Location of the Soque River
One thing that makes the Soque River such a prime trout habitat is its unique topography, which is created by mountains being whittled down by river systems over millions of years. To gather an appreciation and understanding of how this happens we must first talk about where we are on a large scale and shrink that down to Larry’s Lodge and our stretch of water. We are located at the Sothern base of the Appalachian and Blue Ridge ranges in Northeastern Georgia. Northeastern Georgia drains into 3 major river basins: Tennessee, Savannah, and Chattahoochee. Let’s break these river systems down into subbasins from west to east starting with the Tennessee and working our way east to the Chattahoochee, and ending on the South Carolina and Georgia border with the Savannah. The subbasins of the Tennessee River stemming from Northeastern Georgia listed west to east are the Toccoa/Ocoee, Notley, Hiawassee, and Little Tennessee. The subbasins of the Chattahoochee stemming from Northeastern Georgia listed west to east are the Chestatee River and the Soque River. The subbasins of Savannah stemming from Northeastern Georgia and listed west to east are the Tallulah and Chattanooga.
Here are some maps outlining this basin and subbasins over Google Maps.
Savannah River Click here to view
Tennessee River Click here to view
Chattahoochee River Click here to view
All of Northeastern GA Click here to view
The Topography of The Middle Soque River is Prime for Trout Habitat.
Let’s get on the same page with some water-type terminology. A run is a type of water topography found extremely often on the upper Soque River where water flows steadily maintaining a fairly consistent depth, gravel or sand substrate, and a smooth surface. Runs tend to transition into either a riffle or a pool. Once the elevation drops from the run, they become riffles or pools. A riffle is a type of water topography found extremely often on the upper Soque River, it’s an area where the water flows quickly and with light-moderate surface agitation with an underlying shelf. A pool is a type of river topography found less commonly on the upper Soque River where deeper, slower-moving water collects at the bottom of a riffle or run. Pocket water is the water topography found least often on the Soque, it is a display of all of the formerly mentioned water types broken up on micro levels across the stream’s width.
The Soque River basin can be broken up into 4 sections of trout water. Here is a map to outline the sections of the Soque. Section 1 ( the tributaries) begins at the top of Trey Mountain split into 2 major creeks called the Left Fork of the Soque River and the Right Fork or Goshen Creek both ranging in width from 2-15ft and a depth from 6 inches to 5 feet. They both hold trout and begin as high gradient pocket water and plunge pools with many tiny trout. Then we start to see fewer large drops and more riffle water, pools, mixed substrate, and fish stocking. This section has little summer kill and great fish reproduction. Section 2 (The Upper River) begins at the confluence of the Left and Right fork of the Soque River and ranges from 15-45ft wide with a maximum depth of 20ft. The Upper River has a topography similar to that of the lower half. This consists of lots of meandering riffles slowly transitioning to pools. The substrate of Section 2 consists of gravel, bedrock, cobble, and little to moderate silt. This Section is our favorite due to its strong mix of stream-born and stocked trout allowing for the best mix of sizes of fish ranging from half of an inch to 30+ inches. We also enjoy this section due to its diversity of angling opportunities with more technical large stream-born fish to more angler-friendly stocked trout.
The Fish of The Soque River
The Soque River gives you the potential to catch rainbow trout, brown trout, brook trout, tiger trout, and palomino trout. Not all of these fish reproduce, only rainbow trout and brown trout. The size of the rainbow and brown trout can be exceptional having personally seen 4 fish over 30 inches and 12 lbs landed at Larry’s Lodge. If you want to look at some examples check out our photo gallery here.
Private Fishery Management
Now that you have learned about the location, topography, and fish quality let’s talk about the disclaimer. One of the things that sets the Soque River apart is the river bed is privately owned. Because we can guarantee the security of the fish we along with other landowners choose to feed the fish to supplement fish growth. This helps us sustain the size and number of fish in such small water. We fall between what Tad with North Georgia Wild Trout calls a “healthy trophy trout stream” and “beginner friendly”. If you would like to learn more about the different types of trout water in Georgia check out his blog here.