Dukes Creek Fly Fishing

Dukes Creek offers a unique trout fishing opportunity just outside of Helen, GA. Much of the creek flows through the confines of Smithgall Woods State Park where it is home to Georgia's only "Trophy Trout Stream". This section of Dukes Creek within the park is stocked with trout from October through May. Visiting anglers are only allowed to use single hook barbless flies and lures as well as make reservations for the day. Dukes Creek is open to fishing on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays during the season, and all trout must be released back into the stream.

Trout Fishing Dukes Creek

While Dukes Creek is still managed as a Trophy Trout Stream, it's best days are likely behind it. While trout are still stocked monthly throughout the season, holdovers are infrequent and the largest trout in the stream were poached 4 or 5 years ago. Brood stock trout that exceed 20" are still stocked in Dukes at the beginning of the season, but trout in this size class are also stocked in the Delayed Harvest Streams and other stocked waters across North Georgia throughout the year. While the 3 open fishing days each week seem like a good plan, the fish still see a good bit of pressure and it leaves poachers 4 days each week to deplete the stream.

On the positive side, anglers can space out well on the stream and have much of it to themselves. Early in the season and following stocking days, the fishing can be incredibly easy. During the lulls in between stocking events, anglers must figure out how to catch the more pressured trout or opt to fish one of the other trout streams in Helen. Indicator rigs and dry dropper rigs work well much of the time, but euronymphing or tightlining setups are far more effective when the trout become finicky. When things do get tough, the modest population of wild trout may save anglers from a goose egg. The wild rainbows found throughout the State Park and further upstream are often willing eaters of both dry flies and nymphs. Stealth is incredibly useful on Dukes Creek. Unless they have just stocked trout, we recommend always approaching trout from downstream. Used the shadows, laydown logs, and boulders to hide your silhouette from the trout.

Best Fly Patterns for Dukes Creek

Fly patterns aren't particularly important in any of North Georgia's trout streams. Brightly colored junk flies such as eggs, mops, and worms garner plenty of attention from recently stocked trout. Buggy, more natural, patterns work well in the low clear waters in late fall and early winter when finicky trout have seen plenty of pressure. Using larger tippet, 3-4X will get the job done 90+ percent of the time, and save you from donating a handful of flies to the trees. Lighter 5x (or if you're a glutton for punishment, 6X) may come in handy during those clear water periods when trout begin to gravitate toward smaller meals and need the best drifts to fool them.

Overall, if anglers are able to have the foresight to make reservations during the season, Dukes Creek still provides some moderate fishing without having to battle the crowds. For those without this ability, the wild trout streams and standard stocked trout streams offer comparable fishing for much of the season. Hopefully we will have to edit this article in the near future with brighter news that the stream has returned to its previous form.

Learn more about the nearby trout streams in our Helen Fly Fishing Guide and articles on Fly Fishing Smith Creek, Fly Fishing the Chattahoochee River, Fly Fishing the Soque River, Fly Fishing Clayton, and Fly Fishing Dahlonega.