Living in Georgia vs Tennessee

[bigbassin']

I think work will have me moving to Chattanooga in the next 6 months. I can pick between being in Georgia vs Tennessee.

 

Currently leaning towards living on the Tennessee side of Chattanooga. Cost of living seems to be a tad cheaper with no income tax.

 

As far as fishing and hunting goes (the second biggest factors in my decision) I think I get more bang for buck as a Tennessee license holder than Georgia. Fishing I for sure give to Tennessee as opposed to North Georgia. I think hunting is a wash quality wise, if nothing else both states should have better deer hunting than Florida. Figure there’s probably not much in the way of ducks along the 75 corridor of either state.

 

Any pros/cons of living on the Georgia side of 75 vs Tennessee that I need to consider?

[TnRiver46]

You could just live there on the border and kill two birds with one stone! I would imagine the fishing is better in GA but maybe not the north part of GA. Chattanooga is a pretty cool town, lot of good concerts. Whitewater paddling seems quite popular in N GA, there must be a good many spots to do it. I don’t know a whole lot about the hunting, definitely not a waterfowl paradise but people shoot some. The serious duck hunters head west to the Mississippi 

[bigbassin']

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

You could just live there on the border and kill two birds with one stone! I would imagine the fishing is better in GA but maybe not the north part of GA. Chattanooga is a pretty cool town, lot of good concerts. Whitewater paddling seems quite popular in N GA, there must be a good many spots to do it. I don’t know a whole lot about the hunting, definitely not a waterfowl paradise but people shoot some. The serious duck hunters head west to the Mississippi 

Having lived in Atlanta for a year and a half, 45 minutes with no traffic was the closest (not great) fishing I found. Typically closer to 1.5 hours to get to better fishing, and it was boat or bust in my experience for bass.

 

 In Chattanooga I could be on Chickamuaga in  minutes, think with a 1.5 hour radius I’d have a good range of options for both largemouth and smallmouth.

 

 I plan to try rafting and rock climbing up there, but don’t think which state I’m in matters much for that.

 

Honestly I’ve pretty much got my mind set in one direction, just seeing if anyone has a perspective I haven’t considered.

[TnRiver46]

30 minutes ago, bigbassin' said:

Having lived in Atlanta for a year and a half, 45 minutes with no traffic was the closest (not great) fishing I found. Typically closer to 1.5 hours to get to better fishing, and it was boat or bust in my experience for bass.

 

 In Chattanooga I could be on Chickamuaga in  minutes, think with a 1.5 hour radius I’d have a good range of options for both largemouth and smallmouth.

 

 I plan to try rafting and rock climbing up there, but don’t think which state I’m in matters much for that.

 

Honestly I’ve pretty much got my mind set in one direction, just seeing if anyone has a perspective I haven’t considered.

Gotcha. Chickamauga ain’t so good (anymore) but other places nearby can be 

 

I was on a local forum and they graded chickamauga, locals gave it mostly D and F with the highest grade I saw being C- 

[Tennessee Boy]

Chattanooga is a great town.  
 

In most states you pay the taxes to the state you work in not the state you live in.  Tennessee doesn’t have an income tax but makes up for it in sales and property tax.  Paying Georgia property tax on your home and Tennessee income tax on your income would be ideal.  I’m assuming Georgia doesn’t tax out of state income.

 

As for fishing, you can buy out of state licenses and go where the fish lead you.  You’ll be close to many great lakes including some in north Alabama like Guntersville.  I’ve had some great trips to Weiss Lake which will be a little ways down I59.

 

 

[TnRiver46]

4 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

Chattanooga is a great town.  
 

In most states you pay the taxes to the state you work in not the state you live in.  Tennessee doesn’t have an income tax but makes up for it in sales and property tax.  Paying Georgia property tax on your home and Tennessee income tax on your income would be ideal.  I’m assuming Georgia doesn’t tax out of state income.

 

As for fishing, you can buy out of state licenses and go where the fish lead you.  You’ll be close to many great lakes including some in north Alabama like Guntersville.  I’ve had some great trips to Weiss Lake which will be a little ways down I59.

 

 

Love Weiss 

[bigbassin']

31 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Gotcha. Chickamauga ain’t so good (anymore) but other places nearby can be 

 

I was on a local forum and they graded chickamauga, locals gave it mostly D and F with the highest grade I saw being C- 

Disappointing but I’m sure it’s heavily pressured. Now is it really a D or are the locals just upset about the pressure? Every Florida forum is nothing but doom and gloom about the state’s fishing but it doesn’t seem any worse or better than it’s always been.

 

26 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

Chattanooga is a great town.  
 

In most states you pay the taxes to the state you work in not the state you live in.  Tennessee doesn’t have an income tax but makes up for it in sales and property tax.  Paying Georgia property tax on your home and Tennessee income tax on your income would be ideal.  I’m assuming Georgia doesn’t tax out of state income.

 

As for fishing, you can buy out of state licenses and go where the fish lead you.  You’ll be close to many great lakes including some in north Alabama like Guntersville.  I’ve had some great trips to Weiss Lake which will be a little ways down I59.

 

 

 I think I’ve had licenses for 2-3 states at a time for a while now. At the end of the day if I live in that area I figure I will probably fish Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia.

[TnRiver46]

5 minutes ago, bigbassin' said:

Disappointing but I’m sure it’s heavily pressured. Now is it really a D or are the locals just upset about the pressure? Every Florida forum is nothing but doom and gloom about the state’s fishing but it doesn’t seem any worse or better than it’s always been.

 

 I think I’ve had licenses for 2-3 states at a time for a while now. At the end of the day if I live in that area I figure I will probably fish Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia.

