Watts Bar????

[Guest]

Going to watts Bar for the first time.. Where can I find some stripers? Would the upper dam be a good place to start? Any help would be nice... Thanks, Sephen From Catawba, NCemoBang emoBang emoBang

 

[DHaun]

Stephen, are you going above or below Watts Bar Dam? I know below Watts Bar Dam has some striper activity in the tailwaters. I have also caught them on 18-20' humps near deeper water in the lake.

 

[polo-dog]

Stephen, I just did a little research on striper fishing at Watts bar. Do you fish for them in NC? What type of fishing are you used to? Shallow vs deep? Trolling with or without downriggers? Topwater baits? Watts bar is known for good striper fishing it seems. It seems that this time of year you have two options, fishing the main lake areas but fishing deep with downriggers or fishing tailwaters below the dams. From the forums that I read it looks like tailwaters would be your best bet. I think that most people in the Southeast don't feel comfortable fishing with downriggers anyway. Here's a link to a striper forum with a search engine, not much good useful info as far as I could see but a little: http://tennstripedbass.com/ForumsIndex.htm
Go to the site, click on Tennessee near the top left hand corner, then click search, then put watts bar in the search box, then go to the link "Stripers below Norris Dam". Some of the info says that it's the only place to fish in the summer for stripers. I'll keep looking.

 

[Guest]

Man< I love you people.... Allot of help.. I have never been to Tenn.. As to the first question. I usually pull planer boards with live bait... I also through LIL Fishies or plugs og jig off the bottom... Around here I fish Lake Norman allot and Lake Hickory more... I got my biggest fish ever this year off Hickory.. 32.9lbs.. the biggest I ever got off Norman is 11lbs...I hear your lake has bigger fish.. I want a few.. By the way,,, Is the rumor true about not being able to eat the fish off Watts Bar? I am looking to fish below the dam in Watts Bar lake... In the tail race... Any help would be nice... Where, When, and how...
If anyone ever wants to get away and fish one of these lakes just let me know... Any time at all. A litte gas money and were on our way...If it wan'nt over $2.50 a gallon I would'nt ask.. It cost to have fun anymore.
Thanks allot,,,, Stephen

 

[polo-dog]

Oh yeh, I forgot, you ought to send JerDog a message as it sounds like he's done a bit of striper fishing and seems happy to surrender info.

 

[DHaun]

I have heard the same thing - don't eat the fish (or a limited amount) in watts bar. Mercury contamination I think... If you are going in the tailwaters you should do just fine. Please let us know how it goes and feel free to post any pics of any keepers.

I am interested in fishing below watts bar dam this fall. I am not sure about the rock situation and navigation though. Does anyone know if there are any shallow rocky places to look out for below watts bar dam? I think there are a couple below chickamauga dam and I don't even know exactly where they are...but Nickajack seems just fine.

 

[polo-dog]

DHaun, there are fish advisories on Watts Bar here's a link: http://www.state.tn.us/twra/fish/contaminants.html

I don't know anything about fishing below Watts Bar dam. I think that most of the good striper action that they talk about on the striper forums is below Ft Loudon Dam up near Lenoir City.

There is a rockpile below Chickamuaga Dam, most of the time you can see the top of it above water. The only other hazzard that I know about is somewhere below the flood gates between the lock and the wing wall somewhere. It's in the slow water and it took a chunk out of my prop one year. If you want to fish near the wing wall be sure to go around the rock pile that's in the fast water or at least go very slowly from the lock to the wing wall if you did lock through. I think what's down there is a concrete wall of some type but I'm not really sure, whatever it is, you don't want to hit it.emoScratch

 

[polo-dog]

Here's a map of the area below the dam at Loudon: http://www.lrn.usace.army.mil/opn/TNRiver/charts/84.jpg

And here's one for below Watts Bar dam: http://www.lrn.usace.army.mil/opn/TNRiver/charts/76.jpg

Neither have great detail. There are better maps I would expect at the TVA map store on Hickory Valley road just a bit off of Bonnie Oaks Dr. The lady that runs it is a really nice lady. If you want to buy the maps on line you can go to this site: https://maps.tva.com/ The prices have really gone up in the last few years. The best buy in my view is the Tennessee River Folio which gives you a waterproof mapping of the whole TN river system. The only problem with it is that the maps are just an overview and don't give you great detail. If you can go to the map store you can get much better maps of many of the TVA reserviors. Some are better than others. There may be some maps that give you really good info about tailrace waters but I haven't really looked at those, only so many hours in a day.

 

[DHaun]

Thanks for the info, expecially about the Chickamauga hazards polo dog! I will have to check it out next time the water is low...maybe this afternoon when I go out. Last time I went the water was up and nothing was visible but I did see a bass boat come in and take an indirect route to the wingwall like they were trying to miss hitting something - maybe I can see that again sometime. I certainly don't want to find out the hard way where these prop busters are located.

 

[Guest]

How far are the two dams apart? Is it far to go by water or should I pull the boat?I'm probaly going to put the boat in at the watts Bar dam near the tail race if there is a put in.Is there anything dangeous to watch out for there?Also Where is a good place to catch good bait in that river?Should I bring some large shad from Hickory or will it be easy to catch there?Stephen.... Thanks again

 

[polo-dog]

On the maps there are ramps(see attached maps with ramps circled. How you get to them I am not sure. Watts Bar lake is 72 miles long(mile marker 530 to mile marker 602). Too far to run in my rig but maybe it's different for you. I would expect that bait is in similar areas as below Nickajack and Chickamauga. Usually this time of year there is tons of bait(threadfin shad) at the wing wall in the Chickamauga tailrace. There's a huge eddie there and you can catch Skipjack herring there that you can use for bait on 1 inch tube jigs or other small white or chartreuse jigs. I would expect similar below each dam. I think that if you look on line that there may be photographs of the dam and tailrace area so you could see it before you go. I would expect that what really matters is the flow, you can get that info at Resivior info at tva.gov but I don't know what the optimal flow is below those dams. Bait shops near those areas may be able to tell you that info.

I'm having trouble resizing the images, both ramps are seen on the maps above less than two miles below each dam.

Oops, easier to see on the above links.