Delayed-harvest streams are stocked throughout the year, with the goal being high catch rates during the closed season, while allowing for harvest during the remainder of the year.

A NEW CHALLENGE
Although the upper Chattooga has remained a place of solitude for eons thanks to its remote location and the Wild and Scenic River designation, that solitude is now being tested. The U.S. Forest Service, responsible for managing the area as part of the Chattahoochee and Sumter National Forests has been under pressure from whitewater boating groups to lift the longstanding boating ban on the river upstream of SR 28.

The proposal has been opposed by many groups, but for none does it strike closer to home than for the Rabun County Trout Unlimited Chapter. In cooperation with the Georgia Trout Unlimited Council, the Rabun County anglers have actively opposed the idea, issuing a position statement that sums up the issue for trout anglers.

Doug Adams, an officer of the Rabun TU chapter, has been heavily involved in this issue from the beginning. “I have fly-fished the Chattooga since 1955,” he said. “I fish the Chattooga North Fork 40 to 60 times each year, walking in from 30 minutes to one and a half hours before beginning to fish. I enjoy the backcountry solitude experience, and the challenge of fly-fishing for trout in beautiful surroundings. The Chattooga is a special place. It is remote, wild, spectacular, serene, rugged, beautiful, and natural. No car horns, no diesel fumes, no cell phones -- just the sounds of birds, wind and water. And it has a good variety of great fly-fishing.”

Regarding the current threat to his home river, Doug explained the situation. “The Forest Service is responding to the decision on the appeal of the 2004 Sumter National Forest Plan,” he noted. “American Whitewater, an organization composed of boaters, filed the appeal to try to get boating allowed upstream of the Highway 28 bridge. The Rabun TU Chapter is only one of many organizations that oppose this proposal. From the very beginning, user conflicts were a problem on the Chattooga. The river had become wildly popular with boaters through Deliverance fame, and a 1973 Sports Afield article extolled both the boating and the quality trout fishing the river offered. With the sharp rise in the number of users, conflicts were common and often confrontational.

“The 1974 Wild and Scenic River Designation and subsequent planning for the area provided a workable compromise. The designation ended the stocking below Highway 28 since the stocking points fell within in the quarter-mile protection corridor, and boaters were restricted from using the river above Highway 28.

“The issue is not simply a few environmentally-friendly boaters disturbing a few highly sensitive local anglers,” Adams emphasized. “If that were so, there would not be the diversity of groups opposed to the proposal and seeking to retain the solitude of the upper river. For anglers however, the issue is simple: Each time an angler encounters a boater coming downstream toward him, he has to reel in his line, move out of the way, and wait for the boater to paddle past. The angler’s rhythm has been disrupted. The boat and the paddling commotion have probably spooked the trout he was seeking. The angler either has to wait for some period of time and hope the trout calm down and begin feeding again, or move on and search for other trout that have not been spooked.