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If you are looking for a lake full of 3-pound smallmouth, this is your huckleberry. Yes, the smallmouth here grow bigger than that, but fish an entire day on its 28,780 acres and you’ll likely end with your five biggest weighing 15 pounds. What makes a trip here even better is only a half-hour drive, from ramp to ramp, is Douglas Lake, another hit maker on the Bassmaster Top 100 list.
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If Chickamauga Lake has one standout attribute, it’s a big one. The Tennessee state record bass weighing 15.20 pounds got that heavy from its Florida largemouth genes. The record was not a biological oddity, as quality matters over quantity in the state’s management plan to stock and maintain the predominant Florida largemouth gene base.
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The legendary lake producing the word-record smallmouth (David L. Hayes, 11 pounds, 15 ounces), and the lake is still known for its trophy potential. In recent years, the state committed to preserving the legacy of the lake by implementing an 18-24-inch slot limit to protect female brood fish from harvest. (The current slot is 16-21 inches).
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When asked to rank the bass lakes in their state, we found it interesting that the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency named this fishery among the state’s best.
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A prerequisite for choosing a fishery for the world’s championship of bass fishing is its fertility for great bass fishing. Twice, in 2019 and 2023, Fort Loudoun was chosen the playing field for the Bassmaster Classic. Fort Loudoun begins at the headwaters of the Tennessee River, flowing through downtown Knoxville and then broadening out into a classic lake.
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Smallmouth get all the attention at Pickwick Lake and they deserve it. The lake is legendary for producing the best smallmouth fishing on the Tennessee River system. Not to be ignored, a healthy population of largemouth also lives in the southwest Tennessee lake. Pickwick’s pedigree for both species makes it worthy of a high ranking in the Bassmaster Top 100 Lakes list.
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Watts Bar lake is located on the Tennessee River about midway between Knoxville and Chattanooga. The lake begins at Fort Loudon Dam and stretches 72 miles to Watts Bar Dam. The Clinch River connects to the main channel of the lake. Watts Bar covers 39,000 acres of surface water.
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Sport fisheries undergo highs and lows as part of the natural biological cycle of aquatic ecosystems, and Kentucky Lake is no exception. The 160,309-acre lake (largest manmade lake east of the Mississippi River) with a storied past of more than a dozen B.A.S.S. pro-level events is on a comeback, and its previous reputation speaks for itself. In the late 2000s, 30-pound limits set the benchmark for winning Bassmaster events.
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