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If you follow your favorite football team in the fall, you will be exposed to many varied and spectacular scenes.  Just take a drive to the mountains or to the coast and you will have the same experience.

Throughout North Georgia, there are festivals and attractions to make your day, and while there may be time constraints, you can always spend an afternoon somewhere in our state’s magnificent playground.

Now is the perfect time to head up to the Chattahoochee and spend an afternoon flyfishing Georgia’s most romantic river.  If you have visited this space before, then you know your typist is a fly-fishing aficionado although there is a new challenge in that neuropathy has brought on a need for an assist when taking to the river.   

To begin with, time spent on the river has always been less than preferred. Day jobs often interfere with pleasure outings.  There is such unadulterated joy coming about from standing in the Chattahoochee and casting for a three-pound rainbow—but also regret that one doesn’t get to it more often.

Even if you don’t catch fish, you still come away with fulfillment.  To stand in this historic river and feast your eyes on the surroundings is worth the trip to Helen and an outing with Jimmy Harris of Unicoi Outfitters.

Over the years, my half day trips to the Chattahoochee at Helen usually begin with a hamburger at Hangry’s A and E Grille near Clarkesville.  They serve the best hamburger you can find.  The food is good, the service is excellent, and the atmosphere provides inviting fellowship even with strangers.

You might even bump into Chan Gailey, who has spent much of his life in the National Football League.  After stints as the head coach of the Buffalo Bills and the Dallas Cowboys, he continued to coach in the league since the money was so enticing.

Some assistant coaches in the league today make as much as $2.5 million dollars annually.  Known for his offensive expertise, Gailey, who makes his home in Clarkesville, was in the million-dollar category for several years.  Not sure what the former Georgia Tech head coach is doing these days, but he doesn’t have to worry about paying his VISA card bill.   

After a filling meal at Hangry’s, it would be nice if there were an option to take a post lunch nap, but once you step into the Chattahoochee, you don’t think about that.   The cool river current brings a refreshing feeling as it courses around your waders.

You are immersed in this fabulous river and see everything from mountain laurel to honeysuckle.  From green head mallards to Canada geese to whitetail deer and an occasional black bear.

There is a hint of fall color here and there which brings about frustration.  North Georgia mountains can be a most colorful place in October, but lately things seem to have been schizophrenic.  Semi-droughts and latent hurricanes seem to have robbed us of those wonderful drives up to Blairsville and Hiawassee when you are immersed in autumn color everywhere you go.

Life along the Chattahoochee will always be uplifting and alluring even if you drive up to Hangry’s for a burger and take a different route home—no matter the season.

November is Thanksgiving month and the harvest displays in all the mountain towns leave you with grateful emotions.  If you make it into the Chattahoochee and spend an afternoon with Jimmy Harris and net a few rainbow trout, you will have had an enriching fall season.

Not wanting to be a spoil sport, but there is disturbing news about the Chattahoochee.  Seems that alligators are proliferating in the river at Columbus.

Does that mean they will find their way to North Georgia someday?  Certainly, hope not. Gators are nasty, ugly creatures.  They belong in a swamp.