Lake Horton Water Reservoir and Fayette Coweta fishing

[Paul Cataldo]

Can anyone tell me what is the deal with Lake Horton now? I grew up in Fayette 40 yrs but now I’m in Coweta. Online reading isn’t fully clear but it now looks as if you have to pay $300 yearly to fish Lake Horton as a non resident? Is this correct?

BT Brown reservoir in Coweta has some ridiculous rules like you can’t even fish from the bank which is hard to believe and they say max of 15 boats on the water at a time. I’m still not even sure if this lake is open for fishing or not? I assume they are but not sure.

Anyone else got some recommendations? If anyone has good private ponds for fishing, I would gladly pay you or do some home repairs etc. I can literally build, fix, make or design or do anything. Very skilled and very responsible and more importantly, very Jesus loving! I just love to bass fish and sometimes catfish. Thanks for any suggestions guys.
I live in Moreland GA if that matters.
God Bless you all.

 

[little rascal]

You could try Starrs Mill down between Peachtree city and Senoia.

 

[cjones]

I'm in Coweta as well. Resident tag for BT Brown is ~$39 I think per year. Not available for non-Coweta residents, I think. Have to go to water department with a copy of a bill with current address on it to get the pass. I haven't had any issues with the 15 boat limit, but I don't go out there as often as I would like, either. The only issues I've had was when people use the longer trailer parking spots for their Mazda Miada. I do wish they opened earlier in the morning, though. I think bank fishing there would be tough. The only public area with access to the water is right at the boat ramp I think - the rest of the land around the lake (other than the dam itself, which is off limits) is private residential.

We went to Horton a few times a few years ago. Back then, you could get a daily pass for $5 at the gate, but I did see that they changed the regs to only allowing non-Fayette Co. folks with the annual $300 pass.

We've started venturing down to the northern edges of West Point. It's farther distance-wise than getting to Horton, but the actual drive time isn't much different for us, at least.

ETA: At one point, Lake Kedron was open to non-Fayette Co. residents, but I'm not sure if that is still the case or not. Haven't been there in a few years.

 

[kirby999]

I used to buy a BT Brown permit every year . Loved fishing there during the week . Never saw more than four or five boats there .
Out of county Fayette permits may be $300 , but at least they allow out of county fishermen . Unlike what Coweta did with BT Brown after word got out about a guy catching a 15 pound largemouth during a Jon boat tournament and the lake got flooded with people .
People ignored the 15 boat limit and parked up and down the entrance road blocking driveways to people’s homes .
Instead of enforcing their rules , the water authority just decided to eliminate out of county permits.
Fayette went to annual permits because their daily box kept getting vandalized and robbed .

 

[deersled]

I dont know the details but Coweta co got screwed at Lake McIntosh, half the lake is in Coweta co. It used to cost $5 a day or $50 for a yearly pass. $300 is ridiculous. Needless to say, I dont fish there anymore. Lake Meriwether, in Woodbury, was $3 a person last time I went. Still Branch, down in Molena, is $3 per car as far as I know. Theres a lake in Hogansville thats free. I think its called Jackson something or another.

 

[kirby999]

The Fayette annual permit is an annual parking permit that allows one to park and use the facilities at any of the three county reservoirs.
I believe anybody who lives on the Coweta side of Lake McIntosh can launch a boat and fish in the lake .
Fayette county tax payers paid to have the lake built .
In my opinion Coweta came out good on this deal .
Maybe you should talk to your Coweta county officials and see if they will build you a park on “ your” side of the lake .

 

[Paul Cataldo]

The Fayette annual permit is an annual parking permit that allows one to park and use the facilities at any of the three county reservoirs.
I believe anybody who lives on the Coweta side of Lake McIntosh can launch a boat and fish in the lake .
Fayette county tax payers paid to have the lake built .
In my opinion Coweta came out good on this deal .
Maybe you should talk to your Coweta county officials and see if they will build you a park on “ your” side of the lake .

Actually I have read the total opposite that Coweta residents got screwed on the Lake Macintosh deal but possibly you are correct and they were mistaken, I do not know. Regardless, I certainly have zero desire for them to build a park, let alone any type of facility on any reservoir. The less public attractions the better.

As for a Fayette parking pass, what is the 3rd reservoir it covers aside from Horton and I assume Macintosh? Kedron?

 

[trents99]

From the county site:

Does Fayette County sell an annual parking pass for the county lakes?
Yes. An annual pass is required for Lake Horton, Lake Kedron, and Lake McIntosh for all vehicles that do not have a Fayette County tag. The annual pass is good for all three lakes and is valid from January 1 through December 31. They can be purchased for $300 at the Fayette County Parks & Recreation Department. Daily passes are no longer issued.

