Pleasant Valley Anglers

Toccoa River 4th Of July Weekend

2011-07-04T12:54:00.000-07:00

Well, its been a long weekend on the Toccoa River. Floated the upper section along with a Tail-water float on Sunday. The upper river is still pretty cool considering how hot it has been and the lack of rainfall. But, water temps were still in the middle ranges of 60dgs. fishing on Saturday on the upper river was a complete washout. If anybody happened to drive out Aska Rd, Newport Rd or Dial Rd knows what I am talking about. But, you really can't expect solitude on a huge holiday weekend. I actually enjoy it somewhat. Sure it messes up the fishing, but it helps show others that there are other methods to fish for trout besides wading public access points. The upper section is producing just about all species of aquatic game fish. The past few trips I've floated down the upper we have caught Shoal Bass, Small Mouth Bass, Bream and Perch along with Trout. The lake draw-down has forced fish way upstream looking from cool water and space to roam. Funny thing is that the non-trout species fish are taking our trout flies both dry and nymphs. Streamers are also effective as one would expect on Bass Species. Its pot luck fishing when your strike indicator sinks and you set the hook only to speculate at what took the fly.
The tail-water was fishing well this past friday according to friend and fellow guide Brad Wayne. Trout were taking terrestrial patterns pretty readily which is awesome coming from a guy who makes a living on the Tail-water fishing small nymph and midge patterns. Floated Sunday from the Blue Ridge Dam down to Hogback ridge RR Trestle area. Like the past few trips I've had on the river, once the sun gets up high and the air temps rise, the fishing dies off until late in the evening.

I'm getting on the water as early as 6:30am in order to beat the heat and get as much time on the water as possible until it gets hot. So far it is working pretty well. Sundays float was not as productive as I would have liked, but we caught fish and pulled few large ones out to boot!

Contact me Jake Darling or John Cross in Helen (706-878-3083) for more info and possibly setting up a float trip. 1/2 day floats are quite a bargain at $275.00 for two rods. Anybody who has floated with me before knows that my 1/2 day trips generally turn into 3/4 day trips. My philosophy is this; If the fish are biting, were staying until they stop. If the fish aren't biting; were staying until they start.

Later

J Byrd

Toccoa is HOT!

2011-06-27T08:44:00.000-07:00

Got to spend the weekend floating the Toccoa Tailwater trying not to melt in the process. This heat is really starting to take its toll on the will get out there. It's funny to think that I am sitting in a boat floating on 60 something degree water yet sweating like a hog. Saturday I got fish with a good friend and guest who I have had the pleasure to row down a river on several occasions. Great fisherman, very knowledgeable and just fun to be around. We shoved off early enough to enjoy the cool morning for as long as possible. The fishing started right off with Jason, Jim's son hooking a few trout within minutes of getting started. It took some patience and perseverance to dial in on what was going to be the "Fly of the Day" but with only a few trips into my flybox we were getting consistent strikes on a Caddis dry with midge dropper and a Parachute Sulpher and midge dropper with the majority of the strikes coming from the dropper. We did manage a few lively top-water strikes from those trout who were looking up. By lunch time I think we landed around two dozen fish, but once the sun was high in the sky and the air temps topped out, the fishing dropped off dramatically. Along with the rise in heat came a decrease in the will to fish! At some point all three of us had gotten out of the boat to cool off in the river. The mornings are nice and the fishing is good during that period, but the afternoon heat sure takes its toll.

Lions and Tigers and Large Trout oh my!

2011-06-26T21:40:00.000-07:00

Thar be'oth big'uns in dat dar river!

Floated the tailwater today and looky what ate our fly.

Memorial Day!

2011-05-29T09:16:00.000-07:00

Floated the upper Toccoa today with friends and frequent guest Jim and his wife Mrs. Jean. Knowing it was a holiday weekend we decided to try to stay away from the popular spots and focus on the path less traveled. That worked for while, but eventually the fellow river lovers were floating by us having fun enjoying the river same as we were.

