Georgia

North Georgia's Blue Ridge Mountains form the southernmost significant trout country in the eastern United States, a compact but productive fishing region anchored by the Toccoa River tailwater and dozens of smaller freestone streams draining the Chattahoochee National Forest. Georgia trout fishing operates in the shadow of Tennessee and North Carolina's more celebrated fisheries, but the state's best waters hold quality fish with a fraction of the pressure.

The Toccoa River below Blue Ridge Lake Dam is Georgia's premier tailwater — a cold, fertile release fishery that produces outstanding rainbow and brown trout year-round in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The upper Toccoa above the reservoir is a freestone stream with wild trout and excellent access through state-managed public areas near Blue Ridge. The Chattahoochee River headwaters in the Chattahoochee National Forest provide wild rainbow and brook trout fishing in forested mountain terrain near Helen and Hiawassee.

The warm-water fisheries of central and south Georgia — large impoundments, Piedmont rivers, and coastal plain bass streams — offer a completely different fly fishing experience that is largely overlooked by the fly fishing community. Largemouth bass, striped bass, and redfish in the coastal marshes of the Georgia coast round out a surprisingly diverse statewide fly fishing portfolio.