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Coldwater

After my trip to North Georgia in May I decided I needed to plan a return trip sometime in the near future.  I didn’t make time for any small stream fishing in May, but I had really been missing the blueline action so I needed to get back that way before it got too cold and the dry fly action shut down.  So a trip back was planned and Blake and I settled on a date in late September.

We made the drive up after work and stopped for supplies on the way.

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We gave ourselves three days to fish and day one was reserved for fishing at the cabin.  After an historic(at least in my life) flood over the winter, the script was flipped, and now North Georgia was dealing with drought-like conditions.  What that meant for us was that the water was low and clear pretty much everywhere we went and had the trout were pretty spooky.  That made for some pretty slow fishing.

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Around lunch time I finally stuck a good fish who absolutely hammered a Turk’s tarantula that I skated at the head of a nice pool.  It was an awesome strike and really surprised as we had only encountered sluggish fish until that point.

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After lunch we decided to head up the road to some smaller water and see how the little wild trout were doing.

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The blue line action was fast and furious.  Our dries were getting bumped in nearly every hole we tried.  That had me pretty excited for the creek we planned to fish the next day, which is one of my favorite small streams anywhere.  We ended the day with some excellent rabbit sauce piquante, courtesy of Blake, and life couldn’t have been any better.

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We were in North Georgia for most of the past six days, spending quality time with my family and I was able to do a bit of fly fishing as well.  The fishing wasn’t as stellar as it has been in years past, but then again I wasn’t in top form either.  Lots of missed hooksets, flies in trees, and too much time spent de-tangling terrible casting decisions.  Low and slow water didn’t help, but was hardly to blame.  Despite all that, there were times everything came together and I landed a few nice fish.

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I always enjoy fishing at the cabin but I think my daughter may have enjoyed playing with her cousins more.  It was a very relaxing trip, but we still found plenty to do beyond fishing and hanging out with family.  Hiking, tubing, catching crickets, four-wheeling, waterfalls, a festival, and a brewery visit – we had a blast.  I cherish every trip we take to Georgia and wish we could make it that way more often.  Huge thanks to Mom and Dad for having us!

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On April 1st the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and Utah Trout Unlimited unveiled their state’s version of the Cutt Slam program made popular by the Wyoming Game & Fish Dept. for the state of Wyoming, with the launch of www.utahcutthroatslam.org.

Here’s a brief description of the program from the site and a video:

“The Utah Cutthroat Slam is a way to have an angling adventure and support our native trout legacy. For jut $20, you can register to embark on the challenge. Money raised will be used to help fund native cutthroat trout conservation projects across the state. Can you catch and release each of the four Utah cutthroat trout subspecies in their native waters?”

 

Cutthroat trout are beautiful, live in pristine environments and are the only trout native to Utah and much of the Rocky Mountain region. Help Trout Unlimited and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources protect this natural treasure.”

 

 

It is very similar to Wyoming’s cutt slam in that you just need to catch the four native cutthroat species of the state in their native waters, document it, and submit that documentation to them.  Utah goes a step further and requires you to register first and asks for $20, which is totally worth it, as $19 of that $20 go toward conservation projects.  It’s really a win-win for everyone.

To get your cutt slam started in the right direction, a map of the watershed areas where you can find each cutthroat species has been provided (embedded below) along with the attached note:

“This map shows general watershed areas where native cutthroat trout occur across Utah. Each shaded area represents the range one of the cutthroat subspecies, which you can determine by color. Use this map as a general guideline to find where cutthroat might be found. This is fishing; there are no guarantees. More research regarding access and specific fishery regulations should be done.”

 

I really enjoyed participating in the Wyoming cutt slam last year.  It was fun doing the research and even more fun putting that research to work and catching each cutthroat species in the span of five days.  I’ll definitely be throwing the Utah cutthroat slam on the short term bucket list, what great motivation to get back out West and toss dry flies to hungry trout.