By Phillip Hutcheson
Catching a two-foot-plus brown trout is quite an exhilarating feeling on the boat. Especially on the nation’s most challenging tailwater to fish, the Chattahoochee River. Would it surprise you to learn that not only did we catch one but two 24-in-plus trophy Chattahoochee River browns? This is how it happened with one of my closest fishing partners.
Dave, my fishing partner, is a retired former Vietnam helicopter repair pilot and former teacher and generally one heck of an American and family man. We started fishing together the year prior, after talking extensively about the river. The turnover on the river was when we started fishing together, but this story happened a couple months later. This January day was exceptional.
After grabbing some Pub Subs for lunch and making our run up to the dam, we got into the brown trout immediately. Our first float back from the starting bridge had brought many good fish to hand as we floated down past the islands. We were completely content to catch a lot of fish that day and started to see some bigger fish show up, so we ran back up to the bridge and restarted our float.
As we came around the bend from the bridge and into the flat, the water was gin clear and moving very steadily, or as another friend referred to it as ‘very western’. I knew immediately what he meant as the higher water at that location flows much more quickly than normal and as a result, you have less time to react so you have to stay sharp. We caught fish after fish above two prominent log jams that are mid river.
As we floated by and towards river left on the river, there were several ridges of rock that are exposed in a mostly downstream trending direction. There are deep pockets and eddies all along these ridges as a result. I made my cast nearly perpendicular to the rocks and started working my presentation back. Pause… Slam! And I am on with a big fish! As I mentioned earlier, Dave my partner is fishing away. I yell,”BIG fish Dave, need the net!” No response… I yell louder this time and Dave is able to hear me over the moving water.
As I am fighting the fish, Dave is working to free the net, but the knot holding it in place would not come free until Dave gave it some slack. Meanwhile this GIANT, mean, big brown hen is ripping drag upstream and also occasionally trying to gator roll to get herself unhooked, flashing all sorts of wild, bronze and gold colors under the water. Her attempts were unsuccessful, so with some whitewater approaching, I swing the fish over to the waiting net where Dave is able to scoop her up… Success!!!
She taped out at 27 in in length and 16.5 in girth! And if you zoom in on the fish, she dropped one egg. Even in late January we still have brown trout actively spawning somehow! Got her unhooked and some photos and sent her home successfully. I was ecstatic at that point and it was not even lunchtime yet! We floated down to where we floated before and ran back up, high on adrenaline. After stopping for lunch on shore we got back to fishing.
The next float still had me floating on cloud nine and Dave & I were catching tons of browns with a couple of quality rainbows coming to net as well. We got down to our stopping point and headed up for one more float. Which again, we were absolutely just having our way with the trout as we floated down, this time running the river left section through some rapids to a flat with lots of downed timber on the river left side. We had affectionately started referring to it as the ‘Land of Giants’ after moving some large fish on a couple of prior trips.
It did not disappoint either as we floated into the area, Dave and I both cast into the timber with the emerald-green waters swirling about. I did not have much more than chasers on me, but as I looked up and started tracking Dave’s presentation coming down along a log, perfection happened. It was slow motion as the big hen came out and engulfed Dave’s presentation.
I immediately went for the net as Dave was fighting the fish and using the trolling motor to guide us down one of the sketchier parts of the river with a fair amount of whitewater. We floated over one wave, Dave still fighting the fish. As we approached the next whitewater wave, the fish flipped sideways and came up to the surface nearly to the point Dave could get her on top but with the wave, it did not work. I knew I had a very narrow window to net her and as Dave swung her down towards me, everything fell into place perfectly and she was in the net! Not Dave’s largest Hooch brown, but at 25.5in she was no slouch!
We grabbed some photos and a release video of her and sent her back home as well, both of us giggling as we watched her swim off fast and powerful. We had just caught a 27in and a 25.5in set of hen browns on the most challenging tailwaters in the USA! From doing research and talking to my friend Chris, with River Through Atlanta, prior to us catching these fish, it may have been around a decade since a feat like this had occurred on the Chattahoochee river. Is it impossible to do? Obviously not, but there was a large amount of man hours invested to make this happen.
Some folks like to ask if the Chattahoochee river is a true trophy brown trout river. I tell them it certainly is, but due to all the factors involved here, it makes it very tough to catch fish like these consistently. Only for sure way to know is to join us out on the river and see what we can find. Dave & I had no clue we would have this kind of day, but it is possible if you work for it. Just give us a call and see how we can help get you on one, if not Twin Monsters of the Chattahoochee River.