I will be retiring in a few months and moving to Eastern Tennessee, Tri-Cities to just south of Knoxville (Cherokee to Watts Bar) is the target area for our move. I was hoping to get some local input and see what everyone thinks of these fisheries; species, strains, sizes, quantities, etc. Any info on the lakes and bass clubs in that area would be a great help.

 

Watts Bar

Cherokee

Douglas

Norris

 

Well, it would be too long to type my thoughts but I’d go watts bar 

 

Hit me with some questions so I don’t just write a novel haha

On 3/27/2022 at 4:46 PM, Jb_Wathen said:

I will be retiring in a few months and moving to Eastern Tennessee, Tri-Cities to just south of Knoxville (Cherokee to Watts Bar) is the target area for our move. I was hoping to get some local input and see what everyone thinks of these fisheries; species, strains, sizes, quantities, etc. Any info on the lakes and bass clubs in that area would be a great help.

 

Watts Bar

Cherokee

Douglas

Norris

 

I live about a minute from Norris lake.

I fish Cherokee a dozen times a year and they fish similar. (Douglas too, but I fish it less)

Mix of smallmouth and large mouth, deep, clearish, rocky lakes

Like all East TN lakes they are crowded, pontoons, jet ski's, boats pulling tubes and more bass fisherman than you ever thought possible.

 

I love it here and any of the lakes around here have their pluses.

If you're in the Tri-Cities area Watauga and Boone are great lakes too.
 

BASS open on Cherokee starting Thursday will show the highs and lows

 

 

I always liked Tellico and lakes upstream from there on the Little T, but I don’t think you can go wrong in East TN. Melton Hill is my other fav.

On 3/29/2022 at 1:58 PM, BassNJake said:

I live about a minute from Norris lake.

I fish Cherokee a dozen times a year and they fish similar. (Douglas too, but I fish it less)

Mix of smallmouth and large mouth, deep, clearish, rocky lakes

Like all East TN lakes they are crowded, pontoons, jet ski's, boats pulling tubes and more bass fisherman than you ever thought possible.

 

I love it here and any of the lakes around here have their pluses.

If you're in the Tri-Cities area Watauga and Boone are great lakes too.
 

BASS open on Cherokee starting Thursday will show the highs and lows

 

 

We are starting our search in the Tri Cities, good to know Watuaga and Boone are good lakes too. What species do they have? I've heard Walleye are delicious but have never tried, are Walleyes in the Eastern Tennessee lakes?

13 hours ago, Jb_Wathen said:

We are starting our search in the Tri Cities, good to know Watuaga and Boone are good lakes too. What species do they have? I've heard Walleye are delicious but have never tried, are Walleyes in the Eastern Tennessee lakes?

Yep. Not lots of them but they are present and still delicious. Watauga has some monster walleyes up to 10 lbs, probably more. 
 

watauga has lots of big black bass, all 3 species. It also has lake trout, rainbow trout, and brown trout. Maybe even some

brook trout, definitely brookies in some of the streams that flow into the lake. It’s got catfish, walleye, rock bass, crappie, bluegill, alewives, threadfin, probably a few other species I’m forgetting. Watauga is also in a very cold climate, my buddy that lived on it referred to it as little Alaska. I mean, it’s not North Dakota but it’s really stinking cold up there. The most important thing to watch up there would be WIND. We were young and dumb and used to fish it from a 14 foot flat bottom in subfreezing temps, luckily to have not drowned. There’s a place you can buy live trout and catch big smallmouth with them, if you’re into that sort of thing (highly recommend). 
 

boone is pretty crazy! I’ve never fished it myself but I know a good bit about it. The dam was leaking, it was 30 feet or more below normal for several years. I think they just got it back to normal levels about 2 years ago, something like that. You don’t hear much about walleye there (not sure why), but it’s got big stripers and hybrids. It also has some of the biggest brown trout I’ve ever seen. People that fish live shad for striper always seem to catch a huge brown trout. It’s got largemouth and smallmouth, not sure if I ever remember hearing of a spotted bass in Boone but surely they are in there. Definitely has Crappie, catfish, bluegill, etc. Boone is much more crowded boat wise than watauga, the summer can be a zoo with party boats. I’ve seen pictures of a Red Bull float plane landing on it. There’s some whitewater rapids up the watauga river arm of it 

 

also, just a technicality, everyone just calls it east TN instead of eastern TN. They call tri cities upper east TN. 

Tons of cool history up there, my direct ancestors lived in the area before TN was a state. One of which signed the watauga treaty if you remember that from history class

You are a wealth of knowledge.

Thank you!

