SOUTHEAST LAKES FISHING MAP
Fishing Hot Spots
The big reservoirs of the Southeast: Lake Guntersville, Pickwick, Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, Lake Eufaula, Lake Martin and Ross Barnett, Lake Lanier and Lake Hartwell in Georgia, Lake Murray and Santee Cooper in South Carolina, and Lake Norman, Kerr Lake and Smith Mountain Lake. Tap any star or dot to see what it is and what to fish there.
More map layers
Fishing & access
Marine chart layers
Parks & rules
Safety: these are planning references. Use current official charts, weather and marine alerts and proper safety equipment before heading out.
Lake guides for this map
Month-by-month patterns, fish, ramps and rules for each water:
Fishing Hot Spots by area
Reservoirs and lakes. Tap one to fly to it on the map.
Ledges, grass and giant catfish
The Southeast is reservoir country. Lake Guntersville and the Tennessee River lakes are among the best largemouth bass waters in the country, with bass on the grass beds and the offshore ledges, and Pickwick adds smallmouth in the current below the dams.
Spotted bass and striped bass rule the deep, clear lakes like Lanier, Hartwell, Martin and Norman, crappie fishing is outstanding on Kentucky Lake, Barkley, Barnett and Kerr, and Santee Cooper and Kerr Lake are famous for giant blue catfish.
Rules: each state sells its own fishing license, and lakes on state lines have their own agreements. Check the state rules before you go.
BigJoe’s gear for Southeast Lakes
What BigJoe would bring to fish these waters.
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Map sources & checks
- Coverage
- Southeast Lakes. Mapped features come from public datasets and can be incomplete or out of date: a missing reef, ramp or wreck does not mean it is not there.
- Map data
- OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) — retrieved October 7, 2026
- World Database on Protected Areas (UNEP-WCMC & IUCN), Protected Planet — retrieved October 7, 2026 (license: Protected Planet terms)
- Hot spots
- 16 hot spots, each with its own source (tap any star to see it): OpenStreetMap/Nominatim named place (general position, not a pinpoint) (16).
- Protected areas
- 11 protected areas from the official list above, drawn in dashed red. Fishing rules inside them are set by the managing agency; check with them before you fish.
- Chart layers (Charts button)
- GEBCO ocean depth and OpenSeaMap buoys, lights and markers. GEBCO and OpenSeaMap are useful references, not official navigation charts.
- Weather & tides
- See Weather & Tides for this area: NOAA/NWS forecasts, NOAA buoys and NOAA Tides & Currents, with Open-Meteo models where NOAA has no station.
- Dates
- This page last updated October 15, 2026. Each dataset keeps its own retrieval date, shown above.
⚠️ Planning reference only, not for navigation. Use current official charts, weather and marine alerts, and proper safety gear before heading out.
See something wrong or missing? Tell us and we will check it against the source.