You picked one of the worst times to visit. There is an MLF College event out of Dayton today, March 30 and tomorrow March 31 with 228 boats. That's a lot for a 36,000 acre lake. Glad you enjoyed your visit and you were treated well.Originally Posted by rlspace
Shhh. Don't talk about watts bar. No fish there
Once the Chick started to get lots of press, it was only a matter of time before the lake got slammed. Being a smaller lake just makes it worse.
You guys need to come to lake fork during the big bass tournaments each year. Imagine 5000 boats on a lake that is 27,000 acres.
Lake Fork is smaller than Chick, wow. I figured just because it was in Texas, it was 100,000 acres plus. Never knew that.
Sam Rayburn and Toledo bend are 120,000 snd 180,000 acres respectively so they are much bigger than fork
I've been fishing Cherokee Lake since I was a kid, I'm now 55 and I've never seen so many tournaments on this little lake. B.A.S.S. was here this past Fall, FLW in the spring, then add several high school and college tours, local trails, and then multiple weekly tournaments every week, the lake is fished to death. I know fishing is more popular now than ever but our lakes need some rest, especially during the spawn. Cherokee and Douglas are basically side x side and it's the same there also. Both lakes are around 27,000 surface acres and it's getting to the point it's hard to find a parking spot at any public ramps on any Saturday, even in the winter. I still fish a few tournaments but I would like to see TWRA step up and limit the amount of them, especially the big ones. Maybe require a permit for any tournament over 25 boats and charge for it. I don't know, just trying to think of a way to take some pressure off our lakes. I've never fished the Chick, always wanted to but sounds like it's just as bad there, or worse.
I've said the same thing about TWRA 10ga. Maybe if enough of us called representatives and complained something would get done. TWRA will never do it on their own. Too much money from non-resident licenses. Add in the gas, hotel tax, restaurants and everything else that goes with it and the 300 boat tournaments look pretty good.
The part they forget is that when the lake gets beat to death (like it is now) it'll get unpopular as quick as it got popular and they'll be left with us locals.
I can tell you that if this year goes like last year I'll be selling a boat and 40 years worth of equipment and calling it quits.
Honestly that's what it will take, everyone coming together and I'm still not sure anything will be done. They had a 250 boat local trail yesterday on Cherokee and like you said, it brings in a lot of money but at the expense of the local fisherman. I was going to fish Douglas this week but then my buddy reminded me the BASS Southern Open will be there this coming weekend so it will be packed all week. Back about 20 years ago Cherokee was in bad shape and the PAA came in during the middle of the summer and the winner ( Tommy Biffle ) maybe averaged 12 pounds a day. Right now it's taking 19 a day to win one but that's because you can keep 5 smallies 15 and over, June 1st that goes to 1 over 18" so those weights come way down. I can see Cherokee getting back to those "Bad old days" soon if something isn't done. TWRA stock stripers and walleye every year but rarely stock bass. Twenty years ago we would catch 1 smallmouth for every 15 largemouth, now it's the other way around. I'd like to see them concentrate on stocking spots because it seems like they do good with stripers. 30 years ago you could catch limits of crappie all day long, stripers and lack of habitat have caused the panfish population to take a hit. If it was up to me, all the stripers would be gone but TWRA thinks people travel from all over the country to catch stripers on Cherokee.........what a joke. On any day, 90% of the fisherman on the lake are fishing for bass and maybe 10% are after stripers and hybrids. Sorry, got off topic but it burns me up to see bad decisions almost kill a lake and that's where a lot of our lakes are headed. Don't know how to organize a big group of fisherman to make changes but I would be right there in the fight and do my part. My son works at TWRA and I've had several discussions with biologist on the harm the tournaments are doing but they seem to think it doesn't hurt the fishing. Like you said, they're making too much money on them.
Ultimately the locals are the ones that get screwed over!!! All the big crowds are "created"artificially by the tournament organizations, some greedy local promotors, or worst of all the social media hero wannabes on bookface and other sites... posting pics of everything they catch.
"Luminous beings are we not this crude matter." Yoda
Back in theate 80s milfoil got thick on Chickamauga and the rich folks complained because it was growing around their docks so TVA took care of it. They sprayed the entire lake to kill it amd in turn killed 90% of the fish.
A couple of decades later TWRA brought in the Florida strain and they took off.
A decade later Dayton's mayor decided they could actually have an economy and now the city government has a committee to bring tournaments to town.
Well guess what. Now we have a new problem. That grass that the bass love so much... it's growing around the dicks again and TVA is allowing dock owners to spray. Won't be long until history repeats itself.
On top of that TVA made the decision 2 winters ago to decrease winter pool by 2 feet so now we go down almost 7 feet in the winter. April 15 has always been the magical day when we're at summer pool. Last year it was after Memorial day before we got there. And it's April 14 and we're still down 3 feet.
Make no mistake, TVA is NOT about conservation in the least. They're about money and they'd kill every fish from Chickamauga to the Gulf for an extra 50 cents and TWRA would stand on the bank and sell permits to seine the river while they do it.
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