What’s the fishing like down in southern Tennessee? I’m thinking about attending college somewhere around the Winchester area (near Tim’s Ford Lake and Woods Reservoir). I’d like to know about about all the different gamefish species there and which lakes are known for what. I’m particularly interested in spots and smallmouth since I’m from MD, and I love wading rivers for smallies. What’s it like down there? Do you guys have actual winters or does the fishing keep going through the year? Do spotted bass and smallmouth live in all of the creeks there? Is Chickamauga as great as people make it out to be? I’m really curious, if you couldn’t tell

@Chris Catignanimight be able to offer assistance. It gets nippy on the Cumberland plateau but you can still bundle up and fish 90 something percent of the time 

13 hours ago, Buzzbaiter said:

What’s the fishing like down in southern Tennessee? I’m thinking about attending college somewhere around the Winchester area (near Tim’s Ford Lake and Woods Reservoir). I’d like to know about about all the different gamefish species there and which lakes are known for what. I’m particularly interested in spots and smallmouth since I’m from MD, and I love wading rivers for smallies. What’s it like down there? Do you guys have actual winters or does the fishing keep going through the year? Do spotted bass and smallmouth live in all of the creeks there? Is Chickamauga as great as people make it out to be? I’m really curious, if you couldn’t tell

@Buzzbaiter @TnRiver46 Just to put things into some perspective...Tennessee has more shore line than any state besides Texas! Near Winchester you will have Normandy, Woods, Tims Ford. The Duck River (below Normandy) actually has a trout hatchery there...good spot to try some fly fishing. Then further down stream is bass fishing sm,lm,Ky. Winter fishing in the streams will be a little difficult (cold) and Im not real familiar with the wading there....but the lakes are fishable...you just have to fish slow. Smallies and spots are all in the rivers. Any of the TN river lakes are like everyone says...but like everywhere else...you need to put in your time on the water. Just a little north of Winchester you have the Stones river (East and West forks)...smallie central. So...you have a lot of water to explore...as you will see.

I assume you're considering Sewanee (aka The University of The South) since that's the only college I'm aware of near Winchester unless you're talking graduate school at UTSI.   Sewanee is a very cool school with 13,000 acre campus in a very nice area.  I think there are even some lakes on campus that can be fished.