# Cohutta Wilderness streams



## TheTroutWhisperer

NCHillbilly has me wanting to hit some high country streams after reading some of his posts. Sorry to say I have not ventured up to fly fish those as of yet. I was looking at hiking to the Chestnut Lead Trail Intersection, hike down the Conasauga a bit then fish my way back up stream? Looks like it is around 2300ft so the water should be cool. Any advice from you guys on this area? Also looked at the Conasauga down stream where it starts to get big around Chicken Coop Gap. From what I've read, reports are all over the place from no trout to 20 inchers.. seriously thinking about giving it a shot Saturday.


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## bearhunter39

Not too good all I caught was red eyes.


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## NCHillbilly

First of all, I would not expect to catch 20" trout on  small, wild trout streams. It just don't work that way. Some creeks might a couple 20" browns in them, but you're probably not going to catch them. Wild trout waters are not tailwater rivers or hatchery-stocked waters with big pellet pig doughbellies in them. Most trout you will catch will be in the 5"-9" range. On some small brookie and rainbow streams, a 7" fish might be a trophy. But they are real fish, not those cement-pond "trout."


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## GLS

In over 20 years of fishing one small wild trout stream in N. Ga., I can count the number of 16"+ browns caught by me on two fingers.  Those 20 years were before the state doubled in population. Gil


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## TheTroutWhisperer

Not going to know until I go try it for myself. I have an area in mind and will just go and give it a try. If I like it I will find me a 7.6 3wt and a #1 reel. My 9.0 5wt will have to do this go around.


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## NCHillbilly

Just be warned, it is very addictive.


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## lampern

Can you use bait on Cohutta streams or is it fly fishing only?


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## TheTroutWhisperer

NCH... My wife will be happy to hear that... NOT..as if the flyfishing I do now isn't enough.
Don't know about bait on the mountain streams. Since I picked up a flyrod years ago I haven't put it down.


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## gunnurse

the area that you are going into is really isolated and has rugged terrain. That is probably the case in most wild fisheries. (Refer to "wild"- right?) I always leave a hiking/fishing plan for that area with someone. Also, the banks are really steep cut, so don't count on cell service. Call me fearful, but I've been on some all night rescues there.


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## TheTroutWhisperer

Thanks Gunnurse. I grew up in that area of Grassy and Fort Mt. but not as young as I used to be for sure.. Back in the day I could go up and down those steep hills and not even think about it, now I have to stop about every 50 feet or so and set down..lol..Think I will try that section of the Connie and see how it goes. I'll have plenty of gear and am well at home in the mountains. Hope I will have some good pics to post!


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## NCHillbilly

Don't fall into the short-rod mindset for small creeks, either. I would consider a 7 1/2' the shortest usable rod. I like an 8' better,  and a 9' is mighty nice at times. Small creeks are full of rocks, sticks, and weird currents that you need to keep your line up off of, and sometimes you're poking your rod with a foot of leader dangling back under the rhododendron limbs. To me, a longer rod is in general much more of a help than a hindrance.


