Best lakes around Knoxville

[utvolpj]

Plus my boys need some space to throw rocks. Very important part of growing up

 

[WallyBalls]

Plus my boys need some space to throw rocks. Very important part of growing up

Yes!

Plus with all the slate/shale or whatever those flat rocks are, it makes for an easy intro to skipping.

 

[midnight orange]

Thanks ODR...just need to within an hour of TYS.

 

[DancingOutlaw]

Norris is really clean, bonus you can fish the Clinch for trout as well.

 

[OldandStillaVol]

Cherokee isn't as bad as it used to be (at least at our place). We would just grab a pole and push the dock out when it did. Now my dad got smart and added wheels. I used to love it when the water was low and we'd find the occasional arrowhead laying in the rocks. My dad has a huge collection from when he was a kid but then people realized they could sell them and they disappeared

I have good memories of arrowhead hunting as a kid with my dad in one of the lakes when water was low. Not sure how he knew the locations to look; maybe people he worked with told him where to look.

 

[Danl]

Look up the history of the Tennessee Valley Authority. The most important reason for TVA was to stop catastrophic flooding in the Tennessee river basin by building dams to make reservoirs to hold the winter and spring rains runoff.

search

chattanooga flood of 1917

and look at "images"

So get this in your head. TVA draws down the water levels in the lakes to absorb wet season runoff and prevent catastrophic flooding downstream. They always do it, every year, the same for each lake. And the depth of draw down varys from a few feet to YUUGE!

Some are drawn down from summer pool levels "catastrophically" ;-). For those who bought on Norris -20 feet, Douglass -40+feet, Cherokee -25feet. People buy lake lots there all the time and move after the first year. Depending on where work is I wouldn't choose any of those three unless I had to.

I grew up a river rat on Watts Bar -4feet). I could chuck a rock out my bedroom window and hit the lake. Summer or winter. Winter provides some of the most beautiful times to be on the water. Watts Bar "south of the river" (meaning where the Tennessee and the Clinch rivers come together) is beautiful. Look a a map. You'll see the Tennessee river turns south there. For a home, I like the east side of the river, down River Road (Hwy304). The west bank requires a lot of driving depending on where you work. Meets all your criteria except a view of the Smokies, which you can have, but you get a ridgetop lot and keep your boat in dry storage or a slip.

If your lot has to be on the water- which it should, with a deep water pier:

Watts Bar, Melton Hill. Fort Loudon and Tellico Lakes. Loudon & Tellico are connected by a channel and have the same lake levels, but also have a shallow draw down -6feet. Kingston has a pretty good school system. Oak Ridge has a very good one, as that's the "Secret City" of the Manhattan Project. Melton Hill Lake -4feet has some nice spots.

While Norris, Douglas, Cherokee Lakes are of course beautiful when the water is up during the summer, the huge, and I mean YUUGE! drop in winter for flood water runoff protection (one of the original and the MOST important reasons for TVA), ruins them for year round living on the water in my opinion. If you choose one of those, save money and get a ridgetop lot instead of a waterfront lot in a planned community. You'll have dock access, and maybe the Smokies view.

All of the above is utter BS! That section, in fact ALL, of Watts Bar Lake is a horrible place to live. There are no fish except a few 6 inch catfish. There's millions of poisonous snakes everywhere, and the water is FILTHY! No, it would be a YUUUUUGE mistake to move anywhere close to me on Watts Bar. Stay up on Cherokee or Norris.

 

[InVOLuntary]

Norris does drop in the winter but it doesn't look as bad as Douglas and Cherokee IMO. The banks are steeper so a 20' drop maybe will be 40' horizontal whereas a 20' drop on Douglas could be a 1/2 mile.

Watts Bar isn't bad but it is fairly well polluted being down stream from Oak Ridge. Fish eating advisories everywhere.

 

[Biopsyman]

One of the lakes has a lot logs

 

[goldenvol]

One of the lakes has a lot logs

Does it have any lot lizards or are they exclusive to the flying j ?