Little ones mean big ones

Erik Masefield and I floated from Abbott's Bridge to Medlock Bridge durin gthe nice low water period yesterday and caught 20 fish, of these 16 were wild browns. Our river is supporting a fine population of S. trutta and their numbers seem to be growing.

 I applaud Chris Martin for originating the study which will possibly grant the Chattahoochee a higher priority with regard to protection against sedimentation. It's working, keep it up. If it can be tagged as primary trout water, we'll all be better off down the road.

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.

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.