I may/will be force to re-locate in order to keep my current job. I currently live in the Sacramento California area and have many types of fishing opportunities in easy driving distance. I will have one child with us who will be starting high school. I prefer cold water trout fishing but my son likes all types of fishing. I have only been to Atlanta once and have never been to NM. Looking for any advice or information that may be useful to me in making my decision. I appreciate any feedback you can offer.
Public schools should be good that near Sandia National Labs.
Not far to wonderful Rocky Mountain trout fisheries.
I’ve lived in nearby Santa Fe, it is wonderful, but exceedingly yuppie. Great Mexican food - posole is my favorite. Much spicer than California Mexican food.
I’ve visited Atlanta, and care not to do it very often.
My inlaws live in south GA and we drive through Atlanta about 3 or 4 times a year to visit. That means we drive through Atlanta about 3 or 4 times a year to many for me. There is some trout fishing in north GA, but the minerals in the soil are wrong and they have a hard time stocking. At least that is my understanding, I am no expert maybe someone else can help you with that. That is my 2 cents worth anyway.
I live in Atlanta and there are plenty of fishing opportunities. A tailwater flows right through town. There is another tailwater maybe two hours drive and plenty of freestone streams in the mountains 1 to 2 hours away- some stocked, some wild. Google up a forum North Georiga Trout Online.
School quality depends on where you live. You probably want to be on the north side. No idea about NM.
The Traffic in Alanta is awful. You have to drive to the Mountians to fish. Alot of the good fishing is private,so you have to pay.
New Mexico offers the High Plains Desert,alot less HUMID Climate then Alanta! You have some great trout Rivers and Lakes 1-3 Hours away. You will have to pay when you fish on the Indian Res.
A lot of my family has moved into Atlanta at various times (brother in law, sister, aunts, etc.). Almost all of them have immediately tried to get out. It is a beautiful city but incredibly crowded, hot, humid, and has some VERY dangerous areas. The fishing outside the city is very good, but I wouldnt move there. If you can live outside the city, thats the place to go, but if you are looking to live close to work, move to NM.
And as far as NM Indian Res fishing goes, I know that here in Montana the res’s can be pretty touchy about who comes on, when, and for how long so be careful with that.
Like JohnLL said, the Chattahoochee is stuffed with trout. It also has a native shoal bass population plus stripers, white bass, yellow perch, catfish, and carp. North Georgia has some nice public streams. A lot of the private waters are pellet-fed aquarium fish, anyway.
Warm water fishing opportunites are just awesome. Our big Georgia bluegills, shellcrackers and bass will put a smile on your face.
Atlanta is a big FF town with several nice shops, including The Fish Hawk which is a GREAT fly shop.
Jet, the summers in New Mexico are a lot more like they are here in our valley than they are in Atlanta. If it were me, there would be no question, I’ll take the openess of the desert southwest and the mountains every time. I think after you get a chance to put in some time on the San Juan and venture on up into Colorado, you may find that the way of life there is a closer match to what you have here. Or maybe how it is, just a bit further up the hill.
Thanks for all the replys. I was leaning towards Rio Ranco but have not ruled out Atlanta. The area I would work in Atlanta is Alpharetta. Either choice I make will require more driving to get to some quality fishing. Schools are an important part of the decision.
Jet369, I’ve never heard of Rio Ranco. I’m thinking that’s a typo and you are really meaning Rio Rancho,NM. That’s a bedroom community north of Albuquerque. It’s not a bad place to hang yer hat. Lake Cochiti to the north of that ain’t bad. You can fish on the res there but it’ll cost ya. Actually, once you get used to the area and drive around a bit you will find there are all sorts of ponds, rivers and streams in that area. The Sandia’s are right there. The Pecos wilderness and Carson wilderness aren’t that far. In fact, depending on which way you go, you can fish for trout, bass, catfish, bluegill and other fishes. I’ve resided in NM a lot and fished all over the state.
Never lived or fished in Georgia but I’ve heard it’s just as diverse a fisherie as NM. Good luck with your decision.
My brother-in-law lives in Belen, NM. I visit there occasionally. I usually drive down to Ruidoso to fish. Last time I was there there wasn’t much water. Don’t know how it is now. My penny’s worth, Jim
I assume you mean “Rio Rancho”. Its a burb of Albuquerque, a large, upscale one I might add.
I’ve driven through the nightmare that is Atlanta traffic. That alone would make my choice easy.
New Mexico has it own cuisine. Tex/Mex is inferior to “New Mex/Mex” IMO. Its hard to find bad or even OK Mexican food in New Mexico. It all seems to be great. That alone would make my choice easy.
I live in Rio Rancho and can probably answer most of your questions if you give me a call. 505-892-4896. Would you like newspapers? How do you feel about heat and humidity?
Note to J and D.-- I will be going to Montana next month (week after Easter). I will try to give you a call when in Poulsbo.
