Georgia Fly Fishing Blog

Posted By Kent Klewein on October 13, 2010

Well I wanted to take the time to give everybody a meeting wrap up this past weekend on the Toccoa River that was hosted by Trout Unlimited Blue Ridge Chapter (696), TVA, GA DNR, and Fannin County Chamber of Commerce. We had a pretty good turn out that I estimated at around 60-75 people this past Saturday.

All in all I didn’t really get a lot of answers that I was looking for in the meeting. The biggest contributor to this was the lack of current data we have on the Toccoa River since the drawdown started. John Damer, with the GA DNR commented they planned on doing a shocking on the Toccoa River as soon as conditions are favorable for the trout. They don’t want to do a shocking until water temperatures drop to adequate levels. Since we don’t know what condition the Toccoa River is in good or bad, they really didn’t go into what they would be doing for a recovery effort if needed.

A big portion of the meeting was devoted to the TVA talking about their repair work details, estimated time of completion, and efforts to work with the GA DNR on providing water conditions and statistics. I really got the feeling deep down, that the TVA really wasn’t losing sleep over the condition of the Toccoa River, and how much of a negative impact it has taken on our local economy short-term and will long-term. It’s really said to say the least. When asked if they would consider the idea of helping out with the funding needed for the recovery effort, they answered no promptly. In short, the TVA’s  answer to why the Toccoa River is in the condition it’s in, is because we had higher than average temperatures and low rainfall for the late spring and summer. This definitely contributed to the problem, but the fast drawdown on the lake they initiated basically drained all the cool water out of the lake.

On a positive note they are improving the oxygenation system at the dam, adding a couple more lines, which should help out the long-term dissolved oxygen levels on the Toccoa River. Secondly, when the dam repair is finished they will not have to draw the lake down like this again to inspect the pin-stock and other dam locations in the future. This means if we have more hot dry summers we’ll be more prepared with much more water in the lake.

I brought up the notion of trying to get short-term special regulations on the Toccoa River for the recovery effort if we do find out we lost most of the trout in the watershed, but the GA DNR pretty much declined any possibility of that happening. I brought up to John Damer that his study on the Toccoa didn’t add up in some areas of his report. What I’ve seen personally along with a bunch of other guides I’ve talked to points to much higher rates of stocked trout survival and many hold overs. And despite bug populations dropping the last few years I strongly believe there’s enough food in the river to support a healthy trout population, especially if the GA DNR resumed stocking annual trout fingerlings. The lack of aquatic bio-mass would be supplemented greatly by the fingerlings and would help promote big fish growth, since fish 16″ and larger forage on larger prey. I really do apologize if I came off rude John, I just wanted to bring up the point that we shouldn’t solely build our Toccoa River management plan from your study findings in case the samples densities, sample locations, and and bio-mass studies weren’t accurate. I want to make it clear that I really appreciate all you do and the hard work and time you’ve put into publishing the study.

According to the GA DNR during the meeting, the current management plan of the Toccoa River being primarily a put-in-take fishery is what they feel people truly want and that’s why they’ve gone about stocking the Toccoa with numbers and size trout in the 8-10″ range. I find it really hard to believe that this is really what everybody wants. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’ve never talked to a trout fisherman that fishes the Toccoa River that wants this management plan in place. All I hear is I wish they would put in a slot-limit and stock a wider size range of trout on the Toccoa River, and lower the harvest limit. I’ve heard I wish they would devote a small section of the public Toccoa River to catch & release, but I’ve never heard I really like the current management plan in place, it rocks.

What does this mean to all my fellow trout fishermen of the Toccoa River? It means each and every one of us needs to call the GA DNR and tell them we don’t want a put and take fishery on the Toccoa River, and that instead we want special regulations, with a complimentary harvest plan that makes sense, and a management plan that will promote a trophy fishery.  I’m personally going to make a form that I can print up and make copies that will allow us to provide the GA DNR with what we want for a management plan. Everyone can show where they live, how often they fish there, what fishing methods, how old, ect. I’ll provide them to the local fly shops and we can send them in monthly to the GA DNR.  I really think it’s the only way we’ll be able to change the current management plan.

In conclusion, the best thing out of the meeting was hearing about the Toccoa River Watershed Committee that has been established by the TU chapter (696), and headed by Bob Borgwat and Becky Hulsey.  It sounded like they partnered under an umbrella with the Hiawassee River Watershed Coalition and has made good headway possibly saving upwards of five years in developing their future efforts of protecting and overseeing the Toccoa River. Big props to those above. I’ve offered my assistance for any help they need from me and look forward to getting a phone call on how I can help this great cause.

For now, all we can hope for is good results from the future sampling due later this month on the Toccoa River by the GA DNR. I’ll keep you posted when I hear the results and where we’ll be headed next with our recovery efforts.

Please comment on this post if you have anything else to add.

Thanks,

Categories: Fly Fishing
Tags: Toccoa River Recovery, Toccoa River TVA Meeting