Fly Fishing the Chattahoochee River. Chris Scalley

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      Chattahoochee River (Georgia)

       Location: Forty miles north of the Atlanta perimeter at Buford Dam on the south end of Lake Sidney Lanier. The tailwater section of the Chattahoochee River meanders for 48 miles through the linear, 10,000-acre Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, ending at Standing Peachtree Creek within the Atlanta city limits.

      The Chattahoochee River forms the southern half of the Alabama-Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida border. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the confluence of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers and emptying from Florida into Apalachicola Bay in the Gulf of Mexico. Better known by locals as the “Hooch,” it is one of the Souths best-kept fly-fishing secrets and the source of the Georgia state record brown trout (just over 18 pounds) in 2006. In 2000, Georgia Department of Natural Resources biologists documented natural reproduction of brown and

      rainbow trout throughout a 35-mile section of the river between Buford Dam and Morgan Falls Dam. In this same stretch, DNR has embarked on a Trout Unlimited-funded growth and migration study of brown trout, indicating a healthy, self-sustaining population of wild fish. Trout Unlimited National listed the Chattahoochee as one of the top 100 trout streams in the United States. It is difficult to wrap your mind around the fact that this river is clean and cold enough to support trout this far south, not to mention having Atlanta looming just downstream.

      The tailwater section gushes from the penstocks of Buford Dam with a minimum flow of 700 cfs and maximums of 10,000 cfs from a lake depth of 130 feet from 38,000-acre Lake Lanier, which sits 1,070 feet above sea level. There are some shoal areas considered Class II rapids with over 120 feet of relief on this 48-mile reach of riverbed. Anglers should lean toward caution, as dramatic fluctuations in water flows released from Buford Dam can increase some rapids to Class IV. To reach the source of