The fall will once again bring us the reopening of our delayed harvest trout water in Georgia and North Carolina.  These delayed harvest trout streams are great places for fly anglers to catch trout.  Better yet, it keeps the bait fishermen out of the picture for several months for us to enjoy great catch and release trout fishing.  Below is a list of some of the delayed harvest trout water that I like to fish throughout the season.  There are others, but these are the ones I generally concentrate on fishing.

GA DH Water: Amicola Creek, Chattahoochee River, Smith Creek, Upper Toccoa River

NC DH Water: Nantahala River, Tuckaseegee River

I get questions all the time on what fly patterns you should use on delayed harvest water.  Although its more important to be in the right location (where the fish are) and have a good presentation, it does help to have a fly box with the appropriate fly patterns.  For the most part, early on you’ll find most of the trout holding in the deep pools and runs of the streams.  Here, you’ll often find trout stacked up in the slower stretches of water, and fly fishermen can often catch multiple trout in these locations.  As the Delayed harvest season moves on the trout will begin to spread out throughout the stream searching for individual lies that provide a steady stream of food coming down the stream.

Fly Patterns & Rigs

Fly fishermen fishing delayed harvest water should have a well rounded fly box stashed with attractor patterns to natural imitations.  Generally during the colder months a tandem nymph rig is the best producer for catching numbers of trout.  Early in the season it is hard to go wrong rigging up a woolly bugger with a egg pattern or san juan worm trailed behind.  My second favorite rig would be a egg pattern with a soft-hackle trailed behind.  Having a bright attractor and a natural fly pattern following is a deadly combination for delayed harvest trout.  Stripping a flashy streamer or muddler minnow where concentrations of trout are holding can be very successful as well.  Don’t forget to swing your flies at the ends of your drifts.  Quite often the movement of your swinging flies at the end of your drift will trigger strikes.

Later on in the season fly fishermen will need to adjust their tactics and fly patterns to consistently catch trout on the delayed harvest trout streams.  The longer the trout are in the river the more they will have to acclimate to their environment to survive.  This means the trout will have to learn how to distinguish aquatic entomology and prey on the water.  After a while they will start to key in on the abundant aquatic species available on the stream.  Fly anglers will need to start imitating these aquatic bugs with the appropriate fly patterns.  Fly anglers will find during this time that their early season attractor patterns and big nymphs will become less productive.  Fishing more finesse and natural fly patterns will result in more takes.

We hope this will help you become more productive and confident fishing your favorite delayed harvest trout stream.  Fishing delayed harvest trout water is a great choice during the fall and winter months to get into good numbers of trout.  We personally can’t wait to skate a big dry fly over some of those big brookies.  We hope to see you out there on the water.

Keep it Reel,