Trout Fishing In North Georgia
North Georgia is blessed with the best trout fishing in the Country and now is the time to take advantage of this wonderful trout fishery at Rent Georgia Cabins .com.
The tailwaters of Toccoa River below Blue Ridge Lake hosts a vastly improved fishery.
Photo by Jimmy Jacobs
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Georgia trout fishermen will have more such reasons to grin beginning this spring. The Georgia Wildlife Resources Division will put more "quality trout" in popular North Georgia mountain streams. Larger trout are to be a regular part of the mix on all the larger trout streams that the WRD regularly stocks throughout the spring and summer.
"Six to 8 percent of the trout stocked on those streams will be larger fish," said Lee Keefer, a WRD fisheries biologist who works out of the Lake Burton Hatchery office. "We believe this will kind of spice things up for fishermen -- anticipating the possibility of catching some larger trout."
TOCCOA RIVER TAILWATER
The Toccoa River below Blue Ridge Lake in Fannin County has quietly developed into one of the best tailwater trout streams in the Southeast. Work done to Blue Ridge Dam by the Tennessee Valley Authority to maintain minimum water flows during periods of non-generation has improved water temperatures, dissolved oxygen levels through the summer, and made conditions for insect production better.
Most of the land surrounding the 15 miles of trout waters from Lake Blue Ridge Dam to the Tennessee border is privately owned. However, a handful of private rental cabins offer wading and fairly good access for beginning and ending float trips. By far, the best way to fish the Toccoa is by floating -- whether in a canoe, an inflatable pontoon boat or a drift boat.
For floating or wading, the Toccoa River is essentially a low- or falling-water river. It is swift and difficult to fish when the water is fully up. Most anglers consider falling water the ideal condition, but generation schedules and anglers' schedules don't always line up to allow for fishing the falling water.
The Toccoa is heavily stocked with rainbow trout, which spread themselves nicely through the river. The river also supports wild browns, which reproduce in tributary streams and sometimes grow to large sizes. Most fish are typical stocker size, but anglers catch quite a few trout up to about 16 inches and occasionally even bigger trophy fish.
Numbers of big trout in the river seem to have increased in recent years, based on angler observations. Those fishermen who were fortunate enough to be on the Toccoa in 2005 during the cicada event (17-year locust hatch) learned just how many big trout are in the river. The presence of so many large insects on the water led to feeding frenzies by the larger trout
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