Native riverine fish occurrences downstream from two hydropower dams with contrasting operations, Georgia, USA

Data are fish species occurrences in surveys made by backpack electrofishing and seining in shoal habitats in the Etowah River downstream from Allatoona Dam (n=10 surveys in 2010 and n=5 surveys in 2016; 20 taxa total) and in the Coosawattee River downstream from Carters Dam and re-regulation dam (n=11 surveys in 2010; 32 taxa total), Georgia, USA. Data for the Etowah River include counts of individuals for each species captured; data for the Coosawattee River are observed or not observed for each species in the data set.