I’m staying at a cabin on Fightingtown creek. Is it legal to wade fish the area? There are cabins on both sides of the one I’m in and also across the creek. Do I have to fish from the bank and only the areas I can reach from the cabin property or is it legal to enter the creek and wade fish?
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Wading Fightingtown Creek
- Thread starter ihatemash
- Start date
turkeykirk
Senior Member
Check with the cabin rental folks. They should know.
Worley
Senior Member
Fish - either way a highlander might have a comment or two, or maybe you’ll just have a tight line and some slimy hands to go with it. Them locals can be special I can remember posted signs on govt property at one point, just fish and post some pics.
westcobbdog
Senior Member
If Fightingtien is too small or too restricted there are a number of streams in the area around Blue Ridge, the Toccoa River being one of the bigger ones. The water comes up fast when they let water out of the dam, most rivers in Ga flow south but this one flows north. Another option is for a float tube and have someone drop you off perhaps start below the dam then arrange pickup at say Curtis Switch. Just beware the water release.
Also the same river has good fishing before it enters lake Blue Ridge, too, maybe a 15-20 minute car ride.
Lastly, you can reference the Ga DNR's interactive trout map online for these and other options.
Also the same river has good fishing before it enters lake Blue Ridge, too, maybe a 15-20 minute car ride.
Lastly, you can reference the Ga DNR's interactive trout map online for these and other options.
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Enjoy the fishing. There are a few up along the creek that act like the water flowing through and the fish swimming through are theirs. Be polite and carry on.
transfixer
Senior Member
I've got a cabin on Fightingtown creek reserved for the first weekend of March, from what I have read Fighttingtown is catch and release only ? which is fine with me, just found it a little strange that it was ?
Mac
Senior Member
I fished it years ago with a guy who knew a cabin owner.
Saw lots of fish feeders on the creek and we were at a big pool fishing and a guy came out on his porch from a house up on a hill about 150 yards from the stream. He shot a high-power rifle into the pool and proceeded to use some local language. I have never been back.
Saw lots of fish feeders on the creek and we were at a big pool fishing and a guy came out on his porch from a house up on a hill about 150 yards from the stream. He shot a high-power rifle into the pool and proceeded to use some local language. I have never been back.
That is when I would have rang the DNR and sheriff. Period.
But that is what I said earlier, some of the people there think because they live there and feed fish they own them.
The DNR is going to continue to have issues with this until the state updates the wording for navigatable. Also difficult to say public can't fish a body of water that is stocked directly by DNR or indirectly by a stocked BOW that is connected to another BOW.
And this is where everyone, fisherman or not, needs to collectively press the State if Georgia, their representatives, and the DNR.
It is absurd to think that it is even a discussion. You do not own the flowing water nor the fish that naturally reproduce or the stockers the state raises and puts in. It is not your private little Idaho. Navigable water. And if somehow a creek that is navigatable by yak or float is forbidden, then no public assistance should be provided via stocking etc.
transfixer
Senior Member
I know the cabin I have reserved has in their description we can fish the stream, they even have a small deck built right on the edge of the stream, we won't be wading at all, its not really a fishing trip weekend, just a get a way weekend , it'll depend on the weather how much we actually try to fish, but if I were to encounter some situation as mentioned above I'd have a serious issue with someone firing a rifle in my general direction, game warden and sheriff's dept would definitely be called,
if I were the original poster I believe I would call the game warden and ask if wading the stream was permitted and how to handle it if someone objected ?
if I were the original poster I believe I would call the game warden and ask if wading the stream was permitted and how to handle it if someone objected ?
Flyguyflies
Senior Member
Couple things inncorrect here...The state rarely if ever stocks that water, but the residents do, so technically, they do own the fish. Fightingtown would not be considered a navigatable waterway either. Most of the creek is private on both sides, so accessing it would be in fact trespassing. There are a couple real small areas that do allow public access, but everything discussed here is private water, and private fishing.
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transfixer
Senior Member
According to what I looked up the state stocks it once a year, and in trying to research it the only reference I found to it stated it was catch and release ? although it isn't listed that way in the regs? not a big deal to me, as I'm only renting a cabin ,and not for fishing, the fishing is a bonus weather permitted, if I wanted to fish there are many other streams I'd rather fish
and I don't believe any of the property owners can "own the fish in a stream" they can buy them and stock them, but there is no way to determine where they will go, they could end up downstream in a public waterway or upstream as well, if it was a pond on someone's property they could own them, but not in a waterway that doesn't originate and terminate on their property
Flyguyflies
Senior Member
"Fightingtown Creek is one of the lager tributaries of the Toccoa River just west of Blue Ridge. Though it is seldomly stocked by the state, many locals stock the stream on their own. Brown trout will also migrate up the creek from the Toccoa during late summer and early autumn in order to spawn and escape the warming water downstream. There is little public access on the lower portions of the creek, and like Boardtown, it is lined with cabins and mountain homes. There is some smaller portions of public land further up the creek that will have some stockers and wild trout. For vacation ideas, our article on North Georgia Trout Fishing Cabins have several options located on Fightingtown Creek."
You're right, in a big rain those fish will migrate, however....as long as those fish reside with the private waters of the creek, the residents "own" them because they own the access to them . Same with the Soque.
transfixer
Senior Member
The DNR needs to clarify that then if that is in fact the case, because the way they handle other wildlife, the "state owns" them, and the fish that migrate up the stream, or the ones the state stocks, should not "belong" to the homeowners anymore than they "belong" to other fisherman
Flyguyflies
Senior Member
It's pretty clear. There is no mention of state stocking of Fightingtown Creek on the DNR website. Further, you can check - https://georgiawildlife.com/Fishing/Trout for additional information. Click on the interactive map...You can also click the link for 2023 trout stocking frequencies. Fightingtown isn't mentioned at all. I'm not real sure where you got the impression it was stocked by the state.
It's really no different than a deer that crosses a property line...you can't cross the line and shoot the deer. you can sit and wait on the deer(or trout) to cross the line back the other way, but you can't follow them.
Fighingtown Creek is a non-navigable waterway. If I own both sides of the creek, I am within my rights to restrict access to the water and everything in it.
Pig Predator
Useles Billy’s Fishel Hog Killer ?
Its just like the section of coopers creek where sea creek dumps into coopers and mulky gap road turns into coopers creek road. From there all the way to coopers creek store is private, They stock trout and run feeders. If you find yourself wading in that area catching huge trout you're trespassing.
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State stocks the Toccoa, and Fightingtown is a feeder. Browns go up Fightingtown creek for sure. And yes, residents stock and feed Fightingtown.
Old definition of navigatable may rule FC out, but I hope GA redefines navigations. But also, if a creek or stream is connected to a body of water that is stocked then those public fish are fair game for the public to fish for.
I don't believe it works that way. I own property. If deer wander onto my property, they aren't "my" deer.
