Brown Blitz! A report provided by Chris Scalley from River Through Atlanta Guide Service which documents some great brown action right near the city of Atlanta, Georgia! Chris and his affiliate guides use American-made McKenzie style drift boats which are wide at the beam to help with water displacement and stability.
When It comes to the Autumn season what comes to mind is the epic Georgia Fall foliage, great deer hunting and big browns. As the days get shorter and cool crisp nights occur it seems that the brown trout just come out of the wood-work. No pun intended!
Typically around mid October through January our guided client trout species catch ratio flip-flops from 10to1 rainbows to browns to browns dominating our catch. This is a combination of halted DRN rainbow stockings after Labor Day and the spectacular brown trout spawn run. As the days get shorter that primordial call to propagate the species Salmo Trutta is triggered by limited day light otherwise known as "photo period". Anglers will begin to hear splashes and see big "V's" on shallow gravel bars as hen brown trout attempt to deposit their eggs with male browns vying for a position with her.
The Ga DNR documented natural reproduction of brown trout in the Fall of 2000 with footage of this great mating ritual on the gravel bar adjacent to Old Jones Bridge. Since then DNR has quit stocking brown trout in 2008 and we haven't look back. For years we were just hopeful anglers wishing it was true but now there is no doubt thanks to esteemed biologists like Chris Martin and Patrick O'Rourke with the Ga State Wildlife Resources Division of Fisheries. In the course of 15 months a Trout Unlimited funded study conducted by Patrick has captured,tagged and followed about 3,000 brown trout living between Buford Dam and Island Ford Shoals. The most exciting news is that they have determined that there is very little migration during the Fall spawn period which indicates viable spawning habitat throughout this 37-mile stretch of river! If you catch a small brown at any given stretch of river it is highly likely that trout hatched from a gravel bar within site of that area in the main river. Another misconception is that brown trout are tributary spawners but indeed they are main stem or main river spawners where as rainbows are exclusively tributary spawners.
Tactics and strategies? Cover water as the brown trout spawning habitat(pea gravel) is spread out and so are the fish. Use larger diameter tippet for better breaking strength as you could hook into a trophy spawning specimen. Also you can get away with heavier leaders and tippets because the Chattahoochee river is murky with an opaque green color we guides call "pea-soup" color caused from the Fall thermacline in Lake Lanier. Use larger flies instead of #18's and #16's use #14's and #12's not only because of limited visibility but also spawning brown trout are territorial causing strikes of aggression and probably frustration.
Tight lines!Chris