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Pickerel and Largemouth in Northern Georgia?

2K views 6 replies 2 participants last post by  flyfisha1 
#1 ·
Hi all,
Anyone familiar with fishing in N. Georgia got some tips on where I might find these two species? Also, smallie, if you have some ideas. The only place I've had any luck is at Carter's Lake, but have yet to fish Hartwell (since I have no boat at present). Any help is much appreciated!

Chris
 
#4 ·
Re: Thanks!

flyfisha1 said:
Neat site; doesn't appear to work very well, but they say it will be upgraded continually. I'll keep checking back.

Chris
Yeah, I discovered that too. I posted the link before I really checked it out. I noticed that the search feature isn't that great and the info they have for each place isn't too detailed. At least you can check the places near you to see if they have bass and pickerel in them. I was hoping they would have maps with depth contours and access points like the Massachusetts site has.

I would imagine that the largemouths and pickerel will be pretty easy to locate. The smallmouths may be a little more difficult to find. Look for them in places with deeper, colder water and a rocky bottom or search them in rivers and streams. I think they also have spotted bass in that area, and some of the reservoirs may have white bass, which would be an absolute blast on a fly rod!
 
#5 ·
Quentin...

Yes, there are actually a few lakes up in Northern Georgia that hold hybrids, and several guides work a good deal of the year fly fishing for those bad boys with deceivers and the like on 9-wt. tackle. I hope to get up there some time in the fall to give it a try. Unfortunately, I've found that, being a transplant from the Northeast, most of the fishing in Georgia stinks; either that or I'm just not going to the right places at the right times. Oh well, that will make the move from here one day all the more pleasing. Now, if they'd only find some way of adapting Northern Pike to Florida temps...:eyecrazy: I imagine that with the extended "growing season", the pike could attain some ferocious sizes (not that they don't already in the Great North), but if you think about it, there are a lot more poodles in Florida, which I think would account for a fair portion of the pike's diet:chuckle:
 
#6 ·
Many of the lakes listed gar as one of the species available. They must be kind of like pike -- nasty fish with sharp, pointy teeth!Maybe that's an option?
 
#7 ·
Yes, that's true...

... gar are a prehistoric fish (relative to the modern fishes) that are slender and have many sharp teeth; a few species, notably the alligator gar, get huge (I think I read that the WR for that species topped 300 lbs. and was something like 7 feet long, but perhaps that's just a fishy story). Problem is, they require somewhat specialized tackle since their jaws are so slender. Many fisherman use a snell or loop to secure the upper jaw of the fish, so I'm not certain as to how easy it would be to actually set the hook of a streamer or other such pattern in a gar's mouth. A few of the species are actually kind of pretty. We have them "up here" in Georgia, but they've always ignored my attempts to interest them. It's quite frustrating to see what appears to be a 4' fish rising slowly out of the depths, sitting on the surface for a minute or two, and then slowly submerging again after ignoring all of your efforts to entice it into taking a fly. I wonder if this is what fishing for permit is like.
 
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