TOCCOA RIVER TROUT FISHING AT TOCCOA CAMP IN BLUE RIDGE, GEORGIA

In the North Georgia Mountains, near the town of Blue Ridge is the location of the South’s trout fishing gem. In fact, most people now regard this stretch of the Toccoa River as maybe the best trout fishing in the Southeast. When you look on a map, you see only one river but with those trout fisherman familiar with the area, you find that there is an extraordinary secret to this river that is making it the prime place to trout fish in the Southeast. The secret is the water temperature and the quality of the feeding biomass below the Blue Ridge Lake Dam. Furthermore, because of the topography, the west side of the Toccoa River is mostly mountainous with limited access combined with the Blue Ridge Scenic railroad having the right away at the bottom of those mountains along the river for its once a day tourist run for most of the run of the river in Georgia. All of this contributes to the outstanding year around habitat.  

TOCCOA RIVER REAL ESTATE AT TOCCOA CAMP
The Toccoa River actually winds almost 60 miles from its headwaters near the town of Suches high above Dahlonega, Georgia at a mountain crest and winds northward down the mountains through Blue Ridge, Ga. to where it crosses the state line into Tennessee at McCaysville in Fannin County. As it approaches the village of Blue Ridge, Blue Ridge Lake creates a large and mostly National Forest deep hydro lake that has created a pristine tailwater fishery below the dam.

Below this hydro dam, the lower Toccoa River to where the lower Toccoa crosses into Tennessee, offers about 15 miles of great year around trout fishing. However, the land on the east side of the river where access might be available is privately owned making both investing in the land hard to find and public access limited to a few points. The river is big water with deep pools, rocky shoals and the habitat that makes the flow perfect for floating or wading depending on the water flow.  

Now here is the detail of the secret. Because the waters coming out of the bottom of Lake Blue Ridge generally stay around the high 50 degree mark year round, the biomass and habitat has thrived and thus, the trout thrive. While the Georgia DNR stocks above the dam, as the water warms every year, the trout population declines rapidly as oxygenation declines. This water usually reaches n the 80s or 90 degrees above the dam or in mountain streams in the summer thereby usually killing trout while the lower Toccoa River temperatures stay constant. To further support this great habitat potential, in the mid-1990s, the TVA added an oxygen-injection system and increased the minimum flow constantly released from the dam to where today, the lower Toccoa has no peers as a year round dry fly fishery.

Historically, the best trout fishing on this stretch of river below that dam was at a stretch of private property at the junction of the Toccoa River where Hot House Creek flows into the Toccoa. Hot House Creek is a designated Georgia Department of Natural Resources trout stream and flows on a fairly short run from the North Carolina mountains through mostly heavy vegetated areas of just a few miles of Georgia to its intersection with the Toccoa. As the water rises and falls from the water releases in the Toccoa, this constant water temperature also flushes a thousand feet back up Hot House Creek daily creating wonderful year around trout fishing similar to the Toccoa. It is this irreplaceable location that created Toccoa Camp as the private trout fishing retreat destination in the Southeast.

FLY SELECTIONS AT TOCCOA CAMP COMMUNITY
Most of the small freestone streams in this part of the world are deficient on bug life due to the natural pH of the water while the Toccoa River has great insect life and fairly predictable hatches. The generation of cold, year around clean water with good dissolved oxygen levels from Lake Blue Ridge is the cause of this anomaly. On most small mountain streams, while you may occasionally have to “match the hatch” to catch fish, or specifically wait for sport stocking, most of the time you’ll find yourself fishing basic patterns that are either attractors or imitations of the year round bug life so if you make a good cast with a fly that resembles something the trout eats, you have a good chance of taking a fish. While on small streams that have fish after the stocking and before hot water, Elk hair caddis, parachute adams, humpies, stimulators, etc. are typical dry flies that can find fish. Most of the fish, however, will be caught below the surface by dropping a nymph of some fashion off the back of the dry fly or by weighting it heavily and dredging the bottom which typical Georgia mountain stream stocked trout fishing.

On the Toccoa River tailwater at Toccoa Camp, you’ll find a different scenario. With the more ample supply of bugs, Toccoa River trout can be much more selective. While you’ll never want to leave your nymph or streamer box at in your home, there is a lot of very good dry fly fishing to be had here. In the dead of winter, you’ll find caddis and stoneflies coming off the river. Late winter through spring look for great black caddis hatches, Hendricksons, March Browns, and black or cream midges. In late spring and early summer, the sulfurs and light cahills become dominant. Mid-summer will find grey caddis, small sulfurs and cream midges. Fall fishing is tan caddis and midges.

Midges (in cream, grey or black) and blue winged olives are found coming off year round on the Toccoa so you should always have these patterns in your box. Olive woolly buggers and leech patterns will also dredge up fish when nothing appears to be happening on the surface. Our favorite method of fishing at Toccoa Camp is with a 9 ft. 3 wt. or 4 wt. rod, 9 ft. 5X or 6X leader, and a dry/dropper combination. An elk hair caddis with a small soft hackle pheasant tail or hares. While there are always fish at Toccoa Camp, when the river isnt rising, a little more work is necessary but can still be just as productive. There are lots of ledges that hold fish in all the nooks and crannies and Hot House holds fish lying in the shallow eddies. If you are casting, quarter upstream as you would a dry and allow the fly to float in the surface film as it moves downstream. On the tail end of your drift, simply allow the fly to swing around on a tight line imitating an emerging insect rising to the surface. Or on the ledges off of Toccoa Camp, while letting float downstream, plenty of fish are waiting below the rock formations for this presentation.