Contrary to popular belief, Atlanta sports one of the country’s top urban trout fisheries. It’s a dream tailwater fishery downstream of Lake Lanier. A place where wild brown trout and planted rainbows can live year-round, even when temperatures soar into the 100s and humidity pushes most humans to the limit.
Weaving beneath the traffic filled I-285 and 75, the Chattahoochee River is stuffed with trout, all thriving in cool, refreshing water sucked out of Buford Dam. More than 50 river miles of the Hooch support large populations of trout and while the fishery is partially managed as a put-and take by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, most residents have no idea so many trout reside here.
Meanwhile, much of the trout community is taking note, some have for decades. This isn’t new to many. There’s plenty of river occupied by fly anglers chasing wild browns, but many are coming to catch dinner and nearly 150,000 trout planted annually keep success rates high, particularly for those with the ability to wade, kayak, canoe or launch small boats. The river is wide in many places and bank fishing can be a challenge in some spots. Others, limits can be taken quickly within inches of park roads.
The river is stocked March through Labor Day, but trout remain year-round as temperatures flirt with 50 degrees almost all year. In fact, when we fished last Thursday, there was what seemed to be an endless number of trout in the region. We fished in two small boats, roughly 20 yards from each other and caught fish on almost every drift. No exaggeration, we kept some and released dozens, all planted eight and nine inch rainbows, with a few better than 10 inches.
In town to film Pautzke Outdoors on the Hooch, almost every trout we caught came on Gold Label Balls O Fire salmon eggs. For fun, we drifted Orange Deluxe and Yellow Jackets just to see how quickly they’d grab them after seeing the Gold Label and it only took seconds to get bit.
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