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Percy Priest Lake Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

Nashville's home lake: hybrids under the birds, smallmouth on the rocks, ten minutes from downtown.

3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Flow
47 cfs
Air / High
76 / 76 F
Wind
NNE 4 mph

Sources: USGS gauge 03430200, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

3/5Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Percy Priest Lake lines up a genuinely fishable day across the board. The release below the dam is running 47 cfs, falling. Today brings clear skies, wind NNE around 4 mph, steady pressure near 1021 hPa and a high of 76. Water sits around 74 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:22 AM-11:22 AM and 9:50 PM-11:50 PM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

Largemouth bassGood

The main feeding season after the spawn: work moving baits along weed edges, points and wood, and follow up with a soft plastic where a fish swirls.

Catfish (blue, channel)Good

Spawning season from late May into summer: Iowa DNR suggests drifting bait under a float along riprap and snags where males guard nests in cavities.

Hybrid striped bassFair

Look for shad on flats with timber near creek channels and on windblown points; cast jigs and swimbaits where fish break the surface.

CrappieFair

Early in this band crappie are spawning in protected coves; afterward they move to docks, brush piles and standing timber near deeper water.

Tomorrow: Similar at 76 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

Tennessee requires a fishing licence from age 13, from $33.00 for residents. What a Tennessee licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing largemouth bass here? Check the size and bag limits with TWRA before you keep anything. The season dates for Tennessee, read off the agency, are on the Tennessee seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings from STONES RIVER AT US HWY 70 NEAR DONELSON, TN (outflow).

Flow, last 30 days

USGS gauge 03430200.

44587247 cfs09/2310/0310/1310/23

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp76 F
High / Low76 / 41 F
WindNNE 4-5 mph
Pressure1021.3 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset07:00 / 17:59
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (gauge)64 F USGS
Water temp (seasonal)~74 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunsetPRIMEPRIME

Which day to fish Percy Priest Lake this week

The best day on Percy Priest Lake this week looks like Saturday Oct 24, at 4 out of 5, against 3 today.

Best day this week: Saturday, Oct 24 β€” good at 4/5, steady pressure, neither help nor hindrance.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Fair

A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Solunar majors
9:22 AM-11:22 AM and 9:50 PM-11:50 PM
Minor period
3:43 AM-4:43 AM
Sun
07:00 to 17:59
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Overcast, 6 mph
Rain chance
0%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Percy Priest Lake: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Largemouth bass illustration

Largemouth bass

Best: the spring pre-spawn and the fall feed

A warm-water sunfish of lakes, reservoirs, ponds and slow river backwaters that holds tight to cover: weeds, logs, rock ledges and docks. In Texas, TPWD surveys rank it "by far" the freshwater fish anglers most want to catch. The main feeding season after the spawn: work moving baits along weed edges, points and wood, and follow up with a soft plastic where a fish swirls.

Hybrid striped bass illustration

Hybrid striped bass

Best: the spring shad spawn and fall; summer at dawn and dusk

A hatchery cross of striped bass and white bass, also called wiper or palmetto bass, stocked by state agencies into reservoirs and rivers as a sport fish that also eats gizzard shad. Schools roam open water after shad. Look for shad on flats with timber near creek channels and on windblown points; cast jigs and swimbaits where fish break the surface.

Catfish (blue, channel) illustration

Catfish (blue, channel)

Year-round, best at dusk and after dark

Three big catfish share most of the country's rivers and reservoirs: the channel catfish, the most widespread; the blue catfish, the largest; and the flathead, which hunts live fish. All feed mostly on or near the bottom. Spawning season from late May into summer: Iowa DNR suggests drifting bait under a float along riprap and snags where males guard nests in cavities.

Crappie illustration

Crappie

Best: the spring spawn; summer around docks, brush and the thermocline

Two slab-sided panfish, the white crappie and the black crappie, that gather around submerged timber, brush piles, docks and bridge pilings in lakes, reservoirs and slow river backwaters. Texas Parks and Wildlife counts crappie as the state's most popular panfish. Early in this band crappie are spawning in protected coves; afterward they move to docks, brush piles and standing timber near deeper water.

When to come: the Percy Priest Lake calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Largemouth bass
Hybrid striped bass
Catfish (blue, channel)
Crappie
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 74 F (estimated, not a reading).

5060708090JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~74 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Percy Priest Lake today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Largemouth bass led the card at excellent. High of 76 F, wind to 7 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Largemouth bass led the card at excellent. High of 77 F, wind to 6 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Largemouth bass led the card at excellent. High of 76 F, wind to 6 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

Tennessee requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

Hybrid/striper combined 2 over 15 inches: check TWRA. Smallmouth 18-inch protective on portions.

Access

Elm Hill Marina, Seven Points, Fate Sanders, Hurricane Creek ramps.

About this water

14,200 acres on the Stones River, Davidson/Rutherford counties, TN. Corps, impounded 1968.

Fishing Percy Priest Lake: the full guide

Music City's water

Percy Priest gives Nashville a real fishery inside the beltway: winter gulls mark hybrid schools chasing shad, smallmouth and largemouth split the rocky banks and creek flats, and night tournaments rule the summer. The Stones River arms add crappie brush and calmer water when the main lake churns with boats.

Metro rockfish mornings

Priest sits fifteen minutes from Nashville and fishes like it has something to prove: dawn hybrid-striper blitzes off Seven Points and the Hamilton Creek humps, slabs and flukes into the sprays. The bite is a commuter special: fish it before work; the schools rest by nine.

Island-hop smallmouth

The lower lake's rock islands and gravel points hold a serious smallmouth cut: float-n-fly winters, Ned rig springs, night crawlers on the deep ledges in summer heat. Tennessee's urban brown-fish program hides in plain sight.

Common questions

Best quick trip from downtown Nashville?

Elm Hill at dawn: run to the nearest hump line, watch for surface sprays, keep a fluke tied on. Two hours often fills the morning quota.

Crappie infrastructure downtown

Priest's crappie program runs on planted cover: TWRA's published brush piles and stake beds dot the Stones River arms at 10-20 ft, refreshed annually and mapped online. Spring pushes slabs into the buckbrush; summer stacks them on the piles where slow-trolled jigs convert. It is Nashville's family-limit fishery: coordinates public, results reliable.

Can you fish Percy Priest from shore?

Widely: Long Hunter State Park's shoreline, the dam's tailwater access, and Hamilton Creek's banks all produce. The park's Couchville Lake adds a no-boat family option.

Is fishing good at Percy Priest Lake right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Nearby waters

Old Hickory Lake17 miCaney Fork River39 miDuck River42 miCenter Hill Lake48 miTims Ford Lake60 miBarren River Lake62 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

River and reservoir readings
USGS 03430200 β€” STONES RIVER AT US HWY 70 NEAR DONELSON, TN (outflow)
Read from the USGS Water Data API (api.waterdata.usgs.gov). Latest value timestamped 2026-10-23 at 19:30 UTC.
Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 36.0662, -86.5255 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written guide was drafted with AI assistance. Unlike our newer pages, it does not yet list the official pages its facts were checked against: that audit is under way, and anything it cannot verify will be taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.