Noontootla lately?

[TreeFrog]

Has anyone been to Noontootla in the last few days? just wondering how its been lately and what's been workin. going sat. and hadn't been in a while. thanks.

[UGAflyguy]

I will be on the Noontoola on Saturday also. Any help on how its been fishing or what flies are working would be greatly appreciated.

Nate

[TreeFrog]

that post was from last sat. but we did pretty good even tho it was sletting/snowing all day. i caught most of mine on a prince (#14 or #16) and my buddy caught his on various nymphs as well. be sure to weight them down. together we finished with 13 total (5 for me). hope this helps, good luck. :)

[threejack]

this saturday doesn't look much better. now they're calling for that same wintry mix movin through sometime fri. night and not getting out of the 30's on Saturday. :(

[Richie27]

Noontootla Creek should have its own weather channel cause you never know what its gonna do up there, so if they're calling for a nice sunny day in dahlonega you might wanna pack your ski jacket cause its about a +900 ft difference in elevation between dahlonega and up there around hawk mnt and the toot. BTW if anyone is looking for a sweet watch for hiking, sking, or whatever check out the suunto website. I have the observer and its awesome it offers time keeping, an altimeter, barometer, and digital compass...its also good for Land Nav if yall ever do that :D

[S.Trutta]

Treefrog....any size to those fish? Id love to fish the toot more, but i only seem to catch miniscule fish. Just wondering if you guys ever get into fish better sized, even 10 or 11 inchers would be great!

Rich

[TroutTackler]

I've caught several fish there in the 10-16" range, all with amazing color and fight. The truly great thing about this stream, aside from the amazing fish, is the protection it has. No fish may be taken unless it is 16" or larger, meaning that the majority of the fish in there are safe to be caught, released, then caught again.

[TreeFrog]

most of the fish we caught were in the 5-7'' range, but i caught one that was 12'' and my buddy caught 2-3 in the 8-10'' range. grantid most are going to be small, noontootla has plenty of good size fish especially as the creek opens up.

[Reel'em In]

Fished the toot on this past Wednesday's half way warm up. Water temp at midafternoon was 40-41 degrees. From WMA sign up to the Lovinggood creek trail crossing, a slew of blow downs crossing the toot. Very hard to fish this area because of this and not worth the effort. Also, from trail crossing up about one mile, FS has closed the road due to slide-offs. If I remember right, only one camp site is open on this side. You can come in from FS 69, the Rock creek side or off of FS 77 from Dahlonega side, but unless you like driving more than fishing - it just may be too time consuming. I called the Tocca Ranger station, spoke with a young lady, who said she really didn't know when they would get the road opened. But, it would be late spring at the earliest. It's been closed since, I think, mid-July 05. Did catch 6 bows on a 14 prince and 18 green caddis larva. Nothing over 10", most 6-8" stuff. Alot of snow on the north side of mtns and it was colddddd!

[UGAflyguy]

Fished the Noontoola on Saturday 2/11 with my girlfriend and her father. Fishing was slow for the first hour and half with snow coming down steadily. Finally bumped some on the nose and got a nice 16" bow in the net. From then on the day turned around. We hooked two 23+ inch fish the rest of the day but did not manage to bring them in. However, the girlfriend managed to land the big fish of the day on her first fly fishing trip. 22" Rainbow caught on a rainbow prince ...

Nate

[dblhaul]

You guys fished private water? Correct?

[S.Trutta]

Wow!! Was that the public Noontootla water or the private stretch of Noontootla farms? I have never seen a fish that big out of the public water, although ive heard of some big fish in the river. I havent fished it much, but have been wanting to get back and try it when spring rolls around. Im not asking you for a specific local, just wanna know if thats open or private water.

Rich

[dblhaul]

I hope there's not a mass exodus to the wild water with people expecting to catch 20" fish. Ever time I visit the WMA..I see more signs of trash, corn cans, Powerbait..Sad..You want big fish, talk to the people at Noontootla Farms..Tread light on the wild fish.

[Loopdawg]

I wouldn't count on catching a fish this big on a regular basis from the public water above Noontootla Creek farms. According to qualified people like Jimmy Jacobs, you should be really pleased and fortunate to land a fish from the Toot around 14". The 16" keeper regs have been in place for some time now, and should be making a 14" fish more common, but poaching is always the bane of our wild streams.
However, having seen a fish of similar size this past fall in the back of a pool on the public stretch above the farms, I surmised that it had migrated up from the private water after a rain or possibly to spawn? (Similar to Jimmy Jacobs experience in his wonderful little book, Trout Fishing in North Georgia. I know brown trout run upstream in the fall to spawn, but I'm not sure of the time of year when rainbows do so. The fish I saw was a bow back in November.

[Richie27]

the rainbows should be moving to shallow rocky bottoms here pretty soon getting ready to spawn...I've already seen some

[Reel'em In]

Very nice pictures of the rainbows, but I hope all of us know that they had to come from NCF and not the WMA section of Noontootla. It's hard to imagine 3 people standing in or at streamside catching trophy sized fish like these out of the WMA section. Actually, it would be a joke! Notice the Unicoi Outfitters cap he's wearing. Unicoi is the permitted guiding company on the NCF. I hope the next time I fish the WMA section, that it is not elbow to elbow like Rock Creek is on opening day. Spawning time for rainbows is in the Spring when the water temp is between 50-60 degrees. Last Wed's temp was 40-41 degrees. Spawning time for browns is in the Fall when the water temp is between 44-48 degrees.

[Jimmy Harris]

You guys are right; this was a trip to Noontootla Creek Farms with Brad Wayne guiding.

[dblhaul]

the rainbows should be moving to shallow rocky bottoms here pretty soon getting ready to spawn...I've already seen some

warm, we could see a early spawn. This is a good opportunity for Bill Couch or Jimmy Harris to post a thread explaining the tell-tale signs of spawning fish, what are redds, and the reason it's not a good idea to harrass spawing fish.

[Reel'em In]

Thanks Jimmy for fessing up on the UGAflyguy. :)