The fishing wasn't on fire, but we caught fish here and there. Weather was great, the company was great and we caught a few fish to boot! I can't complain about any of that.

Chattahoochee Headwaters

2011-04-23T23:24:00.001-07:00

Due to a slight miss-cue on the guide list for trips on Friday morning, I was left with nothing else to do except……….go fishing. So in the true spirit of an avid angler, I went fishing! In case folks haven’t noticed, there is a little bit a H20 flowing out of the upper hooch watershed. The Bend is looking as good as one can get with the water levels being where they are right now. Won’t hear ANYBODY complaining about that even if it has made wading a bit more…..what’s the word I’m looking for……..sporty!

No Guts; No Glory!

So, for the 22,578^th time I made the turn off of ALT75 onto Popular Stump Rd and made the 2.8mi drive into the WMA. I made my way past all the eye candy water up to the Check in Station to find a parking lot totally empty. Donned the gear and headed up the trail. I actually dropped in right behind the Check-in-Station just to see if anything was hanging around that low. And sure enough after a few drifts I had brightly colored trout tugging on my line. I didn’t get to fish as hard as I usually do and skipped around a lot, but hooked a couple dozen trout and landed about 2/3rds of them. Had a nice fish absolutely explode on my strike indicator that really surprised me. There is a good number of fish up there. Not as easily fooled by the standard San Juan Worm and Egg Pattern rigs I started off with as I had figured, but with some tweaking I landed with a three nymph rig that caught fish pretty steadily until noon when I had to leave.

Lots of water, it has been a while since I’ve crossed in waist deep water up there. Hope it holds on through the summer!

2010-11-09T17:11:00.001-08:00

Hello Folks,

It’s been a while since I have been able to post any new fishing stories. I’ve been fishing, but I have mainly focused my time and energy into my new family member.

But, recently (11/6) I floated the Toccoa DH on one of the coldest days I’ve fished this season. Fishing was sort of slow with the mid part of the day being the most productive. Meat –n- Tater flies still fooling fish.

The new stretch of Mountain Town Creek; Mountain Town Plantation is a special place. The quintessential North Georgia trout stream and it has all the fixings! Pocket water, fast riffle sections, deep slow pools, long shallow runs, you name it, Mountain Plantation has it. Look out NCF, MTP is beginning to change my opinion about where I go to get away. It’s absolutely packed with hungry trout and the opportunity to fish for them over a variety of common situations.

I’ve had a few trips on the Tuckasegee DH this fall since it opened, and it finally gave me a good trip last week. Jim C. and I floated it Friday October 27th after the rains that finally lifted the water level up to “Just Floatable”. Steadily caught fish all day hooking and fighting a 20”+ Brown that Jim winched to the boat once before making a power run that ended up in the trout’s favor. But, I know where he is!

All in all, it has been a good fall. Especially since the heat has subsided and we are finally able to wet our lines in water lower than 70dgs. Next trip will be the newly reborn Toccoa River to see how the fishing is.

Till Then,

J Byrd
-Life is short, fish as often as you can!

One brother’s admiration

2009-10-27T18:14:00.000-07:00

I’m lucky to have the friends I am close to. They keep me humble and grounded.

I’m blessed to have the family I have.

They are always there and are constant reminders that I belong to something greater. My brother in particular is the best brother in the world as far as I am concerned. I am truly proud to be his brother. Since the day I was made an uncle by him and his wife, I couldn’t wait for this particular day to arrive, Guy Weekend. It was time to introduce my nephew Joe (who is 4 years old) to the world of trout fishing. I know my father was hauling my brother and I around on fishing trips when we were Joe’s age and we both turned out just fine, so nothing wrong with getting Joe started early.

So with a truck load of groceries and fishing gear, we headed up to the cabin for a weekend of burger grilling, Chocolate Yahoo drinking and trout fishing fun.

There is no better job than being an uncle. And to think that in a couple of years I get to do it again with Joe’s younger brother Jack.

