I Love Football Season

Why? Sure, there are great SEC and NFL games on the TV box, but there's another reason...

The Fall is the time when the older brown trout go CRAZY in the Chattahoochee here in Georgia.
It's magical to see a big ol' fat brown all colored up in golden yellows, ready for spawning. We have a fairly strong population of these browns in the river from Cumming all the way down to the City of Atlanta. Well, at least before the flood of 2009 they were there. The stocked fish are probably all in West Point Lake by now. Who cares about stockers anyway though?

Our Georgia Department of Natural Resources has performed a 5-year+ long study on the possibility of brown trout reproducing naturally in our home river, and that coupled with massive amounts of non-scientific research that lots of anglers do is pretty convincing. We have wild browns in our river. Big ones. Ones that eat the stocked rainbows. Cool.

Look at this guy. How'd you like to be a crawfish on his glide-path? Crunch!
The fish in this photo is most likely one that was born in the river but there's no sure way for me to tell. I'm guessing since the stocking of browns hasn't taken place in about 5 years, that he's probably a good healthy example of a streamborn salmo trutta.


Go fish the Chattahoochee next time you're through Atlanta. Call Chris Scalley at River Through Atlanta for guided trips that are worth the bucks. There is a good population of brown and rainbow trout right here in the metro area. You don't need to go to Wyoming to catch a 2 pounder.

Rainbows in Metro Atlanta

Nice 'bow Erik. As usual, the dry fly addict strikes again, with a big fat stimmy'.
The Chattahoochee continues to produce some quality fish this summer.
And, if we all keep putting them back, they'll be even nicer the next time you tangle with them.

Put 'em back. Zero Limit. Catch & Release. It's worth it, and BBQ tastes way better than trout anyhow.

-T

Water Clarity on the 'Hooch

On the metro Chattahoochee, silt and mud are the worst enemy of a good weekend fishing. I'm watching the Medlock Bridge gauge this afternoon and hoping to see the waters clear before Saturday. This spot is monotored by a USGS sampling station that feeds data ranging from water temperature, CFS, and most importantly, turbidity... or clarity.

Gin clear is a zero on the meter, a 15 and up is muddy, we were at 100+ last Saturday.

Here's to the 7.5 reading dropping to a 5 by the weekend!


Fish on,


Travis

Stripers in the Hooch

For more than 10 years I have heard the various stories of the schools of striped bass making their way up to our part of the Chattahoochee from down in West Point Lake. I always "sour graped" them and dismissed the tales as fishermen's conjecture or wishful thinking. That is, until August 2008. Dave Henderson and I were out floating from Morgan Falls Dam to Johnson Ferry throwing streamers for trout when this guy slammed a #8 Olive Bugger on a sink tip line. The explosive fight in this small striper was incredible. He must've lasted about 10 minutes, ripping drag and running downstream and across the whole time. Dave (thankfully) grabbbed the oars and chased after him at one point. I've got to say that this is the closest fight to a bonefish as I have experienced in fresh water. You Northeast striper guys have got it good!

Abbotts Bridge to Medlock Bridge

Two weeks ago, Mike Hendrix (who used to work next to me) and I hit the "artificial only" section of the Chattahoochee Tailwater near Duluth, GA for some catching up. Mike works for Red Hat, and loves his new job. I enjoyed reconnecting with him for the afternoon. Here's a nice wild brown that Mike caught and released near the Atlanta Athletic Club. Fish like this are not that common in my boat, and I was really excited. Once again, this fish reinforces the theory (which may as well be considered fact) that Salmo Trutta is reproducing in our river, and doing well.