Cherokee Lake, TN Fishing Report & Live Conditions

Cherokee Lake, TN fishing report

Cherokee Lake is a Tennessee Valley Authority impoundment on the Holston River, and that river heritage shapes everything about how fish behave here. Largemouth and smallmouth bass are the primary draw, with largemouth dominating the shallow flats and creek arms while smallmouth favor rockier main-lake points and channel edges. Spring is the most productive season overall, pulling bass shallow to spawn and drawing walleye into the upper river sections where current concentrates them. Trout linger in deeper, cooler water near tributary mouths and the river channel through winter and early spring before retreating even deeper once summer heat sets in. Chain pickerel haunt the weedy backwater shallows year-round, catfish stack in deeper channel holes in summer, and crappie and bluegill are reliable throughout the warmer months.

Pay close attention to water temperature and TVA generation flow, as both shift fish positioning fast on this reservoir. When generators run, walleye and smallmouth move to current seams along the old river channel and respond well to blade baits, live minnows, or slow-rolled swimbaits worked along the bottom. Bass on the flats are most aggressive when surface temps sit in the low to mid sixties during spring prespawn, and that is prime time for shallow crankbaits, jerkbaits, and soft plastic creature baits around submerged timber. Summer pushes bass deep to main-lake points and channel ledges where you want to fish Carolina rigs or deep-diving crankbaits in the fifteen to twenty five foot range. Trout hold in the deepest sections near the dam during summer and respond to spoons or live bait fished vertically.