There is also no greater joy than watching the fire being lit in the next generation of trout fishermen.

The determined keep going!

2009-10-18T19:35:00.000-07:00

Well, after several attemps to get this trip going, David Cannon and I finally were able to get up to the Tuckasegee river. It fought us the whole way, but we got there. We didn't catch much, there was one heck of a high pressure front that rolled in that sent the barometer through the roof, but we did get some cool pictures (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/album.php?aid=2017141&id=1539032154) and I finally was granted the opportunity to replace one of driftboat trailer tires.

Photos courtesy of David Cannon (http://www.cannonoutdoors.com/)

No Title Neccesary

2009-10-01T10:42:00.000-07:00

They say a picture says a thousand words. I'll just let Noontootla Creek Farms speak for it's self.

Tuckasegee DH Opens October 1st

2009-10-01T06:29:00.000-07:00

Stay tuned for next week. Outdoor writer, photographer and recent book author, David Cannon http://cannonoutdoors.com/ and I head up to the Tuckasegee to see whats going on. Should be a good time as the two of us look for eager fish willing to pose for a few pictures and eat a few fake bugs as we open the 2009 North Carolina Delayed Harvest season.

J Byrd

Noontootla Creek Farms was alive with the sounds of laughter!

2009-09-27T21:00:00.000-07:00

If you Google the phrase “infectious laughter”, the most common definition is; One who’s laugh is so contagious that anyone around is overwhelmed with the uncontrollable urge to laugh without cause. Right beside that definition is a photo of this guy.I had the pleasure of fishing with Rick and Margarita from Miami who were spending a few days in the mountains of NE Georgia and decided they wanted to give fly-fishing a try. I thought I had met some pretty serious happy-go-lucky people over the course of my life, but then I met Rick.

The slightest thing would set him off with the most jovial laughter I have heard in a long time. I found myself drumming up every joke I could think of just to hear him laugh out loud. The first fish he caught he laughed so hard in excitement that I thought I was never going to land it because I was laughing so hard. I thought he was going to laugh himself into cardiac arrest when he set the hook on a warpaint shiner and launched that poor fish about 20 feet in the air. What a day, this one will be remembered for a long time. We caught several fish today, but that was secondary to the company I had.

J Byrd

The Weather Gods Smiled on Saturday

2009-09-22T06:03:00.000-07:00

The weather radar looked very ominous at 5:30am on Saturday as I made sandwiches and put together lunch for the day's float trip. As daylight broke I could see the ever-darkening skies southwest of Blue Ridge. But that is all part of being a fishing guide; sometimes you live and die by the weather, you just hope for the best and take what you're given. I met my two guys for the day, who were more concerned with the fact that they were going fishing over any weather problems and were determined to make the best of it. My kind of guys!

We pushed off from the bank about 9:00am under heavy overcast skies and a falling barometer. That, coupled with the lack of people, just gave me a sneaking suspicion that this could be a good day if the weather holds. As soon as our flies started hitting the water we began to see some action. Very few “large” bugs on the water, but the surface was littered with little (size 28-32) midges. If you saw a rising fish and got a good cast in front of him he either bumped your dry or took a swing at your dropper. We caught a lot of browns today. More than I have been catching over the past few weeks. Fortunately the weather held out for us today. Chad was keeping an eye on the weather radar for us with phone in hand to warn us if things started to get sporty. After we got back to shop he was happy to report that the huge storm coming out of Alabama had split in two and went around Blue Ridge. I must be living right! All-in-all we boated around 25-30 fish, a mixed bag of 9-12 inch browns and rainbows with a few 14-16 inch rainbows. We missed that many more. Lightning-fast strikes and small midge droppers will make you talk to yourself sometimes. There were not a lot of rising fish to site-cast to, but they were actively feeding and a good drift through fishy looking water usually resulted in a strike. Right as the water caught us a very light sprinkle of rain started to fall, but by that point we were headed to the take-out anyway. The weather Gods smiled on us today.

