Monster 16 3/4-Pound Brown Trout From Chattahoochee

J.D. Blevins, of Buford, (left) and his fishing buddy, Mark Sawyer, of Buford, caught this enormous brown trout while fishing the Chattahoochee on Sept. 4.

J.D. Blevins, of Buford, said his wife was livid when he decided to go fishing on the Chattahoochee River the morning of Sept. 4. He was very late for their trip to the beach, but she calmed down once she found out why.

He caught this 16-lb., 13-oz. brown trout with a No. 5 countdown Rapala on a micro-light rod and reel with 8-lb. test. Canibalistically, the lure was a brown-trout pattern.

Once he hooked into the fish just downstream of Abbots Bridge, J.D. said his fishing buddy, Mark Sawyer, of Buford, was instrumental in landing it. During the 10-minute fight, Mark chased the fish upstream with the trolling motor allowing J.D. to keep the 3 feet of line he had left on the spool at one point. Mark also manned the trout net, which was ridiculously small in comparison to the fish.

“I kid you not. As soon as the fish hit the bottom of the boat, the lure popped out,” J.D. said. “Once we got it in, we both jumped up and down and screamed like little girls.”

Suprisingly for such a huge fish, it is not a state or river record. The state and Chattahoochee record brown is an 18-lb., 6-oz. fish caught in 2001.

“If we had known it wasn’t a record, we wouldn’t have killed it,” J.D. said.

Oh well, it’ll look mighty fine hanging on the wall.