Callaway for Free?

Right now is a wonderful time to explore Callaway Gardens because admission fees are being waved through the end of February. The gardens are spectacular, even without spring blooms, and several attractions, such as the Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center and the John A. Sibley Horticultural Center, stay in "full bloom" all winter. And the truth is that if you look around, you'll find more than a few early bloomers in the outside gardens -- flowers that will be long gone for another year by the time the azaleas start their show.

February is also a great month for targeting jumbo largemouth bass from Mountain Creek Lake, which is the big lake (175 acres) in the center of Callaway Gardens. You do have to rent a boat as bank-fishing or fishing from private boats is not permitted; however, the fees are very reasonable, and the lake has produced many double-digit weight largemouths over the years. It's also loaded with jumbo bream. The bream fishing gets easier a little farther into spring, but if you don't mind searching a little deeper, you can find them now.
Of course, winter brings another outstanding and unique fishing opportunity to Callaway Gardens. Several of the property's smaller lakes, which are open only for guided fishing trips, get stocked with brown, rainbow and brook trout every winter. The total experience of the garden setting and kicking around a small private lake with a guide in float tubes is cool any time of the year, but when you add in big trout in the central part Georgia, it almost seems to cool to be true.