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Headed to Douglas Oct 4th-8th.
1st time being on the lake, looking for slaps and wanting to know which end of the lake I should look at staying. Meeting my brother-in law for a fishing excursion. We have talked about tent camping to renting a cabin. I would like to be able to keep the boat in the water and not have to remove it dailey if possible.
Any info would be great!
Welcome to the Board. The first week in October Douglas lake will probably be down from full pool by about 20ft. It is down 15ft now and with this hot dry weather TVA is drawing down all the East TN lakes for hydroelectric generation as well as the normal Fall/Winter water release. Here is a chart of the lake level as of today, the red line is this years fluctuation to date.
Attachment 355374
As far as camping, the TVA campground at the Dam has full hookups, tent areas, restrooms and a nice boat ramp. There is no docking area to leave your boat overnight, the water will fall another 20ft so all public ramps are just launch areas only. There are a couple campgrounds scattered up the lake, most have permanent sites only. Anchor Down RV resort has nice spots for large campers with all pull through concrete pads but vey few trees or grass. It has a steep ramp. There are lots of Rental cabins/ Houses available up and down the lake and on both sides of the lake, most have docks but if they are not cabled correctly and let out each day with the falling waters they are pretty much high and dry by now. I would plan on staying anywhere below I-40 bridge, Dandridge and Muddy Creek areas are two places to start looking. The Point Resort area in Dandridge has rental rooms, a boat ramp, and a nice restaurant that looks out over the water. It is centrally located on the lake. As far as fishing goes, pulling cranks and long lining jigs in the main channel and in the big creek mouths will be your best bet. The water temperatures are still hot right now, 85 and above and there is not much relief in site.
Thanks stantheman2567!
Great info, just what I was asking for.
Interesting trip to Douglas lake.
Water was down like Stantheman2567 said it would be.
Put in at the Danridge public ramp on Saturday 10/4. I must say they have a very nice dock with boat slips and a very large seating area with grills. We fished north all the way up to I-40 bridges. Found a lot of crappie on the graphs but only boated four keepers which made for a nice dinner. Sunday we put in at the TVA dam ramp. Again only boating a few keepers, brush piles seemed nonexistent except for onshore. Monday and Tuesday proved more productive as we learned the lake a little better. Both days we put in at shady grove boat ramp and were successful at finding brush and high walls. Each day we had numbers and boated 16 keepers Monday 20 Tuesday. Very enjoyable trip and look forward to going back in the spring.
Good report! Glad you figured em out!
Nicely done!
Glad you could find and stick a few Douglas Crappie. All those brush piles you spotted on the banks are good in the Spring and Summer, depressing each Fall and Winter to see the water drained and sent down river.
They have been draining Chickamauga all day today. Down about 4 feet when I loaded the boat
You did good on Douglas. I have never fished that lake before.