22 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Yep. Not lots of them but they are present and still delicious. Watauga has some monster walleyes up to 10 lbs, probably more. 
 

watauga has lots of big black bass, all 3 species. It also has lake trout, rainbow trout, and brown trout. Maybe even some

brook trout, definitely brookies in some of the streams that flow into the lake. It’s got catfish, walleye, rock bass, crappie, bluegill, alewives, threadfin, probably a few other species I’m forgetting. Watauga is also in a very cold climate, my buddy that lived on it referred to it as little Alaska. I mean, it’s not North Dakota but it’s really stinking cold up there. The most important thing to watch up there would be WIND. We were young and dumb and used to fish it from a 14 foot flat bottom in subfreezing temps, luckily to have not drowned. There’s a place you can buy live trout and catch big smallmouth with them, if you’re into that sort of thing (highly recommend). 
 

boone is pretty crazy! I’ve never fished it myself but I know a good bit about it. The dam was leaking, it was 30 feet or more below normal for several years. I think they just got it back to normal levels about 2 years ago, something like that. You don’t hear much about walleye there (not sure why), but it’s got big stripers and hybrids. It also has some of the biggest brown trout I’ve ever seen. People that fish live shad for striper always seem to catch a huge brown trout. It’s got largemouth and smallmouth, not sure if I ever remember hearing of a spotted bass in Boone but surely they are in there. Definitely has Crappie, catfish, bluegill, etc. Boone is much more crowded boat wise than watauga, the summer can be a zoo with party boats. I’ve seen pictures of a Red Bull float plane landing on it. There’s some whitewater rapids up the watauga river arm of it 

 

also, just a technicality, everyone just calls it east TN instead of eastern TN. They call tri cities upper east TN. 

Tons of cool history up there, my direct ancestors lived in the area before TN was a state. One of which signed the watauga treaty if you remember that from history class

Thanks for the great summary of the lakes, that sounds great with tons of diversity. I love black bass, but enjoy fishing for other species when I can, this sounds like I'll be able to bring home some groceries too!ittle Alaska doesn't sound sound good unless it thins the fishing pressure then I'm fine with the cold. Much appreciate the help TNriver

On 4/3/2022 at 1:02 AM, TnRiver46 said:

Yep. Not lots of them but they are present and still delicious. Watauga has some monster walleyes up to 10 lbs, probably more. 
 

watauga has lots of big black bass, all 3 species. It also has lake trout, rainbow trout, and brown trout. Maybe even some

brook trout, definitely brookies in some of the streams that flow into the lake. It’s got catfish, walleye, rock bass, crappie, bluegill, alewives, threadfin, probably a few other species I’m forgetting. Watauga is also in a very cold climate, my buddy that lived on it referred to it as little Alaska. I mean, it’s not North Dakota but it’s really stinking cold up there. The most important thing to watch up there would be WIND. We were young and dumb and used to fish it from a 14 foot flat bottom in subfreezing temps, luckily to have not drowned. There’s a place you can buy live trout and catch big smallmouth with them, if you’re into that sort of thing (highly recommend). 
 

boone is pretty crazy! I’ve never fished it myself but I know a good bit about it. The dam was leaking, it was 30 feet or more below normal for several years. I think they just got it back to normal levels about 2 years ago, something like that. You don’t hear much about walleye there (not sure why), but it’s got big stripers and hybrids. It also has some of the biggest brown trout I’ve ever seen. People that fish live shad for striper always seem to catch a huge brown trout. It’s got largemouth and smallmouth, not sure if I ever remember hearing of a spotted bass in Boone but surely they are in there. Definitely has Crappie, catfish, bluegill, etc. Boone is much more crowded boat wise than watauga, the summer can be a zoo with party boats. I’ve seen pictures of a Red Bull float plane landing on it. There’s some whitewater rapids up the watauga river arm of it 

 

also, just a technicality, everyone just calls it east TN instead of eastern TN. They call tri cities upper east TN. 

Tons of cool history up there, my direct ancestors lived in the area before TN was a state. One of which signed the watauga treaty if you remember that from history class

Watauga is really deep, even 5' from the shore. There are probably primeval species living in the bottom.

2 minutes ago, Clumsy fisherman said:

Watauga is really deep, even 5' from the shore. There are probably primeval species living in the bottom.

There’s even the town of butler Half a mile down 

 

 

Also right out of the Bristol area is S Holston. Seems like fishing wise it’s passed on for lakes further down the river. I’ve fished it a handful of time from my yak. I’ve caught largemouth, smallmouth and walleye. Virginia Game and Fish stock walleye and they will spawn up the Holston either middle fork or south fork in the spring. 
 

Also it has lake trout but I’ve never chased them so can’t give you to much help there. Also in Bristol is a small lake called steel creek. Only electric or paddle drive vessels allowed. I caught some nice fish when I first moved here in that place.