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.
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