I woke up early Saturday morning and decided to wet a line on the Toccoa DH for an hour before the TU meeting. It was cold: 32 degrees when I hit the river at 8:00. I didn't have a coat and the water was high. I tied on a small ugly green bugger and roll casted my 5 weight from 3-4 different locations. I ended up with a handful in an hour. All rainbows and fat. The next morning I went through the same routine with a couple to hand. I covered a lot more water. I was surprised the fish were not in the lower sections where I expected them. I'm sure they'll spread out over the next week.
As far as the TU meeting, I learned some interesting information on the Toccoa tailwater. They shocked up a 14 pound brown during a recent survey. They found the fish numbers down a little, but the browns are doing well. The tailwater is pretty good for brown trout, with about 10% surviving, with some reproduction suspected. The rainbows, on the other hand, do not thrive in the tailwater, with an estimated 1% surviving after stocking. The brook trout simply disappear within a few weeks of stocking. Angler frustration over catch rates recently is probably the result of less stocking over the last year or two. A few years ago they were stocking around 40k trout. This year it's been closer to 26k. Also, brown trout are tougher to catch, so even though the browns seems to do pretty well in the river, people aren't catching them like they would a rainbow, and hence, less angler satisfaction.
