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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: 9.2 feet low 1686. Temp: 57-64 degrees. Clarity: From clear to stained. Bass: Eric Welch, of Welch’s Guide Service, reports, “Fishing has been good. Water temps are coming up, along with the water level, and the spawn is just around the corner. This time of year, I will normally start my mornings out fishing the main body of the lake looking for areas where the spotted and smallmouth bass will spawn, focusing on long, rocky points and pebble-rock banklines. I’m looking and fishing depths from 6 to 18 feet deep. My prespawn baits are a 3.5-inch tube, Ned rig, jig and a small Carolina rig with a 5-inch lizard. I will also throw a small jerkbait, swimbait and squarebill crankbait. Once the sun gets up good and you can see good in the water, I will start running pockets where largemouth will spawn. They normally will be in…
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 |