by Chris Scalley
As fall approaches, the fleeting daylight and cooler weather triggers a primordial behavior unique to brown trout. Frosty mornings and the reflection of fall foliage from the river’s surface makes for a memorable day regardless of the fishing success. Most of our clients who really want to target salmotrutta know that autumn can be magical, as brown trout seem to come out of the woodwork, literally. Where you mostly caught rainbow trout during other parts of the year, now is replaced with brown trout. There is a debate among fall fly fishermen whether the vivid colors of the turning leaves or the markings of spawning browns is more exquisite. Vicious strikes on both dead-drifted or streamer flies is what is known as the “Brown-Blitz”.
Brown trout were imported from Northern Europe, and it seems that Atlanta on the Chattahoochee tailwater is ideally suited to them. Salmotrutta was originally stocked by the GA DNR over 70 years ago on the river below Buford Dam. Since 2005, DNR made a decision to stop stocking brown trout because they were successfully spawning on the vast gravel bars that exist for 35 miles from Buford to Roswell Shoals. Long story short is that here is a river that runs through a greater metropolitan area of 6 million people and growing.
Despite the pro-growth juggernaut of Atlanta, we must commend the foresight of the powers that be. Some of the original environmentalists like The Friends of the River and the Atlanta Regional Commission influenced Governor Jimmy Carter who then later as President signed the bill to create the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area encompassing 15,000 linear acres of protected parklands. There is 48 miles of protected river frontage with a 2,000 foot protected corridor on either bank where strict stream riparian areas are enforced along with a 30% impervious surface footprint on all private lands within the ARC corridor. Other influential advocacy and governmental groups that keep watch over our waters are The Chattahoochee Riverkeepers, Multiple Trout Unlimited Chapters, most notably the Upper TU Chapter in Roswell, GA, Trust for Public Land, GA Conservancy, Land and Water Conservation Fund, GA DNR and The National Park Service.
So when you catch that beautiful brown trout this fall, remember you are reaping the benefits of a lot of hard work from previous generations whose hope was to see their grandchildren enjoy this great waterway known as the Chattahoochee NRA.