Which reach the Buford Dam gauge reads
USGS 02334430 sits at the foot of Buford Dam and reads what the Corps is doing at that moment, not what the river is doing at Jones Bridge. Its September 2026 record is the whole story of the tailwater: 598 to 613 cfs whenever the generators are off, which is the sluice minimum the Corps holds through a small 7.5-megawatt unit, then about 4,640 to 4,800 cfs when one of the two 60-megawatt units runs and 7,500 to 9,230 cfs when both do. The Corps' own warning is that the river can rise up to 11 feet within minutes on a release of more than 12,000 cfs. The gauge is the right one for the water from Bowmans Island down to Abbotts Bridge; the Norcross gauge, 02335000, reads the same pulse three to five hours later and 600 to 700 cfs at rest, and the Delayed Harvest section at the bottom is governed by Morgan Falls Dam, not Buford, with its own gauge at 02335810.
Nobody publishes a cfs cutoff for wading here because the answer is binary: the river is wadeable at minimum flow and not wadeable when a unit is on. So the 550 to 1,000 cfs band on this page is a stand-in for at rest, and the live comparison above it is really telling you whether a generator is running.
Travel times, sirens and 1610 AM
The Park Service publishes the travel time of a Buford release down the river: under 15 minutes at the dam, 30 minutes to an hour at the GA 20 bridge, 45 minutes to an hour and a half at Settles Bridge, about two hours at McGinnis Ferry, three and a quarter to four and a half hours at Abbotts Bridge, up to four and three-quarter hours at Medlock Bridge, six at Jones Bridge and six and a half to eight and three-quarters at Island Ford. The Atlanta Fly Fishing Club's table adds the drain: about three hours to recede at Settles, eight at Abbotts and twenty at Island Ford. Get the schedule at 770-945-1466 or 1-855-DAM-FLOW, on the Corps' hydropower schedule site, or on the low-power broadcast at 1610 AM near the dam. Four sirens between the dam and GA 20 sound about five minutes before a release, and a Coast Guard-approved life jacket must be worn by anyone wading, tubing or boating from the dam to the GA 20 bridge, and again from Morgan Falls Dam to its boat ramp. The water at the dam runs 44 to 58 degrees year-round; it was 51 in September 2026 and 63 by Morgan Falls.
Sope Creek to Cobb Parkway: the Delayed Harvest section
Georgia's Delayed Harvest rule on the Chattahoochee applies from Sope Creek, off Columns Drive, downstream to the U.S. 41 Cobb Parkway bridge at Paces Mill. From November 1 through May 14 every trout must be released immediately and only artificial lures with one single hook per lure may be used or possessed, droppers allowed if each lure carries a single hook; from May 15 through October 31 the section reverts to the general rule. The Park Service says roughly 50,000 trout go into it from early November through late April. This is the reach below Morgan Falls Dam, so check Georgia Power's Chattahoochee real-time operations page or 404-329-1455 rather than the Buford line, and wade at Cochran Shoals, East Palisades and Paces Mill, which the club rates as extensive wading.
GA 20 to Medlock Bridge is artificials only; the rest of the rules
The whole river from Buford Dam to the mouth of Peachtree Creek is designated trout water in Forsyth, Gwinnett, Fulton and Cobb counties, open year-round with a creel of eight trout of any size, one handheld rod, no live fish for bait, and hours of 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset with no night fishing. Anyone 16 or older needs a Georgia fishing license and a trout license. The artificial-lures-only stretch runs from the GA 20 bridge down to the boat ramp at Medlock Bridge Park just above GA 141; possessing bait there is illegal. Bait is legal from the dam down to GA 20 and again below Medlock. The national recreation area charges a $5 daily pass or $40 annual, no cash, bought online at recreation.gov or at the Island Ford visitor center.
Wild browns since 2004, stocked rainbows since 1962
The state stopped stocking brown trout in the Lanier tailwater in 2004 and has managed them as a wild population since. DNR's fall 2025 electrofishing found an average brown of nine inches with 84 percent under nine, 10 percent between nine and fourteen, six percent over fourteen and a largest fish of 25 inches and six and a half pounds, plus very good numbers of juveniles; the state record brown, 20 pounds 14 ounces, came from this section in 2014. Rainbows have been stocked since 1962, about 180,000 catchable fish a year from the Buford hatchery at the dam, weekly from April through July, twice more before Labor Day and once in the fall. Below Peachtree Creek the trout thin out and stripers, spotted bass and shoal bass take over. Alpharetta Outfitters, The Fish Hawk on Miami Circle and Tie One On Fly Fishing are the shops and guides that fish it most.
Where to get in: Bowmans Island to Paces Mill
Bowmans Island is a 20-minute walk from the hatchery gate on Trout Place Road, or use the Lower Pool lot at the end of Buford Dam Road. Settles Bridge has east-side access off Johnson Road in Suwanee with good wading and no ramp. Abbotts Bridge and Medlock Bridge have ramps with limited wading; Jones Bridge East and Island Ford, where the park headquarters is, have the most wadeable shoals in the middle river. Morgan Falls has a ramp and good wading right below the dam. Lake Lanier turns over from mid-September into November and the tailwater runs cloudy until it settles, usually by December.
Midges, caddis and the fall shad kill
Chris Scalley's tailwater chart in Georgia Outdoor News lists caddis 14 to 20, olives 14 to 24, sulphurs 18 to 20, stoneflies, midges 16 to 24, scuds and sowbugs 14 to 18, crayfish and sculpins. Bowman Fly Fishing calls the black or red zebra midge in 18 to 22 the most reliable fly on the river and works winter on midges, WD-40s and sowbugs, spring on caddis and olives, summer on sulphurs and terrestrials, and fall on streamers. DNR adds the one local wrinkle: in late fall, threadfin shad and blueback herring die in the lake and come through the dam, and dead-drifted white streamers imitate them.