Chattahoochee River Fishing Guides and Conditions, Georgia

About the Chattahoochee River

The Chattahoochee below Buford Dam is the southernmost year-round trout fishery in the eastern United States and the only one that runs through a major metropolitan area. Cold releases from the bottom of Lake Lanier keep the river in the fifties all the way down to Atlanta, and the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area protects a string of units along both banks that give anglers public access most of the way.

The upper river from Buford Dam to Settles Bridge is the coldest and the most trout-focused, with a strong stocked rainbow fishery and wild browns that grow large in the pools. Below Medlock Bridge and through the Jones Bridge and Johnson Ferry units the river widens into classic shoal water, and by the time it reaches the Palisades it is a mixed fishery with trout, striped bass in summer, and shoal bass in the warmer reaches. Guides run drift boats and rafts on the upper floats and wade trips in the shoals.

The Buford Dam gauge is the release number and it is the single most important safety fact on this river. The Corps generates on demand, and the water can go from a few hundred cfs to several thousand within minutes, with a siren and horn warning at the dam. Wade only on low, non-generating flows, know the schedule, and get off the gravel when the horn sounds. Guided floats are timed around the release pattern.

Everything is close: Buford, Roswell, Sandy Springs and Atlanta itself. That access is the appeal, an hour of trout fishing before work in a city that has no business having a trout river.

Access

Buford Dam Park: the top of the tailwater, boat ramp and the generation-warning siren.
Bowmans Island Unit: the first National Recreation Area unit below the dam.
Settles Bridge and Abbotts Bridge: upper river units with parking and trails.
Medlock Bridge: popular launch for the upper floats.
Jones Bridge and Holcomb Bridge: mid-river units, shoals and wade access.
Johnson Ferry and Powers Island: lower units close to the city.
Chattahoochee Nature Center and the Palisades: lower river shoal and striper water.
Never wade without checking the Buford Dam generation schedule.

Seasons

Year-round trout fishery; the tailwater never warms out.
March through May: hatches, stocking and comfortable flows.
June through August: cold water in Georgia heat, plus striped bass in the lower river.
September through February: brown trout in the fall, midge fishing in winter, few anglers.