Pickwick Lake has been high on most everyone’s smallmouth lists for years but has been declining in recent years as well. The first couple of years in the sampling kept it on the fourth spot, but Black said Pickwick has fallen off quite a bit in more recent years.

Upstart Tims Ford with its fairly new restrictive regulations was fifth in the creel rankings with samples gathered in all of the five years with the exception of 2003.

Based on the 2005 creel survey only, the top five statewide were Dale Hollow, Norris, Tims Ford, Watauga, and then Pickwick Lake. However, Black said South Holston Lake wasn’t sampled in 2005. He suspects that, had it been sampled, it would still rank somewhere around No. 2 or 3 either way. In addition, he said Center Hill has always ranked somewhere in the middle based on angler-hours as well as catch rates.

DON’T OVERLOOK MOVING WATER
There’s no argument that the lake fishing for smallmouths in Tennessee is topnotch. But there’s also no doubt whatsoever that a big reason the Volunteer State ranks at or near the top of most everyone’s lists as a smallmouth destination is the incredible stream fishing found here as well. When you couple the awesome reservoir opportunities with those of our moving waters, we have it all when it comes to brown fish options.

As good as it feels to have a mad smallmouth hit a spinnerbait after dark on Dale Hollow in July or fight one on a Float-N-Fly rig on South Holston in January, to have a smallie blow up on a Tiny Torpedo in moving water or have them annihilate a hellgrammite below a shoal is just as satisfying.

I’ve had my jet boat in many rivers and waded most of the big-time rivers to fight brown fish face to face. The streams I put on the top of my list are the Pigeon, the Holston, the Nolichucky, the Duck and Buffalo rivers. Let’s see what the TWRA data and river fisheries brain trust have to say about these and other moving waters. Our Top Smallmouth Streams

Frank Fiss, TWRA’s stream coordinator, said the agency has been keeping the likes of stream biologists, Rick Bivens, Bart Carter and Carl Williams busy conducting creel surveys on the Pigeon and Nolichucky rivers this year. That means next year, we’ll have fresh stats on both of these great smallmouth streams.

Like me, Fiss has found the Pigeon River smallmouth fishing was off just a little this past year. From what I’ve seen, the fishing may have been off just a little relating to what seemed to be an increase in the usual generation schedules suited to accommodate the whitewater rafting companies along its shores. Despite the fishing being a little off in 2006, Fiss and I both agree that it still ranks on the top of the list for the best smallmouth rivers. He said the Pigeon is No. 1, followed by the Holston, the Nolichucky, the Buffalo, and then the Duck or Powell rivers.

Just what makes a river a quality destination versus a numbers situation? That’s exactly the question I put to Fiss about how a river becomes a top destination for smallies.