On our return from Botswana we spent the weekend in the hills NE of Atlanta. Nice and interesting country. Had sent my 1 wt ahead to GA so I ended up spending a couple three hours chasing trout in Smith Creek. I emphasize chasing, as nobody chased any fly I flung. San Juan worms, nymphs, dries. But, I did see so nice trout in some of the runs.

Interesting management plan there. Many stream get too warm in the summer. Smith Creek is in a vet popular State Park. They stock it in the Fall and it is C&R/lures until May, when it opens to C&K before the water gets too warm. In another nearby park they have a quality section, limited to 5 rods per day by reservation. Plenty of smaller creeks with wild fish of one is willing to walk a bit.

I should add, all walk and wade.

There are some good troot streams in upper GA & SC and lower NC (3 corners area). Upper GA is where they filmed Deliverance BTW. Pretty country. Not so pretty people.

There is some really good walk and wade fly fishing to be had around Brevard, NC in the 'high' country up and around Pisgah. Some nice sized fish up to 24". You just really need to know where you are going. That country is NOT the place to go exploring or get lost in. The locals will find you and escort you out. They don't take too kindly to Yankee strangers in them there parts. Heaven forbid if you stumble upon a working still or active grow op.

The silver lining is that the BBQ in that area is the best in the world. It's unbelievably good. I'd take it over the best of the best TX or KC BBQ any day.

I do suspect that the backwoods could get "interesting", but probably not too much different than Quilcene, Sedro Wooley, Lewis County......

When I was in the field a lot here we didn't have stills but grows were a real issue. I know a guy who was bowhunting in Humboldt County and got shot at by a "farmer".

This is very true. We stumbled upon a Sky valley mobile meth lab once while out trying to find river access (near Cracker Bar...surprise surprise).

This was our reaction

Instead of cops....it was Tweakers with shotguns. Nope! Back it up. Back. it. up. backitup.

This topic reminds me of a wild night camping in Pisgah outside of Brevard. The gf, lab and I were out fly fishing and camping up there one weekend. After fishing all day into the dark, we picked a WAY back road and random campsite for the night. We had a nice quiet spot and a nice fire. After a great dinner, the gf and lab were happy and content....until all hell broke lose.

Apparently it was bear season and the locals were running DOZENS of GPS collared dogs. In the dark, we had picked a camping spot directly in the center of a huge berry patch loaded with bears. It was pure mayhem for about 30 minutes. My lab was chained to the truck and his chain blew through the fire. Burning logs went everywhere. So I had an actual forest fire; screaming & scared gf; pissed off lab; 14 drunk rednecks; 4 trucks; many guns and a whole pack of amped up hunting dogs to deal with all at once. It was a true chit show. But - I did score a jar of shine off of one of those good ol' boys, so it was kinda worth it. The gf did not agree.

Ah, she didn't appreciate good shine.

Pig hunting in GA has no limit on ammo capacity so I suppose one can really rock and rollin you get a few in your night scope. It was quite where we were.

Our daughter works at Clemson. Whens he showed up, she asked her boss (who had transplanted from Oregon State) if this was the real South. Nope, but its right over there.

Que the banjo.

Kinda funny that in the parts of GA we drove through I don't think I saw a single gun-rack in a truck. Also, with the exception of a few stores (one in particular), the necks were no redder than rural WA.

Atlanta is pretty metropolitan. BMWs everwhere, and it's well established that the reason BMWs don't sell well in tar heel country in Skagit County is because you can't fit a gun rack in the rear window of a Beamer.

Funny thing some GA guys told me a couple years ago is that the river that runs right through the center of Atlanta, being a dam fed tailwater, holds some very large brown trout.

We were off up in the hills a couple hours outside Atlanta. Towards SC. Will note that Atlanta's Airport is a couple of orders of magnitude nicer that SeaTac.

Just what I was thinking.....Deliverance.......Red Neck South.....

It's not just georgia...most of the states in the banjo belt do a better job with common sense fish management. And with way less license revenue. My "combo" tag for fishing and hunting was 50 bucks

Here in Arkansas we got 2 rivers that are well managed for trout. The spring and the white. Both have rainbows, Brooks, and browns. 10lb fish a fairly common with a realistic shot at something over 20. The white tribs even have a couple former world record browns caught out of them.