Southern Appalachians
Fly fishing in Georgia
Short answer
Georgia fly fishing is north Georgia mountain stream fishing plus a cold tailwater running through metropolitan Atlanta, holding rainbow, brown and native brook trout. The Chattahoochee, the Toccoa and the Chattooga are the headline waters. A licence is required from age 16, and trout needs a separate trout licence.
What makes Georgia different
Georgia has a wild brown trout fishery inside a city of six million people. Buford Dam releases water from the bottom of Lake Lanier at around fifty degrees, and the Chattahoochee stays cold all the way down through the northern suburbs and into Atlanta — you can fish a hatch within sight of an interstate, and in August, when the rest of the Southeast is too warm for trout, it is one of the few places still fishing. Upstream, the north Georgia mountains hold the other half of the state: hundreds of miles of small Blue Ridge streams, native brook trout in the coldest and highest of them, and a delayed-harvest programme that turns several ordinary rivers into excellent catch-and-release fly water from November into May. Georgia's trout season is effectively the opposite of most states': the good months are the cold ones.
What trout and other fish are in Georgia?
- Brown trout
- Wild in the Chattahoochee tailwater and several mountain rivers, and large in the Soque.
- Rainbow trout
- Wild in much of the north Georgia water, stocked through the rest.
- Brook trout
- Native Southern Appalachian strain, in small high headwater streams above about 2,000 feet.
- Striped bass
- In the lower Chattahoochee in summer — a different fish and a different rod, but they are there.
Where to fly fish in Georgia
- Chattahoochee River
- Buford Dam down through Atlanta. A cold tailwater inside a metropolitan area, fishable all summer.
- Toccoa River tailwater
- Below Blue Ridge Dam. Wild browns, generation-dependent, and the best big-fish water in the state.
- Chattooga River
- Wild and Scenic, on the South Carolina line. Remote, rocky and worth the walk in.
- Soque River
- Almost entirely private and fished by the day. Large trout, and you pay for the privilege.
- Dukes Creek
- Smithgall Woods. Reservation only, catch and release, and quiet in a way few southern streams are.
- Noontootla Creek
- Blue Ridge wild trout water, artificial lures only, with a long-standing size limit.
When to fly fish in Georgia
| When | What is happening |
|---|---|
| November – December | Delayed-harvest water opens 1 November and fishes beautifully from the first week. |
| January – February | The Chattahoochee tailwater and the delayed-harvest rivers. Midges, small nymphs, almost nobody out. |
| March – April | The mountain streams come alive. Quill Gordons, Hendricksons and caddis, and the brookies waking up. |
| May | The last weeks of delayed harvest, which ends 14 May, and the best hatches of the year. |
| June – October | Too warm for most mountain streams by day. Fish the tailwaters, or go high and early. |
Do you need a license to fly fish in Georgia?
Yes. Licenses are issued by Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife Resources Division.
| License | Price |
|---|---|
| Resident, annual | $25 |
| Non-resident, annual | $75 |
The totals are the annual fishing licence plus the annual trout licence — $15 and $10 for residents, $50 and $25 for non-residents. The trout licence is required for any mountain trout fishing. Prices change — check with the agency before you buy.
Rules worth knowing before you go
- A fishing licence is required from age 16, and a separate trout licence is required in addition to fish for trout.
- Delayed-harvest water is artificial lures only and catch and release from 1 November to 14 May.
- Some waters are artificial-lures-only or carry size limits year-round, and a few of the best are reservation-only.
- The Chattooga is shared with South Carolina, and a licence from either state is valid on the main river — but not on its tributaries.
- Rules are set stream by stream. Check the water before you fish it.
Regulations change every year and vary water by water. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife Resources Division rule book is the only authority — this page is a starting point, not a legal reference.
Flies that matter in Georgia
Each of these is a card in the deck, and each has a full page in Our Fly-brary.
Keep reading
- Do I need a fishing license? — how licensing works across states
- How to read water — where trout hold, anywhere
- Best time of day to fly fish — the seasonal logic behind the table above
- Our Fly-brary — every fly in the deck, explained
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The deck
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