told Ian this was the striper zone.
He gave me a skeptical look and said, “Isn’t it a little slow?” Really he was right – 95+ degrees in a backwater slough should have had the stripers on the bottom, but I didn’t want to admit that we were basically hosed, so I just bluffed it. 🙂 “No, dude, they like it like this,” (says the guy who has yet to catch a Chattahoochee striper). Shortly after that, I was ready to pack the rig in and paddle on. As I was reeling up, I saw a flash and then watched a spooked 15-20lb. striper scoot under the back end of my canoe (we were both standing in our respective craft, with Lauren playing ghillie for me).
Ian started fishing in earnest then, and a couple minutes later hooked up with and landed a nice 5-7 or so pound striper. He was literally reeling in between tubers and other canoeists.
I went around the bend and caught a decent shoal bass, then it was on down the river so we could get Ian back to Charlotte before midnight.
All in all, a whole ton of fun. I’d like to chase striper in that river when it isn’t burning my butt every time I sat down in my canoe seat, let me tell you.
Zach
As far as the gar goes, I didn’t get a photo because we were more swimming than wet wading at that point and I had left the camera on the shore.
Zach….What’s that fly pattern you are using on the stripers? It looks to be one of Kent’s Stealth Bombers?
Oh, Drifter, you can see the pattern Ian had on in the photo of James “reading the tea leaves” at the top.
Here’s your gar pix, Cameron………..
Flies (bite tippet generally not necessary)
Why the rope fly works
Gamefish!
Zach fights one
Turn `em loose (they’ll leave a little slime)
Or some say they’re good to eat
Kent - FlyFishGA
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