Close to the bank and channeled into a deep run against a bedrock shelf, brown-tinged water floated Bob Rice’s bright orange indicator past fallen timber. The river was swift, but with guide Chris Scalley at the oars, the boat was swept with the current, allowing Rice a long drift as he mended fly line upstream and down.
The trick is to allow the current to carry the fly naturally with a minimum of drag imparted by the fly line. Apparently, Rice, the co-publisher of The Angler Magazine’s Atlanta edition, was doing it right. His indicator was ripped under and streaked upstream. A trout had plucked his big black stonefly nymph from the flow, and Rice reeled quickly to pick up the line and get the fish on the reel.
At the first flash of a buttery yellow belly, everyone aboard knew Rice was hooked-up with the fish we were after, a gorgeous brown trout, sleek and healthy, its bright red spots visible several feet under the surface. Following a spirited fight, Scalley netted the 16-inch stream-born fish. It was the first fish of the day, caught a couple hundred yards downstream of the ramp.
For many trout anglers, wild brown trout are the apex of the sport. And many of them don’t know that one of the Southeast’s best trout fisheries, especially for wild browns, flows just north of Atlanta. The Chattahoochee River tailwater drains Atlanta’s water supply reservoir, Lake Lanier, and flows from the base of Buford Dam with temperatures of 40 to 50 degrees. This has created the perfect habitat for brown trout to thrive and reproduce along the 30-mile run that carries the river through the city’s northern suburbs. The state still stocks rainbow trout in the tailwater, but there is no need to supplement the wild brown trout population. It is booming. A string of state-record browns has come from the river, including the most recent, a 2014 fish that weighed more than 20 pounds.
In a pleasant day spent floating the river and drifting nymphs, multiple good browns were brought to the net that measured 14 to 16 inches or better, along with a spattering of smaller fish and stocked rainbows. It was surprising. This is the kind of quality fishing one might only expect to find far from the bustle of a major metropolitan area.
Another surprise is the solitude. Focused on fishing and floating through shoals between tree-lined banks, it’s easy to forget that just beyond high banks and a screen of foliage there is a big city. The Chattahoochee is not just a place where locals can catch a few trout while waiting out rush-hour traffic. Whether you’re a novice or an expert trout angler, give Scalley a call. He’ll show you. The river offers fishing just as good, if not better, than many of the region’s more publicly acclaimed trout fisheries. It deserves a place among the premier tailwaters of the Southeast.
Chris Scalley owns River Through Atlanta Guide Service, which offers float trips on the Chattahoochee River. Visit his website at riverthroughatlanta.com.