Stream Location: Lumpkin County (Special Regulation Water)
Wild Trout: Brown
Stocked Trout: None
Other Species of Note:
Dry Flies: Adams, Caddis, Royal Wulff, Terrestrials
Nymphs: Caddis Puppa, Pheasant Tail, Prince, Hares, Stone, Squirmy Wormy, Mop, and Perdigon
Streamers: Small Minnow
Waders: Yes
Net: Yes
Wading Stick: Yes
Casting: Tuck, Overhead, and Roll
About:
If you want a stream that is very beautiful, very technical, full of waterfalls, stealthy approaches, and very cold, clean water – then Jones Creek is the creek for you. Forming out of a natural spring in the mountains, the stream slowly meanders down from its head waters, gaining faster water as it hits several waterfalls below the Jones Creek Campground. There has been a lot of restoration efforts by the State of Georgia and Trout Unlimited to make this a wonderful wild brown trout stream. However these efforts are still in the works and have not totally taken a foot hold as of yet.
Imagine a stream that has some pretty significant pools, fast runs, and a lot of structure to hide in – not to mention a large amount of gravel beds that a brown trout can spawn in, this is Jones Creek. The bad part as I have mentioned earlier, is that this stream is just in the beginning stages of restoration, it might take twenty years to see this stream grow into what it could become. So with that, don’t take what I am about to say with a grain salt, Jones Creek is not going to be a trophy stream for years to come, it is not an easy stream to fish, you must be very stealthy (I would suggest wearing camo and felt boots) using long leaders or a euro leader setup, and I definitely wouldn’t fish heavy nymphs or streamers unless the stream was very high (ie after week of rain).
The main thing an angler that comes here must realize is that this stream is meant to be a “wild brown trout” stream, brown trout are known for being very easily spooked and they love to hide in undercuts. Because of this you might not even see a trout, thinking that it is a dead stream, and you will more than likely get skunked. Jones Creek is definitely not for those anglers that are wanting to catch trophy sized brown trout… yet.
However, if you are still reading this and you still want to fish this stream because you want to get away from the hustle and bustle of the other trophy wild brown trout streams (Dukes Creek, the Chattahoochee River, or any of the other tail waters in Georgia) then you need to heed my advice. Be as sneaky as you can! Seriously; sneaky, sneaky, sneaky! Do not wear bright colored clothing, wear camo or something very drab, also I would suggest felt boots or sole less moccasins. Also take the bare minimum with you, rod, one or two fly boxes, tippet, and floatant. Realistically you will want to be able to carry everything you need in the pockets of your jeans or pants, you really don’t want to carry a bag with you when you are fishing Jones Creek. It’s all about stealth on this creek. Realistically treat Jones Creek as if you were fishing for brook trout. Be prepared to not see a fish, if you do see one be prepared to never catch it, be prepared to be skunked on a regular basis here, and if by some miracle you do catch one of the gems of this creek treasure it like it is gold!
When it comes to casting: make very few false casts, be very accurate to hit right on the edges of rocks and logs, start from the bottom of the pools and work your way up to its mouth. If you are nymph fishing: start fishing a line very close to you and work your way out from there, again its worth mention that you should use a euro nymph setup on this stream or a very buggy indicator (New Zeland Strike Indicators). As for fishing streamers, don’t! Not unless there has been a very significant rain and the creek is raging, this will be the only time that you could sneak a small streamer into this creek. Finally it is worth mentioning that if you are into Tenkara fly fishing, then this stream would be a very good stream to use a Tenkara rod on.
Directions:
Fly Bum Outdoors 