Outdoors
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ou won’t have to tell a fish story after you’ve spent the day angling on one of our many lakes, rivers or streams here in Rabun County. The only whopper you’ll need to impress your friends will be on the end of your line! Rabun County is an angler’s paradise. Our beautiful mountain waters provide some of the best sport around and our area is vital to Georgia’s recreational fishing industry in many ways.
It’s always a great day on the water with the guys from Hightrout Guides
Our Phenomenal Fishing
A young angler lands a beauty with a little help from the guide at Hatch Camp & Art Farm 64 - www.laurelofnortheastgeorgia.com - August 2022
Take the newly renovated Lake Burton Trout Hatchery for example. One of only four trout hatcheries in the state, the Burton hatchery is home to more than 300,000 trout each year and provides stocking support for north Georgia trout streams and public waters. According to John Lee Thomson, Hatchery Manager & Trout Stocking Coordinator for the Georgia DNR at the Burton Fish Hatchery, “We have a lot of really nice trout water here in Georgia, but the fertility of our streams is fairly low. There’s not a lot of bugs for the wild trout to eat. So if we want people to come to Georgia and buy a fishing license, we need to supplement the wild population with some larger fish that people would be happy to catch.” Fish spend about two years at the Burton Fish Hatchery. They go from fingerlings to about 10 inches long in that time. Rainbow and brown trout fill most of the hatchery’s raceways. Once the fish reach 10 inches, they are loaded onto trucks and released into streams across north Georgia. “Rabun is a great fishing destination,” Thomson said. “Every stream in Rabun County is classified as a trout stream and Rabun County receives over 100,000 stocked trout each year. So, it’s a great place. We have a lot of streams that are weekly stockings and those are the ones you want to target if you’re not an experienced angler because high stock rate equals high catch rates.” Visitors can tour the hatchery’s facilities seven days a week. To try your own hand at trout fishing, experts and novices alike of any age can “hook” up with one of our many local guide services to have a world-class experience. Shady Creek Expeditions, Hightrout Guides, Blackhawk Fly Fishing, Hatch Camp & Art Farm and Andy’s Trout Farm are all great places to start. Beyond trout fishing, Rabun County even has our own special species of bass, the Bartram’s Bass. Often mistaken for Redeye, Bartram’s bass is distinct to the Chattooga River area of Georgia. People come from all around just to try to catch our little fish. In fact, the Georgia DNR’s Wildlife Resources Division sponsors a program known as the Georgia Bass Slam which recognizes anglers with the knowledge and skill to catch at least five different species of black bass in a variety of habitats across the state, and encourages interest in the conservation and