Prospecting For Trout Gold!

2009-09-12T18:19:00.000-07:00

Friend and Fellow guide Brad Wayne and I decided to take a prospecting trip on Saturday last week. I have some fly patterns that I have been wanting to try. Deer season, college football and school have started which tends to thin the herd down a little bit on the river. We started later in the afternoon as both of us had been getting up early the past few mornings and neither one us felt like getting up at the crack of dawn that morning………..it happens……….even to those who are hopelessly addicted to fishing.

As best we could tell, we were the only boat on the water with a few scattered fishermen wading around in spots. There were a few bugs flying around with very little surface action, but once we got past the waders, the fish started rising all around us. Started sticking rainbows left and right and just about the time I made the comment to Brad that I had not caught a brown in a while “Wham”, a lively brown trash canned my dry fly. Today was goooooooood day.

I won’t mention how many fish we caught in the 5 hours we fished because folks will want to check our boat cooler to see what we’re sipping on, but I’ll just say it was on. We didn’t get to fish long because the DAWGS were kicking off at 7:30 and we both had “obligations” to attend. Fall is here and the fishing is starting to pick up as the crowds dissipate and the temperature cools down.

Connecticut Fishermen Come South!

2009-08-28T18:29:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

Had a wonderful 2 days of fishing with a father/son combo team Ben and Neil from Connecticut on Monday and Tuesday. Monday we floated the Toccoa River putting in at the base of the dam and floating downstream a few miles to one of our take-out points. The fishing was GREAT to say the least. Fished a half-day trip and easily brought 40+ fish to the boat by the time the water generation caught us around 2:00pm. The bigger fish were not real cooperative, but we did manage a few fish in the 14-16" range. Monday was the 5th time I've floated the Toccoa in the last 5 weeks and I have had some stellar trips. You've got to work a little harder, but considering it is August and historically the fishing slows down, I've been trucking right along. Plus I have a couple of tricks in my Ju-Ju bag that have been helping!Tuesday Neil decided that 5:00am was a little early in the morning for a 14 year old still on summer vacation to be out and about, so Ben and I headed out to get on the water at Noontootla Creek Farms at first light for a morning half day fishing trip. Even at 6:00am, you could hear big fish busting bugs on the surface. Within a few casts Ben was fighting his first 16" trout. We steadily caught fish all morning including one 28-30" Rainbow that rolled on Ben's fly for what seemed like an eternity before he finally sucked it down! "These fish are just like the steelheads I fish for back home", Ben kept repeating after each vicious hook-up and reel-spinning fight. Fortunately, the increased rain this summer has allowed the Noontootla to continue fishing well late into this summer.

Had a great two days.

J Byrd

The Irishman and The Toccoa

2009-08-16T22:34:00.000-07:00

I Floated the Toccoa River on Friday with Patrick who hails from Killarney, Ireland and has been a citizen of the U.S. and a resident of Michigan for a number of years. We had to work around the early generation schedule and decided to split the trip up into two short floats. One in the morning and one that evening to see if we could get after some of the bigger fish that have been a little elusive the past few weeks and seem to be a little more active at dusk. The morning float went well. The section we floated was a little slow, but we caught a good number of fish. I think we boated at minimum a dozen fish; maybe 15-17 before the water caught us and ended the morning session. Everything took small dries without a dropper. It seemed like every other rising fish we spotted at least took a swipe at our fly, but there were several “lookers” that would just rise up and watch it float by. But there were not a lot of rising fish to mention. The weather was great and the company was even better.
The night session was a different story as far as the weather was concerned. We set sail at 6:30pm from the dam as the water receded and promptly ran into a thunder storm before we made it down to the City of Blue Ridge water intake. Apparently the 20% chance of scattered thunderstorms was sitting over the Tammen Park area! Patrick managed to turn a couple of NICE fish after the storms moved out, but they proved to be hard to hold on to. Patrick added a few more fish to the days catch before the darkness and the fog set in. All -n- all it was a good day.