Conasauga River

[rmcpa]

I need some help with the Conauga River! After fiching the Jacks sucessfully, I tried the other side of the Cohutta without sucess the weekend after Thanksgiving. I fished bead heads, midges, olives, and the old standby Adams. Should I just wait for spring, or do any of you have suggestions?

[BUDMAN]

This river can be very tough, a stealty approach is extermely important as these fish are very very spooky. I've had my best results with GRHE and olive caddis pupa. Good luck

[Richard]

You probably picked one of the worst years to try out the Conasauga. It has fished the toughest I've seen in the past 10 years due to the extremely low rainfall. Plus, this stream gets more pressure to begin with due to its easier and shorter hike to get to it. I'd say I do 90% of my fishing with only four flies on the Conasauga- parachute adams, elk hair caddis, gold ribbed hare's ear and pheasant tail, all about a size 16-18. Nothing real exotic is necessary on this stream. Just long, fine leaders for the water clarity.

[edwin]

RMPCA,
In October, I had the same trouble you had with the Conasauga. Of course, the water was even lower then. I could see fish everywhere, but they were almost impossible to get close to. As everyone above has stated, and I have heard, this is an extremely tough river to fish, with the easiest time of year for fishing being in the Spring when the water is higher. What little success I had was on a small (16-18) b.h. pheasant tail soft hackle and caddis pupae. You probably noticed, but the rocks there are covered in caddis pupae with a little green sticking out of the top. Lots of midges in the slow sections, stoneflies in the fast water(small black ones this time of year and then moving to brown and then yellow later). Little mayfly activity, but I have heard that there are some sulphurs/cahills in the spring. I'd definitely go back, but go super stealth, don't worry too much about fly selection, just spot the fish and crawl through the bushes to get to it, and fish away from the all rest of the folks. Good luck!