Georgia Trout Fishing Regulations Guide

Everyone 16 and older needs a Georgia fishing license to fish public waters. To fish for or possess trout, you also need a separate trout license stacked on top of the basic license. Buy both online at the Georgia DNR Wildlife Resources Division website, at any DNR office, or at authorized retailers.

• Annual resident fishing license — approximately $15.00 per year.
• Annual resident trout license — approximately $25.00 per year, required to fish for or possess trout. Required everywhere trout are present.
• Senior 65+ Sportsman’s combo — approximately $4.00 per year (includes the trout endorsement).
• Non-resident — non-resident annual fishing license + trout license total approximately $50 + $25 = $75/year. Short-term non-resident options are also available; verify pricing at georgiawildlife.com.

For decades, Georgia split trout waters into “seasonal” and “year-round” categories — many designated streams closed November through late March. That two-tier system has been retired. All designated Georgia trout waters are now open 365 days a year. Standard fishing hours are 24 hours a day on most trout streams. There are still a handful of stream-specific time-of-day restrictions to know about, including the Conasauga watershed (covered below).

The default Georgia trout creel limit is 8 trout per day, no minimum size limit, on most designated streams. A few stream-specific exceptions tighten things up considerably:

• Noontootla Creek (Blue Ridge WMA) — artificial lures only, year-round. 16-inch minimum size limit for all mountain trout. All undersized fish must be immediately released. This is a quality-management designation — not a Delayed Harvest section — and is one of the most common rules visiting anglers misread on the Georgia regs.
• Conasauga River + tributaries (excluding the Jacks River watershed, upstream of the GA-TN line) — artificial lures only Nov 1 through the last Saturday in March. Night fishing prohibited year-round on the Conasauga watershed — an unusual rule for Georgia and worth knowing if you’re hiking into the Cohutta after dark.
• Jacks River watershed — explicitly excluded from the Conasauga artificial-lure restriction; standard regulations apply.
• Hoods Creek and Walnut Fork Creek (Warwoman WMA) — artificial lures only.
• Waters Creek — 22-inch minimum on brown and rainbow; 18-inch minimum on brook trout.
• Smithgall Woods / Dukes Creek — advance reservation required (706-878-3087), barbless artificial only, all catch-and-release.
• Moccasin Creek — restricted to anglers under 12, licensed seniors 65+, or anglers with a Georgia Disability License.

Georgia operates a Delayed Harvest program on five designated stretches. From November 1 through May 14, these reaches are catch-and-release with single-hook artificial lures only. Outside of those dates, standard 8-fish regulations apply.

• Amicalola Creek — CR 192 (Steele Bridge Rd) downstream to GA Hwy 53 (Dawson Forest WMA).
• Chattahoochee River (Metro Atlanta) — Sope Creek to US Hwy 41. Note: this is the Atlanta tailwater, not the Helen headwaters.
• Chatooga River — GA Hwy 28 bridge upstream to mouth of Reed Creek. North Georgia’s premier DH water.
• Smith Creek — Unicoi Dam to Unicoi State Park boundary.
• Toccoa River — USFS land, 0.4 mi above Shallowford Bridge upstream to 450 ft above Sandy Bottom Canoe Access. This is on the trophy tailwater section below Blue Ridge Dam.

The Toccoa River below Blue Ridge Dam is flow-regulated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, not by Mother Nature. Generation pulses can swing the river from 15 CFS (safely wadeable in pockets) to 1,200 CFS (dangerous mid-river) in a matter of minutes. The historical USGS gauge for the tailwater (03559000) was discontinued in October 2025 and no longer reports live data — meaning anglers must check the TVA Blue Ridge Dam generation schedule directly before heading out:

• tva.com/energy/our-power-system/dams-and-hydroelectric-plants — TVA Blue Ridge Dam generation schedule.
• Non-generation flows on the tailwater run roughly 15–30 CFS — safely wadeable in pockets but pay attention to upstream sirens.
• Generation pulses run roughly 400–1,200 CFS — not safe for wading mid-river. Be off the water before the pulse arrives.

Buy licenses and read the current regulations at georgiawildlife.com and the regulations summary at eregulations.com/georgia. The 2026–27 regulation cycle is in effect; verify before any trip and watch for in-season DH dates and the Conasauga night-fishing rule.