Toccoa Bend Fishing Community - Stocking Fund


Members of the informal Toccoa Bend Fishing Community stock the Toccoa River in Toccoa Bend in March 2009. Monies collected from voluntary donations pay for more than 700 pounds of rainbow trout purchased annually for stocking in the neighborhood.
Photo by Carl Riggs.

The Toccoa Bend Fishing Community stocking fund is collected twice a year - in early March and again in early November - strictly by voluntary contributions. Those who do contribute are provided with ID cards (for them and their guests) that fulfill the state regulations that require people who hunt or fish on private property, other than the landowner and their immediate family, to hold written permission to hunt/fish on that property.

It is generally understood that only the contributors of the stocking fund informally hold general trespass rights for riverbank access on all riverside properties in Toccoa Bend. All other anglers, without specific invitation or permission from individual riverside property owners, are generally limited to fishing the riverway where it passes through common community property upstream from the riverside pavilion to lot #52 at the far-upstream end of the common property.

For sure, private property need not be "posted" as such. Indeed, it is the hunter or the fisherman's responsibility to know they are on private land and that they must hold written permission to hunt or fish on that land. It is this law that the TBFC adheres to and upholds as a means for restricting passing boaters from actively fishing while passing through Toccoa Bend. The TBFC also uses this law as a means for requesting anglers who do not participate in the TBFC stocking fund to restrain from fishing on the private properties of Toccoa Bend. This law further serves our community in its application for removing and prosecuting trespassers for trespass violations.

Toccoa Bend Fishing Friends

Some of your neighbors in Toccoa Bend have a "burning fever" for the trout fishing opportunities enjoyed both inside and outside the waters of the neighborhood. For more information about trout fishing inside and outside Toccoa Bend, or for more information about the Toccoa Bend Fishing Community Stocking Fund, contact the following neighbors:
  • Bob Borgwat ... 706-838-5259
  • Carl Riggs ... 706-838-4110
  • Brian Stanford ... 706-838-5299
  • Rick Thompson ... 706-838-0274
  • Ken Lawrence ... 706-838-4981

With many years behind us - and a few confrontations with trespassers and discussions with county/state/federal law-enforcement agents - the TBFC has confirmed its role is legitimate in protecting the private-property rights of the property owners in Toccoa Bend and of the property owners immediately across the river along the Toccoa Bend boundary. We need not be the property owner to confront individuals who are found fishing in Toccoa Bend or other private property adjacent to the subdivision. However, we approach all anglers with courtesy and under the assumption that they know they are fishing on private property and that they hold written permission to do so.

Furthermore, the activities of boaters who float the Toccoa River through Toccoa Bend can be restricted to include fishing while passing through our private property and the private property of those who own riverside land across from Toccoa Bend. For more information about this ruling and opinion of the Forest Service's attorneys and the USDA Office of General Council, please go to http://www.fs.fed.us/conf/rec/toccoa-rvr-notice.htm. If you suspect trespassing and/or fish poaching is taking place in Toccoa Bend, please use care in confronting the individual(s). Ask them courteously for their Toccoa Bend ID card and the name of the property owner who granted permission to fish. You can also contact one of the neighbors shown in the gray box above; or immediately call the Law Enforcement Division of the GDNR at 706-624-1367.