New Lake and River Records Set For Toccoa Rainbow and West Point Flathead

Marshall Rhodes, of Blue Ridge, caught the new record for Toccoa River rainbow trout on July 8. The fish, which weighed 8-lbs., 9.9-ozs., would look more impressive in the hands of someone smaller. Marshall is a big guy.

We’ve got a couple of impressive new records to report this month, a big Toccoa River rainbow trout and the coveted West Point flathead catfish record.

Last year at this time, GON was reporting on trout populations devastated in the Toccoa River tailrace by warm-water discharges associated with construction at Blue Ridge Dam. A lot can change in a year. This summer, the river appears to be doing just fine, as is evidenced by the new 8-lb., 9.9-oz. record rainbow caught on July 8 by Marshall Rhodes, of Blue Ridge.

Over on West Point Lake, anglers have been trying to break Tony Booker’s 33-lb., 12-oz. flathead record since 2006. Well, Justin Tomlinson, aka “Big Kuntree,” did it on July 4 at 2 a.m. when a 37-lb., 14.7-oz. flathead picked up his dead threadfin shad fished on the bottom just north of Ringer Access. He landed the fish with 8-lb. test line.

Justin Tomlinson, of Senoia, caught the new West Point Lake record flathead catfish on July 4 at 2 a.m. The fish weighed 37-lbs., 14.7-ozs.