 

[klerchkatcher]

Can anyone tell me what is the deal with Lake Horton now? I grew up in Fayette 40 yrs but now I’m in Coweta. Online reading isn’t fully clear but it now looks as if you have to pay $300 yearly to fish Lake Horton as a non resident? Is this correct?

BT Brown reservoir in Coweta has some ridiculous rules like you can’t even fish from the bank which is hard to believe and they say max of 15 boats on the water at a time. I’m still not even sure if this lake is open for fishing or not? I assume they are but not sure.

Anyone else got some recommendations? If anyone has good private ponds for fishing, I would gladly pay you or do some home repairs etc. I can literally build, fix, make or design or do anything. Very skilled and very responsible and more importantly, very Jesus loving! I just love to bass fish and sometimes catfish. Thanks for any suggestions guys.
I live in Moreland GA if that matters.
God Bless you all.

 

[klerchkatcher]

Can anyone tell me what is the deal with Lake Horton now? I grew up in Fayette 40 yrs but now I’m in Coweta. Online reading isn’t fully clear but it now looks as if you have to pay $300 yearly to fish Lake Horton as a non resident? Is this correct?

BT Brown reservoir in Coweta has some ridiculous rules like you can’t even fish from the bank which is hard to believe and they say max of 15 boats on the water at a time. I’m still not even sure if this lake is open for fishing or not? I assume they are but not sure.

Anyone else got some recommendations? If anyone has good private ponds for fishing, I would gladly pay you or do some home repairs etc. I can literally build, fix, make or design or do anything. Very skilled and very responsible and more importantly, very Jesus loving! I just love to bass fish and sometimes catfish. Thanks for any suggestions guys.
I live in Moreland GA if that matters.
God Bless you all.

 

[klerchkatcher]

I never wanted to post this. But some guys are
mystified about what happened in Fayette county.

I live in Henry county and fish the trolling motor reserviors most of the time.
But just for giggles I wanted to try a new place. Saw a video on Youtube of a guy catching crappie on Lake Mcintosh in Fayette county.

Someone asked where are you fishing and the guy who upload the video said Lake Varner. I was looking at the background in the video and knew it was not Varner.

Looking on Google maps I found out it was Lake Mcintosh. This was before Fayette counties new rules for out of county fisherman.

This was late mid to late spring, first time on the new lake to me.
I went to same places in the video. Ran into a Fayette county fisherman and he asked where was I from. Told him Henry county etc .... he said the places I was fishing had been good earlier in the spring.

He said there had been out of county fisherman basically tearing up the fish on the reservior and according to him keeping over the limit.

He saw two fisherman in boat keeping over the limit and confronted them, one of the guys told him he should mind his own business.

According to guy who lived and fished Fayette county reserviors, the county held meetings on this very topic and the Fayette county fisherman voted for the new laws now in place.

This did'nt have anything to do with out of county fisherman following the law.

And here is the video what I used to fish a new lake.

And I don't know if they are cutting up or what but here it is

 

[Paul Cataldo]

So what they should do is tell people you have to throw every fish back. If you get caught keeping fish or breaking any rule, then you’re fined heavily and banned for life. Period. When you have people coming out there to try and catch fish to eat, that’s when problems eventually arise. Regardless of whether you allow fish to be kept or thrown back, you have to enforce the law. These county officials make law enforcement far more difficult than it has to be.

 

[trents99]

Enforcing the rules is the hard part. You're looking at having a Marshall posted there all day and honestly you probably need two, one at each ramp.

This was the issue when JW Smith opened way back when. Five dollars to park, no supervision. That place got hammered mercilessly.

The rules are all ready in place and people can choose whether they want to follow them or not. IMO a sportsman will, a meat fisher won't.

Just for a perspective this is a story I witnessed up on the NC coast a few years ago. They had at the time a law that you could not keep any flounder, any time. They had seen population declines from over harvesting. I was on the city pier which usually produces some nice sized flounder. I watched a guy at the end of the pier pull about a 5lb flounder over the rail, throw it in a bucket, and take off towards his car and take off.

Now the fine for that one fish would have been $375. So this guy risked that fine for one fish. How much flounder can you go to the fish man and buy for $375?

Like most any place with rules though there is no one there to enforce them. If you want to get a man's attention hit his wallet, his relatives wallet, friends wallet and maybe they will then start to make a difference.

 

[klerchkatcher]

Game warden tell me there is just not enough of them to go around. I've been checked by the Game warden more times on trolling motor only lakes than Lake Oconee or Jackson Lake. Which I have more time fishing on Oconee and Jackson than trolling motor only lakes.

 

[Whitefeather]

It wasn’t just the fish in Fayette Co getting hammered. A lot of it was because people from surrounding counties were always getting full use of the pavilions and facilities while the Fayette County residents were unable to use them.
Fayette County residents got fed up with the people that were using them didn’t pay to build them.