Evolution of a fishery
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On The Fly Freshwater
February 2026
Article and photos by Jimmy Jacobs.
You might think that short of being hit by a tornado or a 100-year flood, a mountain trout stream does not change much. If that were true, the angling in that stretch of water would also remain constant and unchanging. While, as a rule that is true, Georgia’s Nimblewill Creek is the exception.
Over the years, politics and neglect have changed the fishing on this stream. Surprisingly, not all the alteration has been bad. Let’s have a closer look at the history and present condition of the creek.
Nimblewill Creek is one of the headwater tributaries of the Etowah River. This small creek rises to the west of Amicalola Falls State Park and Springer Mountain, which hosts the starting point of the Appalachian Trail. From its springhead the creek then flows along a twisting course to the southeast, eventually turning due east to empty into the Etowah. Along the way it never rates as more than a medium-sized mountain flow. On the other hand, it has had more impact on the Peach State mountain fishery than its size might suggest.
From the 1980s until 2009, Nimblewill was an extremely busy destination for Georgia trout anglers. That popularity rested on three factors that it was heavily stocked with fish, a long stretch was parallelled by good Forest Service Road and there were well maintained campsites along the stream.
A wild Nimblewill rainbow.
At one point during that period when Georgia still had a trout season, I decided to join the opening day circus on Nimblewill, just to see what it was like. As expected, virtually all campsites and parking spots were filled, while bait and spin fishers were ensconced on every pool and deeper run.
Eventually, I wandered away from the crowd, moving up a tiny rivulet that emptied into the main creek. Along it there were a few little drops of 18- to 24-inches with tiny plunge pools below them. On dropping a Royal Wulff on the surface of one, it was instantly grabbed by a fish that I soon had in the net. This pool was hardly 5 feet long and a couple of feet wide, but it gave up a 9-inch, hook-jawed male rainbow. The really surprising thing about the fish was it had the head of a 13- or 14-inch fish followed by a thin, almost emaciated body.
That fish could have been a stocker that ran up the small brook from the main creek, or it may have been in that pool since birth and was a veritable grandpa-aged trout that got hardly enough forage coming down the brook to keep it alive.
In 2009, due to the governor and General Assembly of the state imposing an austerity plan on all government departments, the Georgia Department of Resources, Wildlife Resource Division stopped managing the southern half of the Blue Ridge Wildlife Management Area on which Nimblewill was located. While that action reduced the are managed by the WRD by slightly less than half, the land and water were still protected, since they lay within the Chattahoochee National Forest on land owned by the U.S. Forest Service.
A remnant of the once vibrant camping area.
However, the camping area along Nimblewill and even the Forest Service road were no longer maintained at a high level. The RV “town” that once flourished along the creek during trout season began to decline. When the state ended the trout season in 2015, Nimblewill fell became even more neglected.
Today Nimblewill continues to be stocked weekly with keeper-sized trout from April to July 4, then gets fish two more times before Labor Day and a final stocking in either September or October. Most of the planted fish are in the 8- to 10-inch class, and some wild rainbow and browns do live in the stream as well.
On a positive note, it also appears that the heavy fishing pressure of the past has dissipated on the stream. More and bigger wild rainbows are now found in the creek, particularly in areas where the road veers away from the water. These fish carry the rich, vivid colors of stream-reared trout.
To reach Nimblewill Creek from GA 52 west of Dahlonega, turn north onto either end of Nimblewill Church Road (it forms a loop off of GA 52). At the intersection with Nimblewill Gap Road (FS 28-2), turn north. At 2.2 miles you reach the edge of the national forest property (along the way you do cross a very short strip of NF land prior to reaching this point). Another half mile along the road you come to FS 28D on your right, which dead-ends at the creek. From this point for 1.8 miles, Nimblewill Gap Road parallels the stream up along the stocked area to the drive on the right that leads to the Bearden Falls Trail parking area. Above this point the creek get smaller, but it also contains more stream-bred wild trout.
