Short answer: Anyone 13 or older needs a TWRA license. 5 bass/day (15" min), 15 crappie/day (10" min), 2 striped bass/day (15" Apr-Oct, 36" Nov-Mar), no limit on bluegill. Most importantly: TWRA's site is the live source of truth. Everything below is a useful summary, not a legal document.
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Tennessee fishing rules are set by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) and updated each season. The summary below covers what almost every Watts Bar angler needs to know, but rules change. Before keeping anything that has a size or creel limit, check the current rules at tn.gov/twra/fishing-regs. The exact statewide creel and length limits are at tn.gov/twra/fishing-regs/statewide-creel-length-limits. The Watts Bar reservoir-specific page is here.
License. Required for anyone 13 or older fishing Tennessee public waters. Kids under 13 fish free. Buy at any bait shop, online at tn.gov/twra, or see the fishing license guide. A one-day license is $1, a non-resident annual is more.
Hook limit. Maximum of 3 hooks per rod, pole, or hand-held line. A treble hook counts as one hook. Sabiki rigs targeting shad or herring are an exception.
Possession limit. Total possession limit is twice the daily creel limit, regardless of how long you've been fishing or how many days you keep them.
Measurement. Lay the fish on a ruler, close the mouth, and squeeze the tail fin together. Measure from the tip of the snout to the tip of the squeezed tail. A fish exactly at the minimum is legal; one even slightly under is not.
Live bait transport. Don't move live fish, crayfish, or salamanders between water bodies. Bait you bought from a shop is fine; bait you caught in one lake stays in that lake.
Boat safety in hazardous areas. A USCG-approved life jacket must be worn (not just on board) by everyone in designated hazardous areas below dams and locks. The waters immediately below Watts Bar Dam and Fort Loudoun Dam fall in this category.
Prohibited methods. No explosives, chemicals, electrical shocking devices, or shooting fish with firearms. Bowfishing, gigging, snagging, and spearguns have specific rules; check the TWRA page if you're using anything other than rod and reel.
The numbers below are the statewide standards as published by TWRA. Watts Bar follows the statewide standards for almost every species. The small list of Watts Bar-specific exceptions is in the next section.
| Species | Daily creel | Minimum length |
|---|---|---|
| Black bass (largemouth, smallmouth, spotted, Alabama, Coosa, combined) | 5 | 15 inches (Watts Bar specific; statewide default has no length) |
| Crappie (black, white, hybrid, combined) | 15 | 10 inches |
| Striped bass / hybrid striped bass (combined), Apr 1 - Oct 31 | 2 | 15 inches |
| Striped bass / hybrid striped bass (combined), Nov 1 - Mar 31 | 2 (only 1 may be a striped bass) | 36 inches for striped bass; 15 inches for hybrid |
| White bass | 15 | None |
| Walleye | 5 | 16 inches |
| Sauger / sauger-walleye hybrids | 10 | 15 inches |
| Muskellunge | 1 | 36 inches |
| Trout (all species combined) | 7 (only 2 may be lake trout) | None |
| Catfish (blue, channel, flathead, combined) | No limit on fish under 34 inches; only 1 over 34 inches per day | None |
| Bluegill, warmouth, bream, yellow bass, bullheads, pickerel, northern pike, yellow perch | No limit | None |
| Redear sunfish (shellcracker) | 20 | None |
| Rock bass / redeye / shadow bass | 20 | None |
| Skipjack herring | 100 | None |
| Paddlefish (May 1 - 15 only) | 2 per day; culling prohibited | None |
| Alligator gar | 0 (no harvest, must be released immediately) | n/a |
| Shovelnose sturgeon | 0 (no harvest, must be released immediately) | n/a |
Black bass minimum length: 15 inches on Watts Bar Reservoir specifically. The statewide black bass rule has no length limit, but Watts Bar has a 15-inch minimum per the reservoir's regulations table on the TWRA page.
Smallmouth bass on Watts Bar: the same 15-inch minimum applies. The narrative on TWRA's Watts Bar page references an earlier 18-inch minimum that was used historically; the current regulation is 15 inches per the regulations table.
Emory River single-hook rule, January 1 through April 30. On the Emory River (the major tributary entering the upper end of Watts Bar at Harriman), anglers are restricted to one hook with a single point or one lure with no more than one single-point hook. This protects spawning fish during that window. Doesn't apply to the rest of Watts Bar; just the Emory River.
No commercial fishing on Watts Bar. Unlike neighboring Chickamauga, Watts Bar prohibits commercial fishing entirely. Recreational anglers can fish year-round without competing with commercial operations.
You're never required to keep what you catch. Catch and release is fine for any species at any size. If you catch a fish below the minimum length, it's not legal to keep, so release it.
To release a fish in the best shape:
Bluegill, crappie, and bass from Watts Bar are fine to eat. Catfish, striped bass, and hybrid striped-white bass: the TWRA and TDEC discourage eating bottom-feeding and long-lived predator fish from this stretch of the Tennessee River, and historical advisories have applied to catfish, stripers, and hybrid stripers in the Watts Bar Dam to Fort Loudoun Dam stretch. Always check the current TDEC advisory list before keeping any of these. When in doubt, catch and release.
TWRA publishes a What's New section each season for rule changes, plus subsection pages for trout regulations, live-bait regulations, and statewide exceptions. The links below take you to the current versions:
A 30-year Rockwood bait shop with a Weird Al cameo and a market in the back.
An independent bait and tackle shop in Rockwood, family-owned for more than 30 years per the shop's own site, with the Sisters Market gift and produce shop sharing the building.
A serious tackle shop with a working diner inside, just upstream of the lake.
A large bait and tackle shop on Highway 321N in Lenoir City, with a deep tackle floor for both fresh and saltwater anglers and an attached diner-style grill that gets unexpectedly strong food write-ups.
A small outdoor shop in Harriman with deeper inventory than the storefront suggests.
An independent outdoor shop on Roane State Highway in Harriman. Fishing tackle, apparel, shoes, and a backpacking section are tucked into a footprint that looks small from the parking lot.
Release it. Wet your hands before touching it, back the hook out with pliers, and put the fish back in the water until it swims off. Bluegill have no size limit and can be kept any size; crappie under 10 inches and bass under 15 inches must be released on Watts Bar.
No. Catch and release is fine for any species at any size. Many Watts Bar anglers practice catch and release for everything except bluegill and a few catfish for the table.
No. TWRA prohibits moving live fish, crayfish, or salamanders between water bodies. Bait from a bait shop is fine; bait you caught in another lake stays there.
Lay the fish on a ruler, close the mouth, and squeeze the tail fin together. Measure from the tip of the snout to the tip of the squeezed tail. A fish exactly at the minimum is legal; one even slightly under is not.
Yes, partially. From January 1 through April 30, the Emory River has a one-hook restriction (one hook with a single point or one lure with no more than one single-point hook) to protect spawning fish. The rest of Watts Bar follows the standard statewide rules.
Last updated: 2026-05-02