Etowah River Fishing Guides and Conditions, Georgia

About the Etowah River

The Etowah rises in the mountains above Dahlonega and runs southwest through Dawson and Cherokee counties past Canton to Lake Allatoona and eventually the Coosa system. It is one of the most biologically distinctive rivers in the Southeast, with a set of fish and mussel species found nowhere else, and its shoals and gravel runs support a genuinely unusual assemblage for a river this close to metropolitan Atlanta.

The fishing changes completely from top to bottom. The upper river in the mountains is trout water, cold enough to hold rainbows and browns, with a well-known delayed-harvest section that draws fly anglers through the cool months. Below the mountains the river warms and becomes a shoal bass river, and shoal bass are the prize: a native black bass of the Coosa and Chattahoochee systems that lives on rock and fights like a smallmouth. Redeye bass hold in the tributaries, spotted and largemouth bass fill the pools, and striped bass move up out of Allatoona in the lower reaches.

The Canton gauge reads the middle river below the trout water. Moderate readings mean clear water over the shoals, excellent wading and kayak fishing, and defined current seams around the rock. A heavy North Georgia rain colors it and raises it quickly, and the shoals get pushy; it drops within a day or two. Late-summer low water is very clear and warm, the shoal bass get spooky, and the fishing shifts to first light. For the upper trout reaches, water temperature matters more than the Canton number.

Dahlonega, Dawsonville, Canton and Cartersville are the towns along the corridor, and the whole river is within an hour of most of metro Atlanta.

Access

Canton: town access and the Etowah River Park near the gauge.
Kelly Bridge and Etowah River Park in Dawson County: shoal bass water.
Dahlonega and the upper river: trout water and the delayed-harvest section.
Amicalola Creek: the main cold tributary, with its own trout fishery.
Highway 9 and Highway 369 crossings: middle-river access points.
Lake Allatoona: the impoundment at the bottom.
Below Allatoona Dam: the tailwater and a separate striped bass fishery.

Seasons

March through May: the best shoal bass fishing and strong trout activity upstream.
June through August: warm and low; shoal bass on topwater at dawn, trout only in the coldest upper water.
September and October: falling temperatures, clear water and excellent shoal bass fishing.
November through February: delayed-harvest trout season on the upper river at its best.