Which East TN lake?

[93civEJ1]

Which East TN lake / body of water do you like to fish from for fish that you are looking to take home and cook??

 

[Diehard Hunter]

Norris, Douglas or Cherokee.

Here is a list of conatminated waters and the fish advisories.

http://tennessee.gov/twra/fish/contaminants.html

 

[stik]

most of my fishing is on ft. loudon/tellico or watts bar.

 

[Winchester]

I personally wouldnt make it a habit of eating fish on a regular basis from many of the East Tn lakes. TWRA actually advises against it as well on many.
Norris and Cherokee seem to still be pretty clean and safe to eat fish from. Boone, Watauga, and South Holston may be as well but Im not as familiar with their contamination levels.

 

[93civEJ1]

So pretty much for the future kids to come...they will grow up not getting to eat any of the fish they catch?

 

[Model70Man]

Norris is the cleanest lake in East TN from what I was told from a TWRA officer about 5 years ago.

 

[rsimms]

CLIMBING ONTO SOAPBOX NOW...

I'd eat fish from any of them. If I was eating fresh fish three days a week, for year after year... I MIGHT worry about it.

But to have an occasional meal of fresh fish is no big deal. I am firmly convinced that I ingest more potential health hazards form the tons of "processed" food, or even fresh fish, on the grocery store shelf than I will ever ingest from the Tennessee River.

As for the Health Advisories from the state, many of those are based on certain heavy metals and how many "parts per billion" the fish contain. For many years there was no health advisory on Nickajack Lake (beneath Chickamauga Dam)... and then suddenly, there was.

There was absolutely NO CHANGE in the level of heavy metals in the fish. The only thing that changed is that the government lowered the threshold it considered "safe." Again, the fish or alleged level of pollution did not change... only the government's "policy" changed.

Yet commercial fishermen continue to catch TONS of fish (primarily catfish) from all of these waters and ship them off for sale. They DO NOT have to report where thos fish were taken... nor is there any requirement that buyers be notified that said fish came from waters with health advisories.

In other words, the government is telling sport fishermen the fish might be unsafe... scaring away some anglers (as illustrated here) as well as many tourists. Yet the government does absolutely to see that other people across the country who buy our commercially-caught fish are notified about said warnings on the fish they buy and eat.

I suspect there is a good chance that some of the fresh fish you buy at the grocery store might have come from waters with similar concerns, but you never know it. Out of sight, out of mind.

In my opinion the government is either grossly overstating the warnings needlessly and haphazardly... or it is grossly negligent, complacent and liable for not protecting all consumers of fish commercially caught in Tennessee.

It has to be one or the other and it makes me mad as hell.

CLIMBING OFF OF SOAPBOX NOW....

Oh wait... one more thing. Here is a link to an intense scientific health assessment (1998) conducted on 550 people who eat "moderate to large amounts of fish from Watts Bar Lake." The study found absolutely no appreciable health impact on any of the participants: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/sites/oakridge ... gation.pdf

 

[RUGER]

All the fishing I do in East TN is at Nickajack Lake and Chickamauga.

 

[rukiddin]

CLIMBING ONTO SOAPBOX NOW...

I'd eat fish from any of them. If I was eating fresh fish three days a week, for year after year... I MIGHT worry about it.

You are spot on with that!!! My thoughts exactly!!

I was getting my hair cut one day when the lady cutting my hair, asked what I did for a living. After I told her, she said that she would'nt eat nothing out of Ft Loudoun because her dogs drank water from there and got sick. I said, "ma'am with all due respect, your talking about an animal that will eat a rotten carcass, a turd, and then sit down and lick his butt. Are you sure ft loudoun water is what made your dog sick?" She laughed and said she had never thought about it like that. hahaha.

 

[Craddock1]

I fish almost exclusively on Watts Bar. I have eaten the fish from there for 60 years and will continue to do so. Sometimes I think peta may be behind these advisories. If you eat pork or chicken which I do You shouldn't worry about fish. Hogs and chickens are the nastiest animals in the world.

 

[Football Hunter]

Ask Silverfox

 

[shopson]

I eat fish from Douglas Lake regularly. I may be doomed but I like it.

 

[jos3ywales]

Norris is by far the cleanest but Crappie fishing is hard on it I fished it all my life live 2 miles from the dam. Walleye on Norris on the other hand is a very good lake for one of the beter ones in the state. Right now they are both picking up crappie more than walleye but I have seen alot of guys trolling for walleye already. I fish for crappie alot at tellico went couple days ago to tellico didnt do to good water is very muddy but the water temp is 58 degrees should be right there

 

[93civEJ1]

My boat is near Tellico out in Maryville at the in-laws house. So you guys would even eat catch out of Melton hill? Just the thought of that frightens me..haha

 

[SilverFox]

Douglas or Norris for me. I'm a little scared of Cherokee.

 

[JimFromTN]

They are not forbidding anyone from eating the fish. It is simply a warning. Kind of like the warning that they put on cigarettes. If the warnings don't bother you then eat the fish. I they do bother you then don't eat the fish. There is no since in getting angry because you are being informed. I personally like being informed.

 

[Winchester]

They are not forbidding anyone from eating the fish. It is simply a warning. Kind of like the warning that they put on cigarettes. If the warnings don't bother you then eat the fish. I they do bother you then don't eat the fish. There is no since in getting angry because you are being informed. I personally like being informed.

Good post! Nothing or nobody telling you that you CANT eat the fish, simply giving you a warning! I too am very happy that they are honest and atleast let people know whats in the fish!

 

[Diehard Hunter]

My boat is near Tellico out in Maryville at the in-laws house. So you guys would even eat catch out of Melton hill? Just the thought of that frightens me..haha

Melton hill lake is upstream from the contamination in Oak Ridge. The contaminants from Oak ridge flow into poplar creek then into the clinch river below Melton hill dam, then on to Watts Bar lake. When I did my research out there one of my control sites was on Melton hill because it was one of the few places i could find without mercury and PCB contamination. Watts Bar and Fort Loudon were both contaminated with PCBs, and Watts Bar had a pretty high level of mercury.

 

[93civEJ1]

So eating out of Ft Loudon is probably not a good thing? I had thought about taking my boat to that area soon for the first time and wetting a line or two.

 

[stik]

So eating out of Ft Loudon is probably not a good thing? I had thought about taking my boat to that area soon for the first time and wetting a line or two.

i have been eating fish out of ft. loudon forever. caught a mess of crappies last wknd.