Georgia's Delayed Harvest trout season is open, with a UGA tagging study on the Chattahoochee

Georgia's Delayed Harvest trout season opened Sunday, Nov. 1, on five designated streams, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources' Wildlife Resources Division (WRD) announced. From Nov. 1 through May 14, those waters are catch-and-release only, and anglers may use only single-hook artificial lures. WRD said the first Delayed Harvest stockings would happen during the week of Nov. 2, with monthly stockings after that alongside the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and South Carolina DNR.

The five streams are the Chattahoochee River from Sope Creek to U.S. 41 (Cobb Parkway); the Toccoa River on Forest Service land above Lake Blue Ridge in Fannin County; Amicalola Creek on Dawson Forest WMA from Steele Bridge Road down to Ga. 53; Smith Creek below Unicoi Lake in Unicoi State Park; and the Chattooga River from Ga. 28 up to the mouth of Reed Creek along the South Carolina line.

This season, WRD biologists and University of Georgia researchers will mark and recapture stocked trout in the Chattahoochee Delayed Harvest section to measure angler use and how long fish persist after stocking. Recaptured fish go back in the river, and WRD says stocking rates and the regulations don't change. Because of the study, WRD won't hold its annual Whitewater Bucket Brigade stocking events this year.

Anglers need both a Georgia fishing license and a trout license. WRD also pointed to year-round options outside the Delayed Harvest waters, including the Noontootla Creek watershed (artificial lures only, 16-inch minimum) and the Chattahoochee below Buford Dam.

This is a The Gillnet news desk summary, not a reprint.

Source: Georgia DNR Wildlife Resources Division: Delayed Harvest Trout Season Begins Nov. 1 in Georgia (Oct. 20, 2026, via EIN Presswire).