North Georgia Trout Fishing

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I just got back from a week staying in the North Georgia mountains with some friends at Toccoa House Properties near Blue Ridge, GA. We had a great week of enjoying good food and fellowship, and although the fishing on the Toccoa River wasn't fantastic this week, we did manage to put together enough trout for a good meal Thursday night. The quiet serenity of the mountains was a welcome diversion from the busy Atlanta landscape I see during the workweek. This was my first time to visit Blue Ridge, and I will be back to do some more fishing. Also, I plan to hunt black bear this fall in the Cohutta Wilderness area which is near Blue Ridge.


My buddy Dillan Harris landed his first rainbow trout, a 19 incher, and that's a trout for anybody to be proud of in the mountains. I was glad to be able to net the fish for him. This picture tells it all.


Thursday we grilled the trout we had caught through the week, and it was delicious. I hadn't had fresh trout since I moved from Wyoming three years ago. Being near this great trout river got my fever up to get back into fly fishing, something else I haven't done for several years. So I'm in the market for a new fly rod as we speak.


My friend Brandon Palaniuk won his first B.A.S.S. Elite Series event this past week when he took the trophy at the Trokar Quest on Bull Shoals Lake in Arkansas. Brandon had a total weight of 78 pounds, 6 ounces and had a double digit lead over runner-up Britt Myers. Brandon took $100,00 to the bank for his win. The coolest part of the story to me was that after winning that kind of money, Brandon slept in his truck Sunday night like he does for a lot of other tournaments.

I believe Brandon is on the way to a super star career in professional bass fishing. Another pretty cool story about him can is B.A.S.S. writer Don Barone's open letter to Brandon and Brandon's response. Congratulations Brandon, and keep up the great work!

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