Fisheries Technician Kinsey Girard participated in a recent volunteer trout stocking event at the Whitewater Unit of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area.
Stocking Trout at Whitewater
Steve Hudson, Field Editor for Fly Life Magazine.com, actively promotes fly tying at a local fly shop in North Georgia. In a striking image by Trent Sizemore, Hudson brings a wealth of experience, having authored over 20 books covering every aspect of fishing and hiking in Georgia and the nearby states. His passion for the outdoors is evident in his work and advocacy for these activities.
By Steve Hudson, Field Editor
It’s the first day of November, and a crowd of wader-clad anglers is gathered at the Whitewater Unit of the Chattahoochee River National Area. Are they fishing? Not yet. Instead, they’ve gathered to help stock trout into the Chattahoochee on the much-anticipated opening day of Georgia’s Delayed Harvest trout fishing season.
Delayed Harvest
“Delayed Harvest” (often called “DH”) is an approach to managing streams that are too warm for trout during the warmer months but that become good trout habitats through the colder days of late fall, winter, and early spring.
Here’s how it works. During the warmer months, DH streams are managed as warmwater fisheries and provide good angling for bass, sunfish, and other warmwater species. But as temperatures drop in the fall, those same waters eventually become cold enough to support trout. They are then managed as trout fisheries (under special DH regulations) until things warm up again with spring.
Georgia regs
In Georgia, the DH season begins on Nov. 1 and continues through May 14. During that time, fishing in designated DH waters is restricted to only artificial flies or lures and single-hook lures. It’s strictly catch-and-release, too, and all trout caught must be immediately returned to the water.
One particularly neat thing about the DH season is how it actively involves the fishing community. Several times during the season, volunteers help the Department of Natural Resources stock trout into the state’s DH streams – and on this day, one of those volunteers is me.
Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area
I arrive at the Whitewater Unit of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area early and grab a parking place. Others are already there. The stocking truck is there, too, and I asked fisheries technician Kinsey Girard what’s inside the truck’s holding tanks.
“This load is all rainbow trout,” she says, adding that the total is about 1,600 fish. “About 1,400 of them are in the 10-inch range,” she says, “but another 200 are 14 inches or bigger.”
Helping Kinsey is fisheries technician Kyle Trenda, who put an additional 1,600 fish into the river at nearby Akers Mill earlier in the morning. The truck can get close to the water and stock the fish directly at that location. But here at Whitewater, there’s no close approach to the river. That’s where the volunteers come in.
Volunteers line up to carry trout from the hatchery truck down to the river.
Come one, come all
More folks arrive. Soon, there’s a large cadre of wader-clad trout enthusiasts, each carrying a 5-gallon bucket to transport fish from the truck to the river, and the conversation turns to practical matters like fly choice and tackle. There’s general agreement that patterns such as the Y2K or 3D Sucker Spawn egg imitations, as well as the ubiquitous Woolly Bugger, should work well.
But then it’s time to get to work. Kinsey thanks everyone for coming and briefly explains how DH stocking works.
Then, as folks line up, she climbs onto the truck and opens the first holding tank. She picks up a net, scoops up a load of trout, and dumps them into a waiting bucket. The bucket brigade has begun!
For the next hour or so, volunteers move hundreds of buckets of trout from the truck to the river. Most fish, as expected, are in the 10-inch range. But there are some giants, too, including many in the 16 to 18 inches range. Are one or two even bigger?
Then comes the big question: Where should the fish be placed in the river?
Some of the stocking volunteers, including dad Richard Mohr, who’s there with his 2-year-old son Miller, don’t go much farther than the river’s edge before placing the fish into the water. Debbie Ambroze, Miller’s grandmother, cheers them on while Miller is, for his part, just having a grand old time with the whole thing. But others wade on out into the cold river, going farther (sometimes much farther) from the bank before pouring out their offering of trout.
Richard Mohr and his 2-year-old son Miller put trout in the river as Debbie Ambroze, Miller’s Grandmother, cheers them on.
How does one decide which way to do it?
“Well, we like to tell ourselves that we will put them in our own secret places so we’ll know where they are when we fish later on,” says Matt Westborn, a trout fishing enthusiast from Atlanta and a veteran of many such stockings. “But the reality is that the fish will quickly spread out.” The hope, he adds, is that they’ll eventually spread out enough to provide good DH trout fishing over a big section of the designated DH water.
Among those helping this morning are student members of the Georgia Tech Five Rivers Fishing Club, part of a nationwide initiative targeting college students and jointly sponsored by Trout Unlimited and Costa. Some are experienced trout anglers; for others, this is their first trout experience. All are having fun.
Georgia Tech Five Rivers Club
Sid Wilson, who serves as TU’s advisor for the Georgia Tech Five Rivers Club, is no stranger to helping young people discover the fun of fly fishing. He was asked to help start the group at Georgia Tech, and the Five Rivers club was the result. He adds that the club has been a great way to introduce these students to coldwater conservation and to the lifelong joys of fly fishing, and events such as volunteer stocking on Delayed Harvest water provides “an excellent opportunity for them to catch a trout too.”
What makes someone give up a day to come carry heavy buckets of trout down a slippery path to the Hooch? Volunteer Malik Wilder, who operates FishProCo.com, a guide service and fishing school, puts it this way.
A Georgia Tech Five River Club member, John Yang proudly holds his first çrainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) from the Chattahoochee River.
“It’s just a way of giving back,” he says. “It’s just a way of helping others. That’s the main goal”
Meanwhile, the stocking continues. The old saying that many hands make short work certainly applies to stocking a river with trout, and in less time than you’d think, the entire load of 1,600 trout has been relocated from truck to river. Their work is done for the moment, and the DNR team closes up the truck’s compartments and heads back to the hatchery.
And that’s when the focus turns to fishing. You’d be surprised how little time it takes enthusiastic fisherfolk to get ready when they know that trout are waiting, and in no time at all, several are knee-deep in the river, casting flies and hoping for fish. Soon, excited shouts echo across the water as rods bend and fish are brought to the net, where they are admired and carefully released.
Delayed Harvest fishing has begun, and it’s looking like it’ll be a good year.
“Part of the fun of helping stock a Delayed Harvest stream with trout is fishing once the stocking is complete.”
Volunteers?
Would you like to help stock the Chattahoochee Delayed Harvest water, too? Your next chance to do so is Tuesday, Nov. 26, again at the Whitewater Unit of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. This date, which falls just two days before Thanksgiving, coincides with the Thanksgiving holidays for many folks and provides a perfect opportunity to get your kids or grandkids involved in stocking some trout.
Check it out. They’ll have a blast – and you will, too!
To learn more about fishing Georgia’s Delayed Harvest streams, check out Steve Hudson’s “Georgia Delayed Harvest Trout Guide.” It’s available from many area fly shops, and signed copies are available directly from the author at flybooks.net.