I live in Alpharetta, actually Milton. We used to be a part of Alpharetta. The Chattahoochee runs right through town. The traffic is not as bad as people make it out to be. You can litterally be 5 minutes from fly fishing. Someone else mentioned the North Georgia Trout Online website, that would be a great resource for you. The schools are very good. I teach middle school, and I coach lacrosse at Chattahoochee High school. If you like football, the South is a great place to live during football season. The weather is is great, it can get hot, but so can a lot of other places. Winters are eativley short and we don’t get much snow, if we do get snowe it’s gone in a day. We are close to Atlantic ocean, 5 and ahalf hours to Hilton Head South Carolina, 6 hours to the Gulf of Mexico. We are 30 minutes to fishing in the North Georgia Mountains. I moved from the Midwest 13 years ago, was supposed to move to Ohio last year and I fought hard to stay. And I am a huge Buckeye fan. There is great hunting here in Georgia as well. So there is lot’s to offer.
We have more people than we need in the Atlanta area now, we’ve been over run with transplants that have ruined it for us. We cannot get rid of yankees that move here and other imposers from other easterly points, but people from the western states really tend not to like it here. It is very different from what they are accustomed, and they are the ones that are least happy with it and leave the fastest.
New Mexico has tailwaters and mountain streams (e.g., Santa Barbara Mtns) that are much more fertile and are naturally capable of producing large, streambred fish populations. I love fishing NM and other points in the west, and frankly, after fishing in the west, Alaska, S. America, etc., and knowing what else there is in the world kinda ruined fishing in the southeast for me. It’s not the same and it’s not as good.
In addition to great NM waters, being in NM places you reasonably close to the fishing in other states, like UT, MT, ID, CO, etc. You can load up an SUV and drive to countless grand destinations in the west in a day of driving or less. That cannot be said about the grand western destinations and metro Atlanta. Nothing to which one can drive from Atlanta is as good as what you can access from ABQ.
The mountains and wilderness areas and wide expanse of BLM lands in NM provide greater opportunities for hunting on public land and hiking spectacular areas. The Gila Wilderness will take a long time to explore alone, and is worth the investment. The Pecos is nice too.
BTW, the San Juan River merits more attention. It has experienced some sedimentation problems recently, ostensibly because of storwater runoff from a lot of new roads cut for oil and gas operations. But it’s still a great fishery and is superior to anything that we have in GA. The SJ is a different river with the change of every season, and the weather permits year around fishing. In fact, the fall is the big season on the river. Personally, I prefer May when the baetis hatch is on and it’s not too terribly hot yet. One can really invest a lot of time fishing it year around and never learn it all.
The SJR is fed by Navajo Lake, and they club and tournament fish for bass and chase big stripers on it. The long, warm growing season means that NM is capable of producing some pretty big warm water fish. TX is not too far, and you’d have a better opportunity to fish places like Fork, Choke Canyon, Amistad, etc. The Mexcio lakes like El Salto are just booming these days producing lots of 4 lb plus largemouth, and taking junior down to fish that would be a great experience.
Dang Rawthumb, I hope the C of C never asks you to be an Atlanta, GA relocation spokesperson. You plumb talked me out of going there and I wasn’t even planning a trip. I agree with your analysis of NM. All the years I lived there I never did without fishing. Even the southeastern corner County of Lea, which has zero streams, creeks or rivers has a miriad of man made lakes and ponds that are stocked year round with trout, bass catfish and others.
I never fished the San Juan you talked about but have traveled near it.
Oh yeah, food was mentioned. NM has the best green chili in the world. The dishes made with that will make you keep coming back for more and more and… I made some chili verde today. My wife loves it too. Maybe I’ll talk her into moving to NM. Jim
From working there building the Marriott Courtyard Inn for almost a year about 13 years ago ( Windy Hill exit), and driving through Atlanta every year since on the way to Florida, this once beautiful city is well on it’s way to becoming the Detroit of the South. Last year, we got slightly lost looking for a particular restaurant/warehouse restored district. Lemme tell ya, if ya drive slow, they’ll steal your transmission and headlights. I know nothing about their schools etc. but do draw some unsupported conclusions.
I am also talking about Atlanta City proper. I can’t comment about the burbs except Buckhead. Now THAT’s the place to pitch your tent.
New Mexico would be MY choice without ANY hesitation.
Mark
There are many different faces of Atlanta. The north side is where you want to be, with things deteriorating the further south you go. Alpharetta is well north of the Atlanta that many have referenced negatively. I would agree with all of their observations… but Alpharetta is far from the “Detroit of the South”. It’s more like a subdivision of “McMansions” on every corner, and two German SUV’s in every garage - nothing like downtown Atlanta. The best thing about this area is that you can access all of the states best trout fishing by driving north and leaving Atlanta further and further behind. Another thing not to sneeze at is that you can get in your car after breakfast and be fly-fishing for tarpon, redfish, and specs (or lounging on white sand beaches) by mid-afternoon. I’m sure NM is wonderful, but don’t confuse north Georgia with Atlanta when making your decision.
Bill O. (from the extreme most northern corner of GA!)
