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Lake Blue Ridge
Lake Blue Ridge is a 3,300-acre TVA reservoir located in Fannin County, in the northern portion of Georgia. The lake is fed primarily by the Toccoa River. Blue Ridge was created by the completion of Blue Ridge Dam in 1930. The lake level fluctuates by about 20 feet from winter drawdown to full pool in a typical year. The Toccoa tailrace below Blue Ridge offers very good trout fishing, although much of the riverbank is private in this stretch.
Lake Blue Ridge Resources
Blue Ridge: Level: 18 feet below 1686. Temp: 44-46 degrees. Clarity: Clear. Bass: Eric Welch, of Welch’s Guide Service, reports, “Fishing has been decent. We’ve had some pretty cold weather the past month with nights in single digits and days not getting above freezing. It’s been a good many years since we had a cold winter. There have been some pockets that have frozen and also some ice up the river. This should help us have a pretty good shad kill this year. All of our lakes have herring baitfish, and anyone who fishes them knows we could use a good shad kill. When the water is this cold, it’s hard not to parallel the banks with a crankbait. I like throwing a Rapala Shad Rap in the old holographic blue/silver, bluegill and perch. I also like the old-school Rebel Deep Wee R and a Bandit 200. I’m dragging a 3/8-oz.…
Read MoreLake Blue Ridge Fishing Articles
To the smallmouth, the small red jig darting just off the bottom of a rocky Lake Blue Ridge point must have looked like a crayfish or a yellow perch trying to escape. With a flick of its tail it surged forward and hit the jig. On the other end of the fishing line, sitting in…
What is faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and is able to leap several feet out of the water with a single bound? If you guessed Superman, thanks for playing. Enjoy your parting gifts. What I’m talking about is a Georgia fishing treasure: the smallmouth bass. A largemouth is a sneak…
Nathan Lewis holds the current largemouth bass record for Lake Blue Ridge with an 11-lb., 10.7-oz. fish he caught on Feb. 1, 2005. Nathan also hold the Blue Ridge record for brown trout with a 9-lb., 4.8-oz. fish. Click here to see all of the Lake Blue Ridge records.
If you want to catch walleye in Georgia, the place you need to go is Lake Blue Ridge. There are walleye in other north Georgia lakes, of course, and some good ones. The state record fish at 11-lbs. 6-ozs. was caught in Lake Russell. The previous record of 11 pounds even was caught from Lake…
Greg Bergman (right), of Kennesaw, was fishing with his buddy Victor Shelquist (left) on Lake Blue Ridge when Greg boated this 9-lb., 4-oz., walleye. The record fish was caught on Jan. 7, 2001. Greg’s huge Georgia walleye beat the old Lake Blue Ridge record, caught in 1995, by 4 pounds.
Blue Ridge Lake Records
| Largemouth Bass | 11-lbs., 10.7-ozs. | Nathan Lewis | 02/01/05 |
| Smallmouth Bass | 6-lbs., 14-ozs. | Jim Ezell | 05/15/98 |
| Spotted Bass | 6-lbs., 4-ozs. | Kevin Hoek | 03/04/17 |
| White Bass | 3-lbs., 6.72-ozs. | Jesse McKeral | 03/22/08 |
| Flathead Catfish | 44-lbs. | Leon Reavis | 07/06/70 |
| Muskellunge | 38-lbs.* | Rube Golden | 06/57 |
| Walleye | 9-lbs., 4-ozs. | Greg Bergman | 01/07/01 |
| Yellow Perch | 1-lb., 14.4-ozs. | Scott Sliter | 02/13/07 |
| Brown Trout | 9-lbs., 4.8-ozs. | Nathan Lewis | 12/07/16 |
| Rainbow Trout | 5-lbs., 2.08-ozs. | Nathan Stuart | 05/03/07 |