I live on the Toccoa tailwater and have fished it for 13 years. I used to have a small pump up pontoon boat that I used to drift the river, but it became too much of a hassle trying to find someone to help with the launch and recovery. Now I just wade fish. There are several places to wade fish. You can wade in right below the Blue Ridge dam. There's a parking lot with steps down to the water. A little farther down is Tammen Park. It has wade in areas as well as picnic facilities and a pavilion. The next public area is the TVA park. It's several miles downstream and off Curtis Switch road. The next downstream area is Horseshoe Bend Park. It's a large park with cooking areas, pavilions, playgrounds, and bathrooms. There's a good 1/2 mile of wading along the park. And the last public area is a park in McCaysville. Not much wading there. It has a good ramp for launching and recovery. Wading is pretty easy at Horseshoe Bend Park. The bottom has been flattened and beginners will do best at that park. All the other areas will need a little bit of caution when wading. Chest waders and a good wading staff will help. I wade only when the water is clear. At most public parks you are required to wear a personal flotation device. I have one that uses a CO2 cartridge to inflate when you yank a pull cord. There are stocked and holdover rainbow, brown, and brook trout in the tailwater. Most of those are what we call a SNIT. "Stocked Nine Inch Trout." There are some huge holdover trout up to and exceeding 30 inches. Those are extremely hard to locate, hook, and better yet - land. My largest so far have been a 25 inch brown and a 27 inch rainbow. I use 3 different rods for my fishing. If I'm planning a fun day of catching lots (30-40) SNIT trout I use a 7ft 9in 3-weight graphite rod with size 18 dry flies. My personal record was 105 SNIT trout caught in 5 hours of fishing at the TVA public park off Curtis switch. This was a couple days after a stocking truck dumped hundreds of 9 inch trout in that area. When I'm stalking larger 12-16 inch trout, I use a Bill Oyster custom bamboo 7ft 6in, 4-weight rod with size 14 wet flies or nymphs. And if I want to spend time hunting those larger trout I use a 8ft 5-weight graphite rod with a sinking tip line and large beadhead woolybuggers to get down in the deep pools. Those pools are full of downed trees, limbs, rocks, and other obstructions which usually cause broken leaders and tippets. Rain, which we have gotten a lot of the past 3 weeks ruins the river for fishing. Lake Blue Ridge is a large reservoir that has a huge watershed to the south. When the lake fills up from lots of rain, the TVA releases water from the dam into the tailwater for power generation and to lower the lake level. You absolutely cannot wade the river when water is being released from the dam. It's way too dangerous. Also, feeder creeks in the tailwater area have no regulations. These creeks go up into farm country. When it rains those creeks flow tons of silt, and clay runoff into the Toccoa, turning the river brown and impossible to wade. It will take 3 or 4 days of clear weather to clean the water up and the TVA to stop releasing water. That hasn't happened in the past 3 weeks. There are float trips out of the local fly store, either half day or full day. There are other streams in the area, most of them in national or state parks or wilderness areas. Most of them have strict regulations with sign in and out areas. I hope this information is helpful.
Rod
