fly fishing trout (blue ridge, ga)

This was the last day of our vacation. I still had one goal in mind and that was to catch photo and release a Georgia trout. With only a couple hours to fish I made the choice to fish the Toccoa River again since I had caught one fish and hooked three more there the last time. I wasn’t able to grab a photo of that slippery 9 inch bow, that one jumped right out of my hands the second I unhooked him. Note To Self- photo all fish before unhooking them, especially when your doing so from in the water.

check out my previous post here from- 07-11-2010

The sun was just rising as I pulled into the gravel lot sitting under Blue Ridge Lake. The fog was just as thick as it was when I was here the last time. I’m not sure if there’s always fog on the Toccoa or not? I will say its welcome any time I’m ever there. Even when the sun is up and the day begins to really heat up, your glad when the breeze pushes a gust of 70 degree fog over you. The cold air smells clean, feels moist and your instantly cooled.

sunrise on the toccoa river

I chose to work the same deep slack water pool where I had seen trout rising before. After a couple fish broke the water on the surface I felt a little bit more confident in my decision to return here. That feeling quickly disappeared after I had used up 75% of my fishing time, gone through a half dozen flies, and tried working the pool from 10 different angles. Then it happened, it’s the worst feeling a weekend warrior could ever have. The phone rang, I looked at the screen and it’s the wife calling wondering when I’m gonna be back. We settled on 90 minutes from then, which gave me 30 more minutes to catch a fish and 60 to get back to the lake house. Game on…

I changed my presentation one last time, I tied on an elk hair dry fly with a size 22 copper john dropper. Eight drifts from that it happened, and my dry fly got pulled under the surface. I set the hook and the fight was on. I hand lined in my second Georgia trout, this one was a small brown. Quick photo on the bank and my mission was accomplished with just minutes to spare.

a georgia brown trout

I’m happy to say I explored many truly awesome areas in the Chattahoochee National Forest, and I would recommend to anyone to give these trout a shot if your ever in the area. Even though these seem to be smaller then the average fish I find in Wisconsin, the scenery here more then makes up for it. I’m sure if I had just a little more time here I would have been able to really catch some fish, but that’s not the case. Time to pack.