The annual Helen Trout Tournament is held each year in mid-May along the upper Chattahoochee. The tournament’s legal status, with respect to the trout, has been the subject of ongoing coverage by our outdoors desk.
Georgia DNR's spring fingerling run for Smith Creek and the lower Anna Ruby Falls Creek corridor put 14,000 rainbow trout in the water between 7:21 and 9:44 a.m. on Tuesday, March 18. The fish were in good condition. The water was 51°F.
By Garrett "Buck" Pendergrass · Mar 19, 2026 · 7 min
At 7:04 a.m. Thursday, February 20, the Chattahoochee at Robertstown Road ran 44.1°F. By afternoon it had climbed to 47.3°F. That is still cold enough to make a reasonable person reconsider most recreational decisions.
By Garrett "Buck" Pendergrass · Feb 20, 2026 · 7 min
The 2026 Georgia trout-fishing opener is scheduled for Saturday, March 24. On the Helen section of the Upper Chattahoochee River — the four-mile stretch from the headwaters at the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest boundary downstream to the Robertstown Road pedestrian bridge, classified as a 'seasonally stocked water' under Georgia DNR regulations — the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Resources Division has historically stocked, between late January and mid-March of each year, an aggregate of approximately 14,000 hatchery-raised rainbow and brown trout fingerlings. The 2026 stocking log, as of Thursday, January 22, shows zero fingerlings delivered.
By Garrett "Buck" Pendergrass · Jan 22, 2026 · 3 min
