Beating The Georgia Heat

The weather is smoldering, but there are still trout to be caught!

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On The Fly Freshwater

July 2026

Article and photos by Jimmy Jacobs

Recent scalding weather has gripped much of the Deep South and North Georgia has not been an exception. Temperatures have regularly been hitting the 90s, but the real feel has even pushed into triple digits. It is not the kind of weather that invite you to go fishing. If trout are your target species, it is not just you that feels uncomfortable in the heat. Increased water temperatures make the fish lethargic and uninterested in feeding. All of which is a prescription for poor angling success. So, what do you do?

You could just stay home in the air conditioning and be cool. For most dedicated fly fishers with some free time, that seems more like prison sentence than a solution. What is needed is a fishing destination that can beat the heat. And there are a couple of them in the northern third of the Peach State that offer that situation, regardless of how much the summer sun is bearing down on the water. Both are tailwater fisheries below hydroelectric dams and furnish oases of cold water even in the summer. Better yet, they provide public access for wade fishing, with caveat that the action takes place only when the generators in the dam powerhouses are not in operation.

Chattahoochee River – Bowmans Island Unit

The Chattahoochee River tailwater downstream of Buford Dam at Lake Sidney Lanier lies just northeast of Atlanta. Along its 45-plus-mile course down into Atlanta it has a “string of pearls” along its shores in the form of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. That patchwork of park units offers excellent access for fishing much of the river.

Buford Dam in the distance.

What sets Bowmans Island apart is its location immediately below the dam. Whether its hot summertime weather or torrential seasonal rain in the form of thunderstorms that muddy up the rest of the state’s trout streams, when the generators are not running in the powerhouse, the Bowman Island section of the river is fishable. The cold water released from the depths of the 156-foot-deep impoundment is at the temperature trout love and it is exceptionally clear. Farther down the river tributary streams can be dumping warm and muddy water into the Chattahoochee, but Bowmans Island is unaffected.

As to the trout, the “Hooch,” as many locals call it, gets heavy stockings of rainbow trout each week from April to July 31, two more releases prior to Labor Day and a final planting in either September or October annually. Some of those fish are stocked at Bowmans Island and the river also holds naturally producing wild brown trout.

A hook up at Bowmans Island.

Much of the river here is wadable all the way to south end of the island. Additionally, the Bowmans Island Trail provides access down the west bank.

In the summertime, particularly when the water is falling as releases end, Sulphur, terrestrial or midge patterns can produce surface action. As the water settles and when the sun is beating down on it, fishing zebra midge, Pheasant Tail or Hare’s Ear nymphs deep is usually the ticket. Or you might try a San Juan Worm too.

Be sure to check the Corps of Engineers daily generation forecast for water releases before fishing. That is available online by clicking here or by calling (770) 945-1466.

Toccoa River – Tammen Park

The Toccoa River is considered to be the Peach State’s “other tailwater,” though its dry fly action sometimes eclipses that of its better-known cousin. When it comes to dependable trout fishing during summer heat, Tammen Park on its shore rates right up there with the Chattahoochee.

Tammen Park is located just northeast of the town of Blue Ridge and several hundred yards downstream of the Blue Ridge Lake dam. That puts it right at the head of the 16-mile tailwater trout fishery on the river. Blue Ridge Lake has a maximum depth of 246 feet and is 175 feet deep at the dam. Water released from that depth is cold year-round.

The park offers parking, restrooms, a boat ramp and an easily waded shoal when water is not being released at the dam. Trout are stocked here on the same schedule as on the Hooch, but with the bonus of the plantings being composed of brook and brown trout, as well as rainbows.

The shoal at Tammen Park.

In at least one instance during a low-water summer drought a few years back, the mountain fish hatcheries were fearful of losing all their trout to warming water. As a result, everything in the raceways were dumped into the Toccoa at Tammen Park. Catching 40 fish a day from 4 to 12 inches was easy for a couple of weeks!

Don’t expect that kind of action now, but with dependably cold and clear water coming down from the dam, Tammen Park fishing is dependable. To check dam release schedules for Blue Ridge Dam, visit the Tennessee Valley Authority stream level site by clicking here.