A couple buddies and myself are trying to plan a fishing trip…would be gone 6-7days. At first plan was to fish hartwell, lanier, russell, and the hill. Spending 2 days at probably russell and lanier. This trip would be at the beginning of April. Havent decided on camping or hotels yet.
After looking around online and researching different lakes I am wondering if there would be better lakes to fish…allatoona? Carter’s? Any special tailrace?..
This is a trophy trip. Not looking for numbers just really big fish…lol…will be carrying pretty much only big gizzards and trout. May pull some smaller baits for dinner fish.
Do yall have any suggestions? Would like to stay in SC and GA because non resident fishing licenses can get pricey. Plan is to only have to buy a GA license.
I have always heard folks refer to Alatoona as the dead sea. It has been a while since I worked in Atlanta so it may have come back.
We are doing our every year trip to Lake Cherokee in Tennessee. We are going for four days this year. I would like to do a week up there and check out some lakes and rivers but have not done that yet. There are a ton of options within a hour or so from Morristown. Cherokee does not have the largest fish up there but if you want to catch consistent 10# plus fish for a few days it is hard to beat.
I believe you may be missing some trophy lakes if you’re not fishing Watts Bar or Norris in Tennesse. Fished both and always have caught at least one over 30# and several in the 20’s
I read reports about those lakes and would like to fish them sometime. We only go to Cherokee for four days each year so we just stay there and get the pattern down for that year. We alway fish the upper end which is really beautiful. I hope to get soem trips to other lakes and rivers up there in the future. So many fshing opportunities and so litle vacation time.
That’s kind of our plan. Since we have never done any type of long fishing trip we are kinda staying close to home. Get all kinks worked out with traveling, battery charging, keeping bait on the rd etc. If all goes well we may plan for tenn the next time. I know there are some cows up there and we will get to them in the future. …
That is what we like about Cherokee. There is an old fish camp with 1950’s block cabins. Not fancy but clean and you can park you boat out front and it is secure and you can charger and put out extra boats tanks to hold gizzards overnight. We have had as many as seven or eight boats at a time but normallt at least three or four each trip. Makes it fun.
Cherokee is a fantastic lake for pretty routine 10-20 pound fish. Team Hardcore likes to go the week between Christmas and New Years. It’s cold as a well diggers and bait is scarce, but those fish like heavy metal too:smiley: We have a guy who can usually get us a couple dozen shad, but the spoons out produce the bait most days.
We do want to hit Norris and Watts Barr for some trophies one day, but Cherokee is really special to us.
Chip you would probably enjoy Lanier better than Allatoona or Carters, especially in beginning of April,…make a beeline for the chattahoochie river on the upper end…but man, if you got that many days, you could learn a lot about some east TN fishing…watts bar, melton Hill, melton hill dam, loudon dam, douglas dam, all fairly close to knoxville…get you a big bait tank and bunch of trout…they are easier to keep alive…throw some little cleos or some crappie jigs to catch some skipjack…catch a muskie in Melton Hill too… You might ought to see Tim Adrian’s Monster Striper videos from there…I can let you borrow mine sometime if you havent seen it…
Team Shad Up & Fish
If you’ve had fun catching fish on the transom bait, you are welcome…
I’ve spent about 85% of my life’s wages on fishing, the rest I just wasted…
