Georgia

An urban tailwater and Blue Ridge brook trout, an hour from Atlanta.

Georgia is the southernmost native range of the eastern brook trout. The Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, established in 1978, is the only NPS unit in the country dedicated specifically to a major urban river corridor.

The combination of a cold urban tailwater (Chattahoochee), a Blue Ridge mountain tailwater (Toccoa), and remote native-brook headwaters in the Chattahoochee National Forest gives Atlanta-based anglers more variety within a 90-minute drive than almost any other Southeast city.