Closed to Fishing until Further Notice

High Meadows Club water is currently CLOSED to fishing. The co-owners are going through a partnership dissolution. That means lots of legal formalities that we need to get through.

Thank you for your past patronage.

Tight lines in 2008!

Club Renewals are Due by 12-31-07

Just a Reminder... High Meadows Club membership renewals are due by December 31, 2007. If you are on the 3-2-1 Plan this means that for all but the most recent members (who joined since August), the $200 second year annual membership fee is due. For Base Plan members, your membership will expire on 12-31-07 should you not renew for 2008.

Should we NOT receive your membership renewal by 12-31-07 AND you are currently a 3-2-1 Plan member, your 3-2-1 Plan membership will expire as of 1-1-08. As of that date you may rejoin as a 3-2-1 Plan member; however, you will be required to pay the $300 Initiation Fee AGAIN.

Of course, we look forward to having all of our current members RENEW their High Meadows Club membership in order to continue to receive all of the benefits of fishing our club water at reduced fees -- whether fishing in pure solitude as a lone angler; or, enjoying the comraderie of their close friends and fellow anglers.

November NYS Steelhead Trip Report

Just prior to Thanksgiving, we took our annual steelhead trip to New York State. We fished the tribs to Lake Erie west of Buffalo. The Catt (Cattaragus Creek) was fishing this year and it fished well in the lower sections in particular. Another stream to the west was "on fire" on our first day of fishing and again after some in-land snow melt about five days later. We never did see snow though. 18 Mile Creek was a disappointment as there was not enough water in the stream to really bring up the fish. Everyone that went on the trip says that they want to go back again next year. Call 404-664-4823 and speak with Ken if you are interested. Enclosed is a link to some of our trip photos (best viewed as a slide show).

View Slide Show

Updated Fishing Report

We are getting good reports from both members and non-members about the fishing on our water which we re-opened on October 22. Both the Upper and Lower sections are fishing well but we are purposely not putting as many people on the water on any given day. Fish are pooled up together in the deeper areas. A few big Browns have been hooked but we do not have a report yet of one being landed. Lately, the fish have been taking dark colored buggers, eggs including Y2K’s, stoneflies, and even small Flashback Hare’s Ears on a dropper. Anglers are landing an assortment of sizes of fish from larger 20 to 25+ inch fish right down to stream-bred fingerlings. Expect a mix of sizes rather than all big fish but there are big boys holding in both major sections of water. Let's just hope that we will get some more rain in the not too distant future.

High Meadows Club re-opens

High Meadows Club will re-open on October 22, 2007. The drought isn't over but the high daily temperatures are behind us. Water temp as of October 16 was 54 degrees. Generally, the Tick is running at low water level. Read on for news about the Lower section.

Reservations are currently being accepted for both club members and non-club members. Though we did lose some fish over the summer months to the high water temps, we have seen a good number of trophy size holdover trout. They survived in the numerous deep holes in the creek. We have also replaced the fish that we did lose in both the Upper and Lower sections of water. Keep in mind that we only introduce reproducing Rainbows (i.e. no triploids) into our water. All resident Browns and a wild strain of Rainbows are native to The Tick.

In the Lower section, for those of you that have fished our water before, Beat 2 is currently running at full pool. The reason... beavers have built a sizable dam which is located at the Beat 1/Beat 2 sign. Nearly all of Beat 2 is backed up with a considerable amount of water. The fish are loving it! However, your fishing tactics will have to be adjusted to fish this beat successfully. Top water flies and woolly buggers/streamers are a couple of suggestions. You may even want to consider using a sink tip line. Be careful wading in this area as you may go over your waders.

The landowners have agreed to retain the beaver dam until we get sufficient rain to bring the creek up to more nomal levels. So, in other words, the beaver dam is staying for a while.

Fishing is back to near normal conditions until next summer. Current pictures of Beat 2 including the beaver dam are included in this blog.

Tightlines,

Ken

Mother Nature can be Cruel!

We’ve had a substantial fish kill this summer due to the conditions (combination of water temps and water level + some poaching on our Upper Section). Re-stocking is the only way to get it back but now the real problem is water level. To take a look at the current water gauge reading, here’s the link to the gauge on the Coosawattee near Ellijay by which we monitor the level on the Tick:

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?dd_cd=02&format=gif&period=7&site_no=02380500

This link is always easily available by first going to our web site, and then clicking on “Weather Outlook”. The link to the gauge is the last link on the “Weather Outlook” page.

Erik tested the water temps yesterday (9-22-07) in advance of our planned re-stocking scheduled for this coming Tuesday. It was 72 degrees.

But, that’s not the worst news. The water level has now dropped to .90 as opposed to our “normal” level of 1.8 to 1.9 on the gauge. Basically, the drought continues and the creek is in really bad shape right now. We had to temporarily cancel the re-stocking and are rescheduling it for mid-October provided that we get some rain.

Water temps should be OK in early October but the lack of water in the creek remains a problem! If we put fish in now, there is a high likelihood that we would lose a large portion of those fish.

There simply isn’t anyway that we can re-open on October 1 due to the water level of the Tick. We have now delayed our re-opening until we get enough rain to bring the water level up (hopefully around mid-to-late October). If we do not get rain by then, we will need to push the re-opening date further back into the Fall.

Mother Nature can be cruel at times!

Native Trout Reproduction is Strong

This past year has been an awesome year to catch and release wild natives that have been reproducing in large numbers in Tickanetley Creek. Young Browns and Rainbows are abundant. It's as much a thrill to catch these "youngsters" as it is to hook and land one of our large fish. Stream protection to enable this strong reproduction is crtical to maintaining the level of spawning that takes place.

High Meadows Club was formed to preserve, conserve, and protect trout waters for both current and future fly fishing anglers. The Tick is a prime example. The Upper Section of High Meadows Club water in particular suffered from Hurricane Ivan damage that took place a few years ago. Clearing out log jams (in 2006) that contributed to an excess build-up of silt has exposed more gravel areas conducive to spawning. Water is now flowing more freely throughout this section. The additional exposed gravel is prime spawning ground.

We ask that all club members and visiting non-member anglers carefully handle these juvenile fish. The growth cycle in the Tickanetley allows them to progress in size quite rapidly. Natural reproduction enhances the overall fishery for future years. The Tick has been very productive from a spawning standpoint, increasing the numbers of catchable trout throughout the fishery.

Tickanetley Creek, the location of our trophy and wild native trout water, is the primary tributary to the Cartecay River located in Gilmer County, Georgia. Much of the creek access remains in private hands. High Meadows Club opened up access to a portion of these private lands via club membership and individual daily fishing fees. More about High Meadows Club can be found here.