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## ripplerider

I used to fish Cohutta a good bit when I was a little younger. They closed 3 miles of rd.yrs. ago leading to my favorite access trail, Penitentary Branch, turning an already tough 3.5 mile hike into a 6.5 mile nightmare. We used to wear them out in there, mainly in the tributaries rather than the river itself. Back then it seemed like all the pressure was on the river. The creeks feeding it were swarming with trout that acted like they'd never seen a lure. Not gonna name them on here but a glance at the map should give you some ideas.
 The roughest thing about fishing in there was the steady uphill hike out when you were already wore out. I usually backpacked for a couple of days. This was before all this lightweight gear was available (or affordable) and I bet our packs would weigh 60 lbs. or more. Made for an interesting hike out after wading for a couple of days.
  Me and a friend walked in there for a day trip one time. We started hiking at 7: A.M. Hit the river waded down it to the first trib. and fished WAY the heck up that creek. We were hoping to find specks towards the head of it. Never did catch any specks but we laid out the rainbows and browns along with a few red-eyes in the lower end. Ate a shore lunch out of my folding frying pan kept on fishing. We finally got to realizing how late it was and headed back to the river. There were fish rising all over that river. We threw everything we had at them to no avail. We needed a flyrod. Finally gave up and headed out about dusk. We had one flashlight with us and it was one of those disposables they used to sell at gas stations. 
  Well that thing lasted about 30 minutes. It was the blackest night youve ever seen. Luckily the trail follows an old logging rd so it wasnt impossible to follow in the dark, just real real hard. We were so tired we kept walking off the bank in the curves, then we'd have to flounder back up to the trail. I thought we'd never get out of there. Toward the end we both fell asleep at a rest stop. We finally made it to my Baja bug at 1 A.M., only to realize I'd left my rod laying in the trail when we fell asleep. No way I was going back down that trail so we headed for home got there about 2 and Lloyd headed for Cleveland and his wife. I got back up at 7 flew back over there and there was my rod laying there about a half-mile down the  trail. Got lucky on that one!
  I dont know how accurate it was but he had a pedometer on and it read 15 miles when we reached my bug. Much of that was wading miles. Sorry to run on so long but yall brought back some good old memories. This was on the Jacks River side but I have fished the Conasauga near Betty Gap and did pretty well. It's pretty small up that high.


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## georgiabound

I hiked down Chestnut one time. The hike back out was pure torture. I swore I would never go back down it. Always considered telling someone I absolutely did not like that it had some of the best fishing in North Georgia (just to put them through that) I've always had decent luck around Holly Creek but it gets crowded at times. Hickey Gap has some good spots also.

If you go down Chestnut Lead and back up with little troubles, you have my utmost admiration!


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## whitetailfreak

The Connie is an excellent trout fishery. I have caught some dandy Browns, but most will be Rainbows 6-9". Chestnut puts you in the river in a good area. Many go in Hickory or lower where it's marginal trout water and Redeye dominate. Poplar Camp and Panther creeks enter from east and are worth fishing. The Conasauga within the wilderness is perpetually crystal clear due to no roads or development along its course. Like all wild trout, these fish will spook easy, and for those who don't use stealth will swear the river is void of trout. I can promise you it is not. The ideal scenario is to take a partner and hike in Tearbritches and fish up to Chestnut lead tr.


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## whitetailfreak

Also, saw where you mentioned Chicken Coop Gap. I would warn against being tempted to drop off to the east towards the river in this location. A map makes it look like a shorter easier hike, but it is a steep thick nasty entanglement of laurel thickets that my dachshund would have trouble getting through.


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## Bream Pole

bringing back memories.  Went with a friend in the mid-60's.  He knew, as he went often,  but I couldn't tell you where we were except that it was the Conasauga river.  He had stories of streams in the high mountains where he would crawl on his belly to avoid spooking the brookies and use his fly rod to cast what seemed to me to be microscopic flys.  He had pictures like NC posts on here of beautiful little fish.  He introduced me to the fly rod and I have loved it, but never trout fished with a flyrod--just bream. Back to the Conasauga: Never been anywhere since so pristine and beautiful.  The  water was the clearest water I had ever seen.  You could drive in to access areas back then.  We went high in his jeep and finally he stopped and we camped.  No tents just blankets on the ground.  You could hear the river down below us, but not see it.   In the morning we made our way down to the water holding onto trees and underbrush to keep from sliding.  very steep and a good distance and the way back up torture.  I finally caught a small 7 - 8 inch rainbow on a Mepps spinner.  We were ultra light spinning fishing.  Moved from Atlanta to South Georgia not too long after that and have never been back, but have dreamed of doing so and analysed the area over and over.  However never went back and at 73 I won't be going again, but You are sure in for a treat and I wait for your posts.  Take plenty of pictures.