Lee livesay won on chick in 2021 I think with bout 14-15 lbs a day? Something like that . It’s my least favorite place to fish by a landslide. Heavily pressured is quite the understatement 

[bigbassin']

Copy, that is definitely not great.

[TnRiver46]

1 minute ago, bigbassin' said:

Copy, that is definitely not great.

I think it got a little better in 2022 , a couple bags hit 20 lbs I think. But it was April. A decade ago you would see several bags over 30 in April and maybe a few over 40 

[Woody B]

I don't know about Georgia but NC taxes out of state income.   You will get credit for taxes paid in another state.  We live in NC.  My wife worked in SC.  We were taxed by NC for her SC income, then got credit for the amount paid.  IE had she worked in TN we would have to pay NC income taxes on the TN income.   Again, I don't know what Georgia does.  

[casts_by_fly]

I think all states charge income tax regardless of location sourced if you are a resident of the state.  You will get some credit back for tax paid to the state worked, but you will end up paying more by living in one and working in the other.  For example, at one point I lived in NY and worked in NJ.  I think I was nominally charged 6% NYS tax based on my bracket at the time.  NJ was around 8%.  I would end up paying the full 8% (6 to NY and 2 to NJ I think it was).

 

Not sure your income level and bracket, but 0% vs up to nearly 6% could be a a nice difference.  

[Tennessee Boy]

On 11/21/2022 at 8:07 AM, TnRiver46 said:

Gotcha. Chickamauga ain’t so good (anymore) but other places nearby can be 

 

I was on a local forum and they graded chickamauga, locals gave it mostly D and F with the highest grade I saw being C- 

Look at the 2022 results from the Phoenix Boat series Volunteer division.  They had tournaments on Chickamauga,  South Houston, Douglas,  Cherokee, and Watts Bar.  Three anglers weighted bags over 20 pounds in the entire season.  All of them were at the Chickamauga tournament.  In that same tournament over 1/3 of the boater anglers got skunked.  2021 season was similar,  5 bags over 20 pounds were weighed and all of them were from Chickamauga.  That kind of sums up what fishing a well known high pressure lake can be like.  You can do well but you’ll have to earn it.  

[FryDog62]

52 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

Look at the 2022 results from the Phoenix Boat series Volunteer division.  They had tournaments on Chickamauga,  South Houston, Douglas,  Cherokee, and Watts Bar.  Three anglers weighted bags over 20 pounds in the entire season.  All of them were at the Chickamauga tournament.  In that same tournament over 1/3 of the boater anglers got skunked.  2021 season was similar,  5 bags over 20 pounds were weighed and all of them were from Chickamauga.  That kind of sums up what fishing a well known high pressure lake can be like.  You can do well but you’ll have to earn it.  

Are there many (any) lakes in TN that a 25 pound bag is still somewhat common?  I've only heard from a few guys I know who say with all the pressure its getting very rare.  Still sounds like a lot of good water there to me... 

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, FryDog62 said:

Are there many (any) lakes in TN that a 25 pound bag is still somewhat common?  I've only heard from a few guys I know who say with all the pressure its getting very rare.  Still sounds like a lot of good water there to me... 

common? I wouldn’t say so. Best chance might even be smallmouth way up high in the mountains 

 

it probably still happens once in a while on chickamauga but like Tennessee boy said, there will be many more zeros 

[roadwarrior]

5 lb bags in the spring are attainable and sometimes required to be in the money

on Pickwick. Otherwise, I consider 20 lbs a good day. 

[Drawdown]

I’d live on the Tennessee side, personally (I live in Cleveland, but travel through N Georgia at least once a week). The nice parts of North Georgia are too far away to be practical for commuting (let me tell you; you don’t want to be passing through the Ft Oglethorpe/Rossville side of the I-75/I-24 split—it gets ugly traffic-wise), whereas there’s lovely areas in and around “Chatt’nooga.”

 

And I wouldn’t be so down on Chickamauga. Especially not if you fish February and March (probably my favorite time to do so; I also enjoy the fishing after Labor Day). There’s also the next lake down the TVA chain that you might want to get to know. ?

 

And you’d be surprised by the kind of waterfowl hunting you can get into if you scout, so long as you don’t expect to see millions of migrating birds up in the clouds (can’t shoot them, anyway). By boat you can also access a great deal of good deer hunting land that doesn’t get swarmed by the orange army.

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, Drawdown said:

I’d live on the Tennessee side, personally (I live in Cleveland, but travel through N Georgia at least once a week). The nice parts of North Georgia are too far away to be practical for commuting (let me tell you; you don’t want to be passing through the Ft Oglethorpe/Rossville side of the I-75/I-24 split—it gets ugly traffic-wise), whereas there’s lovely areas in and around “Chatt’nooga.”

 

And I wouldn’t be so down on Chickamauga. Especially not if you fish February and March (probably my favorite time to do so; I also enjoy the fishing after Labor Day). There’s also the next lake down the TVA chain that you might want to get to know. ?

 

And you’d be surprised by the kind of waterfowl hunting you can get into if you scout, so long as you don’t expect to see millions of migrating birds up in the clouds (can’t shoot them, anyway). By boat you can also access a great deal of good deer hunting land that doesn’t get swarmed by the orange army.

There were two delicious looking  mallards dabbling under my dock this weekend and I just spooked a wood duck while fishing off a boat launch dock 

[VolFan]

We used to have some decent duck hunting on the Clinch very near Oak Ridge. It’s not West Tennessee/Arkansas, then then again you’re not living in West Tennessee/Arkansas so it’s a net positive. 
And there’s plenty of ducks on the TN River, you just have to scout a little.