Tennessee governs its fishing with creel limits and length limits rather than a calendar. The statewide table carries no closed season for any of the species people actually search for.
Every season we have verified in Tennessee
One block per rule, because a single species can be on two calendars in the same state depending on the water. The band under each heading is the legal season; the row under it is what our own data says the fish are doing.
Bass — Statewide
No statewide closed season and no statewide minimum length. What changes the day is the water: many reservoirs and rivers carry their own slot limits and creel exceptions, and the statewide table is explicitly a default rather than the whole rule.
- Limit
- No more than 5 black bass a day in any combination.
Walleye — Statewide
Walleye and sauger are separate lines in the Tennessee table with different sizes and different limits, which catches people out on the Tennessee River where both are caught in the same session.
- Size
- Walleye 16 inches, sauger 15 inches.
- Limit
- Walleye 5 a day, sauger 10.
Trout — Statewide
A generous limit by national standards, and no statewide closed season. Individual tailwaters and delayed-harvest stretches carry their own dates and restrictions — in places trout is catch-and-release from December to March — so the statewide number is the floor, not the answer.
- Limit
- 7 a day, no minimum length.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. Legal dates were read on the agency’s own page on the date shown beside each entry. Seasons change: the agency link is always the last word.
What the water is doing while the season is open
This is the part an agency page will not tell you. The temperature row above is the seasonal curve we use for the 7 of 21 Tennessee waters we track on a southern reservoir profile, and it is why an opening date and a fishable date are not the same thing. A season that opens while the water is still in the forties is a legal invitation, not a biological one: the fish are there, they are just not eating on your schedule yet. Cross the legal band against the activity row before you book the day off.
Where to fish it
We publish a daily report for 21 Tennessee waters, each with live flow or tide and today's conditions.
- Dale Hollow Lake — Overton County
- Chickamauga Lake — Meigs County
- Center Hill Lake — Warren County
- Norris Lake — Union County
- Douglas Lake — Jefferson County
- Watts Bar Lake — Roane County
- Percy Priest Lake — Davidson County
- Boone Lake — Washington County
- Old Hickory Lake — Sumner County
- Watauga Lake — Carter County
The licence is a separate question
An open season is not permission to fish. Tennessee requires a licence from age 13, and residents pay from $33.00 against $49.00 for visitors. What a Tennessee licence costs and where to buy it →
Questions
When does fishing season open in Tennessee?
It depends on the species: bass no closed season published; walleye no closed season published; trout no closed season published. Every date on this page was read off TWRA on 2026-09-14.
Do I need a licence to fish in Tennessee?
Yes. Tennessee requires a fishing licence from age 13, from $33.00 for residents. A season being open is not permission to fish: the licence is separate and so are the size and bag limits.
Are these Tennessee dates going to change?
Some of them, and the page says which. Dates written as a rule in the regulations are calculated here for 2026, so they follow the rule rather than going stale. Dates the agency sets each year are shown as exactly that, with no calendar band, because inventing one would be worse than leaving it empty.