Member Profile:

Blue Ridge TU's Founder and Past President

George Andrin

There are probably very few members who have ever helped at any TU event involving our Chapter who don't know Past-President George Andrin. Young at heart and with a passion for trout, this WWII Veteran still seems to make it out to nearly every workday, fund raiser or meeting on special issues. It's hard to be a member of TU chapter #696 and not adore the man who co- founded it with his fishing buddy, and fellow TU member, George Daley.

“It was in the mid 80's.” George said. “Daley and I had both already been president of the Cohutta Chapter in the Marietta area. But we had moved up here and we felt like with all the trout fishing available in Blue Ridge that there needed to be a chapter here.”

With that concept, Andrin and Daley set out to start what we all know today as the Blue Ridge Mountain Chapter of Trout Unlimited #696. George says he contacted a regional representative of Trout Unlimited, Bobby Bell, and arranged for what would be the first meeting of the Chapter.

“I think it was me, Daley, John Pool, Jim Collins and another fellow whose name I won't mention at that first meeting with Bobby,” George said. “We met at the (Fannin) Chamber of Commerce and listened to Bobby talk and talk about putting together a chapter ... By the end of it we had elected officers and set a date for the next meeting.”

However, when the date for the next meeting came around, only Daley and himself showed up, George said. The man George left unnamed, who was also coincidentally the person elected president at that first meeting with Bobby Bell, was not even there.

After a few weeks of trying to track down the unnamed man, George said he gave up and he and Daley took the bull by the horns. Since then, George has served in various chapter officer positions, his wife Peg and he put together the first chapter newsletters and overall he has continued to give back for multiple decades.

“I guess that's why I've been involved so long is because I wanted to give back,” George said.

While having helped with countless brook trout restoration projects, stocking events, kids and seniors fishing days at the federal hatchery at Rock Creek, George has done more than his share of “giving back,” over the last couple decades. In fact, he has likely given back for more years than any other member of this chapter, save for only one or two others.

Having lived through the era that George described the norm as “if you didn't bring 'em back to the boys on a stringer--you didn't catch it.” He still found ways to give.

George caught this monster rainbow in Waters Creek in 1977, more than 30 years later, the old-time, skin mount still hangs proudly in the main room of his house.

Among all the TU led projects George has been involved in, tightening up enforcement on Noontootla Creek in cooperation with the DNR and the U.S. Forest Service was one job George named off as being one of the most memorable.

“It was getting out of hand,” George said. “There were cricket containers, corn cans and worm containers everywhere.  We (TU, DNR, USFS) all met up at the creek and talked about how to fix it.”

According to George, it was not an easy process, as issues like that typically aren't, but it worked. Soon the regulations appeared to be working and the creek began to flourish once again. “There were so many fish in that stream,” he said.

Still today, when asked what his favorite local stream is, George doesn't hesitate to say it's Noontootla. “I remember before they closed it all off and you could get in at the lower end, and fish all the way to the Three Forks if you wanted to,” he said. “Boy, we had some good fishing then ... I'll never forget a time Becky and I ran into a huge brown on Long Creek. She looked at me and said 'What is that Dad?' because all we we both could see was it's eyes. I said: 'That's a trout!' We tried and tried but we couldn't get that fish to hit anything.”                      

Other favorite TU memories George mentioned included group fishing trips. “You really got to know the other guys when you were out there,” he said. “Whether you were fishing or working on a stream, it just made the group feel like more like a family and that was nice. We had a lot of fun together.”

Personally, I'm grateful to George because he is the person who first introduced me to this chapter, to Trout Unlimited and got me involved. Still, he's giving back.

I will never forget the first day I met George. I was out on a quick assignment for the newspaper to get a few photos of anglers enjoying the Toccoa DH for an article I was assembling. I parked at one of the first spots upstream from Shallowford Bridge where I noticed several men in the water fishing. On the bank, seeming just as happy as the men in the water catching fish, was an older man in blue jeans, a “See Bees” ball cap, black suspenders and a flannel shirt watching the anglers.  After introducing himself and my explanation to him that I was an avid angler as well, George gave me the info I needed to get to a meeting and become a member. Thank You, George!!

Just as he did for me, for decades George has successfully been encouraging others to get involved in TU and take part in the events associated with the group for quite sometime.

To those who know him well, George is also clearly a family man. He and Peg, raised four daughters and one son, who passed away in a tragic accident at a young age. They now also have six grand-children and three great grandchildren. 

In an e-mail from his daughter, Becky Hulsey, wife of David Hulsey, who are both  renowned guides, TU members and fly-fishing activists, she jokingly described her Dad's long-time involvement with Trout Unlimited as stretching back as far as: “When I walked around saying TU is PU! Because of all the time my father spent with them as I was growing up.”

 If you're a member of the Blue Ridge Chapter of Trout Unlimited and have not had the chance to meet George, go the next workday or TU event, you'll probably have no trouble finding him there! “I'm going to do my part as long as I can,” he said.