Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency biologists have proposed a dramatic change in the regulations for smallmouth bass on Chickamauga, Nickajack and Guntersville (downstream from Nickajack Dam to the Alabama state line).
Currently, in an effort to protect and encourage the number of trophy smallmouth bass, bass fishermen on those lakes are only allowed to keep one smallmouth per day and only if it exceeds 18 inches long.
Taking a complete about-face, under the proposed new regulation, TWRA proposes that anglers could keep five smallmouth bass each day and there would be no minimum length limit (except only one smallmouth or spotted bass could exceed 16 inches long).
If passed, anglers on Chickamauga, Nickajack or Guntersville can only keep one spotted bass or smallmouth more than 16-inches long. Otherwise they will be able to keep any size fish they want. It will be perfectly legal to take five 10-inch smallmouth bass home and eat them, something that hardcore bass anglers have considered absolutely taboo for the past 40 years.
The Tennessee Fish & Wildlife Commission will vote on the proposed changes at the Feb. 20-21 meeting in Nashville at the TWRA Region II Ray Bell Building.
