Trout Fishing the Toccoa River

Miguel Cervantes · Mar 9, 2018

It seems that all of the old regulations from a few years ago have been removed from fishing the Toccoa north of the Blue Ridge Dam.

I don't see any restrictions of single barbless hook and artificial only that used to be in place.

Is this correct?

https://gadnrwrd.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=af50967627004b178ccd7264124fe5fd

lampern · Mar 9, 2018

Delayed harvest in pink

Miguel Cervantes · Mar 9, 2018

lampern said:
Delayed harvest in pink

Yes, I understand the map. Was just wondering when the other restrictions got lifted, if in fact they did.

ripplerider · Mar 10, 2018

Are you referring to Noontootla creek? It's still artificial only barbless hooks. It's part of the Toccoa river watershed. I dont know of any other special regulation waters in the Toccoa river watershed other than the delayed-harvest area Lampern referred to. There are a couple of private trout fishing operations that are catch and release artificial only. One on Noontootla and one on the Toccoa.

Miguel Cervantes · Mar 10, 2018

ripplerider said:
Are you referring to Noontootla creek? It's still artificial only barbless hooks. It's part of the Toccoa river watershed. I dont know of any other special regulation waters in the Toccoa river watershed other than the delayed-harvest area Lampern referred to. There are a couple of private trout fishing operations that are catch and release artificial only. One on Noontootla and one on the Toccoa.

Nope from the Blue Ridge Lake dam north for about 15 miles. At one time that was barbless hook / catch and release only. Now looking at the map linked in my original post it is wide open for anything goes. No restrictions and no regulations treating it as a catch and release trophy area.

ripplerider · Mar 10, 2018

Must have been before 1973 'cause thats when I moved up here near the river and it's been general regulations as long as I've been here.

Miguel Cervantes · Mar 11, 2018

ripplerider said:
Must have been before 1973 'cause thats when I moved up here near the river and it's been general regulations as long as I've been here.

I guess I was confused by this old thread and the attempts being made to turn it into a trophy snob hole. Also I think some of the confusion comes from many of the guides on the river telling folks that it is trophy managed and has strict regulations. I guess it's ethical for a Trout Snob aka guide to lie in order to protect his source of income on tax payer funded, stocked and managed waters.

Glad it didn't happen.

http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=645779

lagrangedave · Mar 11, 2018

There are some catch and release signs below the lake that upon close scrutiny are home owner installed.

Miguel Cervantes · Mar 11, 2018

lagrangedave said:
There are some catch and release signs below the lake that upon close scrutiny are home owner installed.

Correct, they have no legal bearing whatsoever.
Furthermore, to counterpoint an argument that has previously been claimed before it comes up here, just because a property is on a river does not in any assumptive manor mean that it's boundary / property line is the center of the waterway it borders. In this stretch of the Toccoa / Fannin County the boundaries / property lines are NOT the center of the river, this the landowners have no legal rights or bearing on how it can be fished, floated, waded or anchored in.

Ex: GIS tax assessors map for Fannin County.
One example is of the overall sample selected in black and white. Another example included here is of a randomly selected property just above the tailrace north of the bridge where a property owners line does go to the centerline of a private pond, but not the Toccoa River. Everything south of the bridge, between the bridge and the dam where the river is heavily stocked is all publicly owned land and does encompass the entirety of the River.

https://qpublic.schneidercorp.com/A...yerID=11449&PageTypeID=1&KeyValue=0046 A 052

JackSprat · Mar 11, 2018

TVA owns the river bed. An anomaly in GA.

Jeff Raines · Mar 11, 2018

Catch and eat for me

lampern · Mar 13, 2018

Miguel Cervantes said:
I guess I was confused by this old thread and the attempts being made to turn it into a trophy snob hole. Also I think some of the confusion comes from many of the guides on the river telling folks that it is trophy managed and has strict regulations. I guess it's ethical for a Trout Snob aka guide to lie in order to protect his source of income on tax payer funded, stocked and managed waters.

Glad it didn't happen.

http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=645779

That thread seems to refer to the trophy trout in the tailwater below Lake Blue Ridge

Miguel Cervantes · Mar 13, 2018

lampern said:
That thread seems to refer to the trophy trout in the tailwater below Lake Blue Ridge

Correct, north of the dam.

There are no specific regulations assigned to any part of the river on the new interactive DNR map north of the dam.

cumberland · Mar 18, 2018

There sure won't be any size limit put on the Toccoa, because they never have put any size protection on the Chattahoochee Tailwater. The state doesn't believe in bringing in the revenue a trophy trout stream brings in apparently. People travel from all over to fish in Tennessee and Kentucky tailwaters. The Toccoa and Chattahoochee would be full of big trout if you had a 20 inch size limit.

lampern · Mar 18, 2018

cumberland said:
There sure won't be any size limit put on the Toccoa, because they never have put any size protection on the Chattahoochee Tailwater. The state doesn't believe in bringing in the revenue a trophy trout stream brings in apparently. People travel from all over to fish in Tennessee and Kentucky tailwaters. The Toccoa and Chattahoochee would be full of big trout if you had a 20 inch size limit.

Many years ago there was a 10 inch size limit on the Hooch tailwater but I guess it did nothing to improve the trout fishing so they got rid of it.

Browning Slayer · Mar 19, 2018

lampern said:
Many years ago there was a 10 inch size limit on the Hooch tailwater but I guess it did nothing to improve the trout fishing so they got rid of it.

A 10 inch limit is silly. Especially considering that most rainbows they throw in are that size.

The Hooch would be a crazy trophy stream if they put regs on just the "artificial only" section of 20 inch fish. a 20' inch brown will eat a 10' rainbow.

Especially considering that the Browns reproduce on their own and the only thing the state throws in the river now is bait for those Browns.

Instead, we have a ton of river tubers and a river bottom scattered in beer cans.

The mtn man · Mar 19, 2018

JackSprat said:
TVA owns the river bed. An anomaly in GA.

Same thing on the hiwassee between chatuge and lake hiwassee, fished it all my life, when I was young, got chased and cursed at by move ins more times than I can remember. When I got older and wiser, and knew how to do my research, I found out that the tva owns the river right of way, so that's public, I also found out that there are stretches along the river that have a usfs right of way on one side or the other of the river, this is the reason some houses have to be built about 50 ft. Back from the river edge. So you should have seen the look on some of those faces when they were informed that their front yard was public ground, and they could pound sand. You to have to have public road access to get access though.

Trout Fishing the Toccoa River

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