Posts by Nick Carter
Toccoa Trout Tailwater Surprise
“Let’s pull up here and really fish this hole a minute,” said David Hulsey, manager of Unicoi Outfitters’ Blue Ridge fly shop, while leaning back on the oars to slow the drift boat and drop anchor. The anchor plopped quietly into the water and skidded to a halt as we slid up next to a…
Read MoreOconee River Spring White Bass Run
Anchored up at one of Wayne Loyless’ honey holes for the white-bass run on the Oconee River, a jonboat idled past, and we were hailed with the customary greeting. “Catchin’ anything?” the man in the front of the boat hollered over the drone of the outboard. “A few,” was Wayne’s remarkably honest reply. We had…
Read MoreKayak Stripers
In the Southeast, there is not a freshwater fish that compares with a big striped bass in its ability to make a drag sing and leave an angler’s arms and shoulders aching with fatigue. Tangle with one of the brutes that rule the food chain at Lake Lanier, and you will feel the helplessness that…
Read MoreOff-Season Benefits Of Sound Deer Management
For most hunters, finding a good shed antler is a pleasant side note to a post-season scouting trip or a spring morning spent in the turkey woods. For David Brannen, shed hunting is an activity in itself. He refers to it as a passion, and it incites in him the same level of enthusiasm as…
Read MoreNoontootla Creek Trophy Trout And Quail
We were walking a waist-high field of cover frozen hard by the winter’s first real cold front behind an energetic French continental pointer. Baylee, a Braque Du Bourbonnais the other guides jokingly called a French poodle, was doing his job, methodically working one section of the tall grass and briars with his nose, seeking out…
Read MoreBarking Up The Right Tree For Raccoons
“Cut him loose, and he gets down to business,” said Rocket Fuel’s han- dler, Chris Haynes. Rocket did. Without a look back, he snuffled off into the darkness of a crisp December evening outside of LaGrange, nose to the ground, with a neon collar light marking his progress through the hard- wood creek bottom. Less…
Read MoreState Monitoring Chattahoochee Brown Trout
Three years into a five-year effort to determine whether or not a wild-trout fishery is viable in the Chattahoochee River tailwater below Buford Dam, WRD biologists are collecting data that is very promising. WRD Fisheries Biologist Chris Martin recently finished the state’s 2007 fall electrofishing surveys, and even though analysis of the findings will not…
Read MoreSavannah River Striped Bass — Like A Largemouth Bass On Steroids
“The bridge is right here. It’s a fabulous place to fish; you need not know anything else about striper fishing. You don’t even have to crank your big motor,” said Tim Barrett moments after backing the boat in at the Port Wentworth ramp on the Savannah River. I had to take his word for…
Read MoreOctober Crappie On Lake Russell, Lanier And Oconee
With cooler nights and dropping temperatures on the state’s reservoirs, the crappie fishing is getting ready to pick up from the doldrums of summer, when it’s hard to catch these tasty fish, unless you’re willing to stay out all night. Expert anglers around the state are wiping the dust off of their ultra-light gear,…
Read MoreThe First Buck Off A New Johnson County Lease
In their first season on a new Johnson County lease, this group of hunters didn’t yet know what to think of the property. They had heard stories of some impressive bucks from neighbors, but on opening weekend of bow season they still hadn’t had much time to do a lot of scouting, and they definitely…
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