History of Trout Fishing on the Chattahoochee River

[Philhutch80]

All,

I know I had made a mention of this in other threads and perhaps we could get Bill Couch or Chris Scalley to chime in and add on here. We are the cold water fishermen of Georgia and it is a loss to those who currently fish this great river that there is so little documented history for us to understand what this river has been capable of producing. Let's keep this thread running and alive so that as information comes to light it can be added!!!

First up: Field & Stream June 1995- Stan Crigger's ridiculous day of rainbows!!!
13 1/2, 12 1/2 & 11lb Rainbows from BELOW Morgan Falls
https://books.google.com/books?id=OR...20river&f=true

And a couple of interesting GON & NGTO threads that also talk about Stan:
NGTO- http://www.georgia-outdoors.com/foru...ad.php?t=39650
GON- http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=755163

And the last thing I have found was a February 1975 article talking about the Chattahoochee being a hidden gem for trout and that musky were planning to be stocked back into all the northern lakes:
https://books.google.com/books?id=bp...0river&f=false

I am still searching for more and if you find something cool or have something interesting to add please do! It's nice to see little tid bits of where we have come from so feel free to reflect!

[Big T]

I remember watching a fishing show when I was a kid and they were on the hooch catching hefty rainbows. I cant for the life of me remember which show.

[huntfish]

http://www.gon.com/fishing/trout-fis...ahoochee-river

[Philhutch80]

Originally Posted by huntfish

http://www.gon.com/fishing/trout-fis...ahoochee-river

"This trout fishery began when a handful of anglers first stocked trout in the Chattahoochee River in 1962. By the cover of night they dumped 12,500 rainbow trout purchased from a farm in North Carolina. DNR later began stocking the river with both brown and rainbow trout."

Blew my mind reading that!!! We owe some thanks to those fishermen!!!

[natureman]

I remember in the 80's when we fished for big trout on Lanier at night. Beautiful fish. Maybe some slipped thru.

[huntfish]

Here's a good article for you.

http://sherpaguides.com/georgia/chat...out/index.html

[huntfish]

Originally Posted by Big T

I remember watching a fishing show when I was a kid and they were on the hooch catching hefty rainbows. I cant for the life of me remember which show.

Probably Georgia Outdoors TV

[LureheadEd]

I remember as a teenager parking the truck on the side of 2-lane Hwy 141 at Medlock Bridge and carrying the 14' boat , motor and gear down the rocks alongside the bridge ....Some days it'd be a trout on almost every cast for hours...Beetlespins , Shysters, Mepps...We finally figured out to pull out at Jones Bridge with a shuttle vehicle... Got reprimanded by a Ranger and had to quit that under the threat of tickets (he said rafts were OK , not boats !) ....Back to carrying the rig back up the rocks at the bridge...Don't ask me why, we just listened to "the man"...Does anybody know what year the Medlock ramp was put in ?....I had stopped trout fishing, other than the occasional wet wade, and started crappie fishing the south for a few years before I decided to use the ramp and get serious again....That would have been sometime mid 80's..

Oh. we did the 20 bridge a couple of times also....Would "jump" the cut at that first big rock upstream....Saw several boats swamped there....Rainbow Ranch would let us pull out on their side, but not put in...

[Buck Henry]

Well, these were my childhood memories of the Hooch. At the time, I had no idea there were trout swimming under my drunk a$$!

[Philhutch80]

Originally Posted by Buck Henry

Well, these were my childhood memories of the Hooch. At the time, I had no idea there were trout swimming under my drunk a$$!

Buck, please tell us all that your are the gentleman with the curly head in the middle of the second pic...