Fish Species – Fishing on Foot

Chattahoochee Bass

Never heard of a Chattahoochee bass? Here are a few things I’ve learned about these pretty little river bass.

Last weekend I managed to catch a couple of Chattahoochee bass, and one was large enough that I will be able to add it to my 2026 Georgia Bass Slam qualifying fish.

If you’ve never heard of a Chattahoochee bass, you’re far from alone. Their range is limited to upland streams in the Chattahoochee River watershed, and biologists have only recognized them as a distinctive black bass species for a little more than a decade.

I only became aware of the Chattahoochee bass’ existence five or six years ago, and I didn’t catch my first one until last summer. In fact, although the river stretch that produced my first Chattahoochee bass last year is less than a half hour from my house and on public land, I’d never tried fishing there prior to last year.

Beautiful Little Bass

Chattahoochee bass don’t grow very large. One that hits the 8-inch minimum for the Georgia Bass Slam qualification is a quality fish. They are among the prettiest of the black bass species, though, with distinctive side makings and brilliant orange margins on the tail and fins that really set them apart from other kinds of bass.

Like a few other upland bass species that are found in North Georgia, the Chattahoochee bass face significant challenges, both from loss of habitat and from other bass species — especially non-native bass — which often outcompete Chattahoochee bass within their native range, along with cross-breeding and taking away the genetic integrity.

Chattahoochee bass are currently only found well up the Chattahoochee and Chestatee rivers and in tributaries that offer good rocky habitat and are on the small side to be of as much interest to larger shoal bass, spotted bass and Alabama bass.

They also get crunched from the top end because if you go very far up the same streams, the water stays too cool most of the year, and they must compete with rainbow and brown trout for habitat and food.

For now, some in-between waters exist where Chattahoochee bass can still be caught. I’m glad I’m familiar with them now because they are a lot of fun to catch! I’m thankful that the Georgia Bass Slam has prompted me to learn about other black bass species and discover different waters.

Qualifying Shoal Bass

I recently blogged about getting my Georgia Bass Slam started for 2026 with a Bartrams bass and ended the blog wondering what species would be next.

The answer came a couple of days ago in the form of a chunky shoal bass. That was an extra good one to notch from my standpoint because of the statewide minimum size for the species. Bass must be of legal size, if a minimum size exists, for bass slam qualification, and the minimum size for shoal bass is 15 inches. That’s not a giant, but it’s a quality fish and not always simple to come by.

My qualifying shoal bass was 16 inches long and probably weighed around 2 1/2 pounds. I also caught a smaller one of maybe 13 inches from the same area. I was fishing a creek in the Upper Chattahoochee River watershed and actually thought I might find a Chattahoochee bass.

Interestingly, I caught the first shoal bass on a tiny crappie jig. I was still rigged up from an earlier crappie trip when I arrived and had a tandem rig of a Bobby Garland Mayfly and Itty Bit Mayfly. The fish hit the Itty Bit version, which is only 1.25 inches long.

Ironically, the smaller shoal bass was on the same rig, but it hit the larger of the two jigs!

Watch for a short video from that afternoon on Fishing on Foot YouTube!

Start of 2026 Georgia Bass Slam

Species No 1 for this year’s Georgia Bass Slam was a Bartrams bass.

This afternoon I caught my first fish of this year that will qualify toward the Georgia Bass Slam: a 10 1/2-inch Bartrams bass. Of course, I caught it Fishing on Foot.

Last year I set a goal on New Year’s Day to achieve the Slam — all Fishing on Foot and on public land. The minimum number of species for achieving the Georgia Bass Slam is five, and I ended up catching seven in 2025.

I hadn’t stated that goal this year, and I still might not plan fishing trips around Slam needs as much this time around. I probably knew I’d end up seeking it, though, and I am pretty excited to have one species notched.

The Bartrams is admittedly among the easiest for me. I pursue them and catch some pretty much every year without any thought of the Bass Slam. It’s still fun to get this year’s effort underway.

Looking at all species caught — not just Georgia Bass Slam qualifying fish, today’s Bartrams bass was species seven for me, and a redbreast sunfish was number eight. I’ve actually caught largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass this years, but they came from Alabama and Tennessee, so I still need all of those for the Slam.

What bass species will come next?

Brown Trout Aren’t Like Other Trout

Understanding how brown trout differ from other trout species allows you to fish for them more effectively.

If you want to be successful catching brown trout, the first step is to recognize that browns are different from other trout. Understanding their unique “personality” can help you fish for them more efficiently.

From the onset I should acknowledge that I’m not a biologist, so this isn’t a scientific life science breakdown. That said, I’ve had the opportunity to spend substantial time with top trout anglers and have spent quite a bit of time reading about brown trout and interviewing biologists for magazine stories.

More importantly, I’ve invested my share of hours in creeks and rivers across the country and have seen for myself where brown trout lurk and how they behave.

Brown Trout Distinctives

More so than other trout, brown trout avoid current. They’ll often hold near current, within ambush range, but in a hard eddy. They relate heavily to cover, whether that’s a boulder or a downed tree, and tend to hold in the toughest place for making good presentations and getting them out of one does bite.

They also avoid bright light when possible, lurking in shady undercuts and feeding best early and late and on dreary days. Mature browns are actually largely nocturnal. They can be coaxed into biting by day but do most of their hunting under the stars.

Brown trout also favor larger meals than most other trout, feeding heavily on minnows, sculpins and other fish along with crawfish and large aquatic and terrestrial insects.

Browns also seem to be the most wary of the trout, and that only increases with age. If a mature brown becomes aware of you, the chance to catch it diminishes dramatically.

As a final note, larger browns, especially, tend to be loners. Unlike rainbows, which will stack up in a good feeding lane, a big brown is apt to own a dark undercut bluff hole or might be a part of a small, loose group in a major pool in a large river.

I’ll save fishing tactics for future posts, but if you intentionally consider how browns differ from other trout in their behavior, the spots to target and best tactics become far more intuitive. I will list a few of my favorite brown trout lures below.

Brown trout caught from the bank from the White River in Arkansas.

5 Top Brown Trout Lures

Brown trout on a Rebel Tracdown Ghost Minnow

Smithwick Suspending Rogue
Tasmanian Devil
Rebel Wee-Crawfish
Rebel Tracdown Ghost Monnow
Great Lakes Finesse Juicy Hellgrammite

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