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Home › Waters › Georgia › Chattooga River
River · North Georgia · Georgia

Chattooga River Fishing Guides

A Wild and Scenic river on the Georgia and South Carolina line, wild trout in the upper sections and legendary whitewater below, with no development on either bank.

Still water and rock ledges on a forested Appalachian river

Map of the Chattooga River

15 numbered points: 5 access points, 6 campsites, 1 bridge, 1 park or conservation area, 1 regulation section limit, 1 USGS gauge. Tap a marker for details. Reviewed Sep 26, 2026.

Printable version →
  • Access / boat ramp (5)
  • Campsite (6)
  • Bridge crossing (1)
  • Park / conservation area (1)
  • Regulation section limit (1)
  • USGS gauge (1)
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Points are curated from OpenStreetMap and state agency sources; confirm access and hours before you go.

Print it. Bag it. Bring it.Phones die, screens crack, and most of this water has no signal. Print this map, fold it into a zip-top bag or dry bag with your license, and you have a backup your electronics can’t give you. Every marker is numbered so you can say exactly where you are.

Open the printable map
All 15 points on this map
#PointTypeLat, LonNotes
1Burrells Ford Campground
USFS, walk-in		Campsite34.96901, -83.11814Walk-in only, about a quarter mile from the parking area. The Burrells Place day-use area sits 200 m upstream on the same access road.
2Chattooga Trail footbridge, Burrells Ford
foot crossing		Bridge crossing34.96923, -83.11965Carries the Chattooga River Trail (TR 221). A foot crossing, not a road bridge.
3Sandy Beach Campsite
riverside, walk-in		Campsite34.94215, -83.12078
4Simms Field
riverside, walk-in		Campsite34.94318, -83.11919
5Licklog Falls Campground
walk-in		Campsite34.92907, -83.12996
6Russell Farmstead
USFS interpretive site		Park / conservation area34.90971, -83.17274Historic homestead on the Georgia bank, just above the GA 28 crossing.
7Hwy 28 Chattooga River Access
USFS boating site, GA/SC line		Access / boat ramp34.90791, -83.18050The main upper put-in, at the GA 28 bridge. OSM maps a slipway 40 m away and the Bartram Trail trailhead 100 m off; all one access on the ground.
8Delayed Harvest section - downstream limit
GA 28 bridge		Regulation section limit34.90786, -83.18104Georgia's delayed-harvest reach runs upstream from the GA 28 bridge to the mouth of Reed Creek. Boundary only - check the current regulations for what applies inside it.
9Long Bottom Ford
USFS campground		Campsite34.89834, -83.18667
10Earl's Ford Chattooga River Access
USFS boating site		Access / boat ramp34.87650, -83.22966Reached by a rough forest road. The usual Section III put-in; everything below here is whitewater.
11Hwy 76 Chattooga River Access
USFS boating site, GA 76 bridge		Access / boat ramp34.81501, -83.30510At the GA 76 bridge, the busiest access on the river and the Section III take-out / Section IV put-in.
12USGS gauge - Chattooga River near Clayton
at the GA 76 bridge		USGS gauge34.81378, -83.30636Sits beside the Hwy 76 access, so its reading is the one most floaters key off.
13Woodall Shoals Chattooga River Access
USFS boating site		Access / boat ramp34.79769, -83.31226Short, steep carry to the water on the South Carolina bank.
14Tugaloo Boat Ramp
trailered, Lake Tugaloo		Access / boat ramp34.73688, -83.34524The lowest access on the mapped river, on Lake Tugaloo where the Chattooga ends. The standard Section IV take-out is a flat-water paddle from the river mouth to here.
15Backcountry Campsite #1
near the Tugaloo end		Campsite34.73049, -83.35801

Guides on the Chattooga River

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

About the Chattooga River

The Chattooga is the rare eastern river that looks the way it did a century ago. Designated Wild and Scenic in 1974, it runs fifty-seven miles from the North Carolina mountains along the Georgia and South Carolina border to Lake Tugaloo, with no roads, no houses and no development within a quarter mile of either bank. It is best known to the public as whitewater, Sections III and IV are national-caliber rafting, and known to anglers as a wild trout river that asks something of you.

Fishing centers on the upper river. Section 00 and Section I above Highway 28 hold wild brown and rainbow trout and, in the small feeder streams, southern Appalachian brook trout. The Delayed Harvest section near Burrells Ford is managed as catch-and-release with artificials from November through mid-May and is the most reliable place on the river to find numbers of fish. Below Section II the river turns into serious whitewater, and redeye bass mix with trout in the warmer lower reaches.

The Clayton gauge is the reference for both anglers and boaters. Readings in the low hundreds of cfs mean clear, wadeable trout water in the upper sections; a couple of thousand means the whitewater sections are running hard and the fishing is off. The river responds fast to mountain rain and drops nearly as fast, and the trails in and out of the gorge are steep enough that a rising river is a real problem.

Clayton is the Georgia base, with Highlands and Cashiers over the North Carolina line and Walhalla on the South Carolina side. A Georgia or South Carolina license fishes the border water; check which side you are standing on.

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Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

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5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Posting to Chattooga River.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Flow alert

Tell me when the Chattooga River cfs

Now: 182 cfs, read 2:00 am CDT, Mon Oct 19, 2026 (USGS 02177000, CHATTOOGA RIVER NEAR CLAYTON, GA).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Burrells Ford: the main upper-river access, campground and the Delayed Harvest water.
Highway 28 Bridge: the boundary between the upper fishing water and Section II.
Sandy Ford and Earls Ford: gravel-road access to the middle river.
Bull Sluice at Highway 76: the Section III put-in and a well-known overlook.
Chattooga River Trail: long walk-in access along the Georgia bank.
Ellicott Rock Wilderness: headwater access where three states meet.
Woodall Shoals and Long Creek: South Carolina side accesses on the lower river.

Seasons

Year-round on the main river; the Delayed Harvest section runs November through mid-May.
March through May: the best hatches and comfortable water levels.
June through August: warm afternoons; fish the headwaters and early mornings.
September through November: cool water, wild brown trout on the move, the quietest months in the gorge.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Chattooga River?

As of Oct 19, 2:00 am, the USGS gauge CHATTOOGA RIVER NEAR CLAYTON, GA reads 182 cfs, the 21st percentile for this date. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Chattooga River?

Anglers target Brook Trout, Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout, Redeye Bass on the Chattooga River in Georgia.

Are there fishing guides on the Chattooga River?

GuidedFloats lists 1 guide and outfitters on the Chattooga River. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the Chattooga River?

Burrells Ford: the main upper-river access, campground and the Delayed Harvest water. Highway 28 Bridge: the boundary between the upper fishing water and Section II. Sandy Ford and Earls Ford: gravel-road access to the middle river. Bull Sluice at Highway 76: the Section III put-in and a well-known overlook. Chattooga River Trail: long walk-in access along the Georgia bank. Ellicott Rock Wilderness: headwater access where three states meet. Woodall Shoals and Long Creek: South Carolina side accesses on the lower river.

When is the best time to fish the Chattooga River?

Year-round on the main river; the Delayed Harvest section runs November through mid-May. March through May: the best hatches and comfortable water levels. June through August: warm afternoons; fish the headwaters and early mornings. September through November: cool water, wild brown trout on the move, the quietest months in the gorge.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Chattooga River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Georgia agency site: https://georgiawildlife.com/fishing-regulations