Blue Ridge Lake smallmouth bass in trouble

1930 Year construction of Blue Ridge Lake was completed

3,290 Surface acres of water in Blue Ridge Lake

It now appears likely that Georgia is close to losing its last viable reservoir smallmouth bass fishery. The numbers of these game fish in Fannin County’s Blue Ridge Lake have collapsed in recent years, mainly because of illegal introductions of non-native blueback herring and spotted bass in the impoundment.

Lakes Blue Ridge, Chatuge and Nottely, which are located on North Georgia tributaries of the Tennessee River, each had strong populations of smallies in the past. Those fish now are rare in Chatuge and Nottley and fast disappearing from Blue Ridge.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources has pointed to the illegal stocking of spotted bass as the main reason for those declines. The spotted bass compete with the smallmouths for space on the long rocky points in the Toccoa River arm of the lake that both species prefer for spawning in the spring.

The appearance of blueback herring in the reservoir supplied plenty of new forage, allowing for a rapid expansion in the spotted bass numbers.

The two bass species also crossbreed. That hybridization has proved detrimental to the smallmouth population.

The DNR has for several years encouraged anglers to keep limits of spotted bass caught from Blue Ridge to slow the loss of the smallmouths. But that effort has not been enough to reverse the trend.

Bob Borgwat is the owner of Reel Angling Adventures Guide Service and has fished Blue Ridge for a quarter century. Smallmouths made up 90 percent of the bass his clients were catching a decade ago. Now smallmouths account for only 5 percent.

Time is running out for smallmouth bass and anglers wanting to experience the thrill of battling one of the fish on Blue Ridge Lake.

More information on Blue Ridge Lake smallmouth bass fishing can be found at reelanglingadventures.com.