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## GLS

We used to make a regular pack trip into Penitentiary Branch before the road closure.  We always picked the last weekend of October before deer season.  Usually Kentucky and UGA played each other that weekend.  Like the OP said, it was a vertical hike in from the trail head, but the weather couldn't be better for fishing and the fish were active.  I've got a small book, I've Had a Millionaire's Run, The Mose Painter Story as told to Elaine Taylor.
 It details his dad and Mose working for Conasauga Lumber.  There's a great chapter about fishing the Jacks.  The book has a few photos of the camp at Beech Bottom in the 1950s when it was privately owned, the locomotives that pulled the log trains along the Consauga and Jacks and other insights about mountain life.  Mose became a wealthy textile mill owner in Dalton.  My computer hooked to my scanner is kaput, but I will see if I can copy some photos in a few days.
One of the group's last trips to the Jacks down Penitentiary I missed.  However, I didn't miss the trip out.  Allan's late brother sprained his knee (or so he said) and couldn't walk out.  So everyone pitched in and carried him out.  When they got to the top, exhausted, they lowered George to the ground.  He got up and walked to the car.  Allan said George was like that.   One time Billy and I hiked in at night.  The rest of the group was already in.  When we got to bottom, a camp was in view and I ran my mouth insulting them good naturedly but off color.  I thought it was our group. Turned out it was a man and a woman we didn't know.  Allan was two hundred yards down river.  I ate a lot of crow apologizing.  Lucky I didn't get shot, and they left the next day.   Gil


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## TheTroutWhisperer

Just awesome advice and stories! Thank you very much. I just can't believe for as many years I have lived in the area I have not explored the high country streams with a fly rod. When I was a teenager myself and buddies would camp for our entire springbreak up in the mountains. I caught the fly fishing bug 7 years ago and have not put it down since. My haunts are the Hiwassee near Reliance TN and the upper Toccoa. Sometime I will fish the tail water but not often. Fortunate to have the opportunity to go out west a couple times a year and fish the Madison and Yellowstone in Montana. Just a little over a week now I head for Colorado to fish the Roaring Fork, Frying Pan, and Taylor. I can not keep my mind on work now that it is getting close all I think about are those BIG trout I'm going to throw down with and enjoy time with my brother. This is a yearly event for us.


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## Bream Pole

A DNR ranger from down here used to fish the Jacks regularly.  He hiked in a good piece crossing the river according to him many times before he got to where he wanted to start.  Said he always caught his limit each day he fished using a 1/32 oz gold bladed black rooster tail.   So I bought some of those gold bladed  black glitter rooster tails some of which  had a gold treble hook--don't make them with the gold hook anymore--and fished the Toccoa at the suspended bridge.  Caught my limit of stream reared rainbows ranging from 9 to 11 inches and what was either a red eye or a small mouth bass of around 2 lbs.  This was in the 90's and the last time I went trout fishing.  

Interesting thing about that gold treble hook.  I lost the one I was fishing with to something I snagged it on under the water and the water was too deep for me to go after it.  What I put back on didn't have the gold hook.  I quit catching fish and noticed the difference in the hooks.  I took that one off and put on one with the gold hook and finished out my day with 2 more good fish. (I caught all these fish out of one deep pool so it was definitely the hook.)  Never had the success down here on pan fish with that spinner I had on the Toccoa.


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## ripplerider

I caught a 20" er on Murray Creek off Jacks River once. Brought him back to camp told my friends and they didnt believe me. So I dumped him out of the zippered compartment of my creel and they jumped back. It was a rattlesnake. I'd nearly stepped on him, whacked him with a stick several times (dont do that anymore) and slid him into a gallon zip-lock baggie. Well he came back to life eventually, couldnt rare back and strike from inside the bag so I kept him (young and dumb). I poked a couple of small holes in the bag for ventilation and brought him home. My friends were'nt too happy about it but i kept him in the zippered compartment of my creel and put him in a mesh cage when I got home. Never could get him to eat so I gave him to a neighbor who eats them eventually. I did some dumb things when I was younger.


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