Sunday, September 18, 2011

Toccoa River - Trip Report

September is finally here!  I met up with Doc and we drove to Curtis Switch, arriving at about 4:30 p.m. on Friday.  Two guys were getting out of the river when we arrived, and their report was discouraging.  One guy was a professional bamboo rod maker from Portland, Oregon.  Super nice guys, and beautiful bamboo fly-rods.  We put in at the launch and started wading downstream.  I started with a size 12 wolf and a size 20 zebra midge dropper.  Doc went with a similar rig.  We both caught stream chubs at the outset, which is usually a bad sign.   After about 30 minutes, I caught a nice 12 inch brown.  We worked on down river, and I caught another.  The fishing was a little slow at the beginning, when Doc suddenly caught fire, catching a good mix of browns and bows.  I ended up with 10-12 trout, all browns.   Doc caught somewhere between 12-15, with the majority being browns. This was our best trip in a long time.  Doc had luck with a large caddis and a small cream emerger dropper.  I caught fish primarily on size 20 and 22 midges.  The Toccoa has made a remarkable comeback.