Trout Unlimited's Guide to America's 100 Best Trout Streams, Updated and Revised

by Ross, John

• ISBN13: 9780762780310
• ISBN10: 0762780312
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2013-09-03
• Publisher: Lyons Press

Summary

The Penobscot, Penns Creek, the Little River, Guadalupe, Firehole, Copper River--these streams and ninety-four others like them provide the best trout fishing in America say members of Trout Unlimited (TU). With a dozen or more streams in each of eight regions, one of America's one hundred best trout streams flows within a few hours' drive of most of the nation's anglers. These are the rivers that anglers dream of visiting. Describing species, hatches, the flies and lures, and when to fish, each profile contains information and maps that boosts angler success. Profiles present, as well, the environmental challenges facing each stream and the role that TU and others play in protecting the fishery. Extensive interviews with anglers for whom each stream is "home water," add depth to personal observations formed when award-winning writer and angler, John Ross, fished many of these streams himself. Many who buy the book set out to fish all the streams. For others, the guide is an essential ingredient in the planning of fishing and family vacations. It's a book that's as at home next to a fly tyer's bench as it is tucked in the console between the seats of a pickup truck. A portion of the sale of each book goes to Trout Unlimited to help protect and sustain coldwater fisheries.

Author Biography

John Ross, raised in East Tennessee on the flank of the Great Smokies, was given his first rod and reel by his granddad. Ever since, Ross has chased trout and salmon from the waters of the high Arctic tundra to the river of the grassy steppe of Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Islands. He is actively involved with Trout Unlimited, and as this is written, serves as the chair of the Virginia Council of Trout Unlimited. He is the author of several sporting travel books including The Sports Afield Guide to America's Greatest Fishing Lodges.

Excerpts

Excerpt from pg. 31:
You can count on the thumb of your left hand the number of major cities in the South or anywhere else in the nation, for that matter, that have a great trout stream running through their centers. But that's just what the Chattahoochee brings to Atlanta, thanks to the frigid outflow from the base of Buford Dam about 45 miles north. The suburban 'Hooch is the section of river that gets all the glory, but high in its headwaters in the mountains above Helen, the river is quite good for both wild and stocked browns and rainbows.
Rising between Coon Den Ridge and Spaniards Knob where the southern Appalachians brush 4,000 feet, the Chattahoochee gathers its waters from beneath hemlocks, rhododendron, and azalea, and tumbling over granite boulders, runs thin and cold. This is native brook trout country. You can catch tiny trout of six inches or so, as gaily colored as the wildflowers that bloom in the spring woods. A 30-foot waterfall at Henson Creek protects the brookies from browns and rainbows lower down. The falls are a short hike from the Wilks Road, which branches off the Poplar Stump Road at Vandiver Branch, about a mile to the west. At that point the Poplar Stump Road is fairly high above the Chattahoochee, which is flowing in a gorge. There's less fishing pressure there, yet the fishing is very good, probably because the river is not easy to reach.