Moving to Nashville Area....Advice

[Chip1012]

Hey FishingTN Members,
I recently have been promoted in my career to Nashville, TN. I will be relocating from Savannah, Ga, where I lived for the past 2 years and did some saltwater fishing for redfish, seatrout, and flounder. Originally, I was born and raised on Lake Lanier in Gainesville, Ga so I'm pretty familiar fishing for stripers, spots, and LM bass. I will be visiting Nashville this Saturday looking for a place to live. Preferably, I'd like to find a place near water. I know that Nashville has 2 lakes, Percy Priest and Old Hickory. Which one would be my best bet to fish/live near? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Also, once I'm up there and moved in, I'd love to take one of y'all fishing to speed up the process of learning the lake. I'll be bringing up my 2004 SeaFox BayFisher 205 if you want to join me. Looking forward to talking with everyone. Previously I was a member on GON(Georgia Outdoor Network) and met some great people through that. Have a good one!

[blink]

Originally Posted by Chip1012

Hey FishingTN Members,
I recently have been promoted in my career to Nashville, TN. I will be relocating from Savannah, Ga, where I lived for the past 2 years and did some saltwater fishing for redfish, seatrout, and flounder. Originally, I was born and raised on Lake Lanier in Gainesville, Ga so I'm pretty familiar fishing for stripers, spots, and LM bass. I will be visiting Nashville this Saturday looking for a place to live. Preferably, I'd like to find a place near water. I know that Nashville has 2 lakes, Percy Priest and Old Hickory. Which one would be my best bet to fish/live near? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Also, once I'm up there and moved in, I'd love to take one of y'all fishing to speed up the process of learning the lake. I'll be bringing up my 2004 SeaFox BayFisher 205 if you want to join me. Looking forward to talking with everyone. Previously I was a member on GON(Georgia Outdoor Network) and met some great people through that. Have a good one!

Welcome! I moved here from atlanta last year and still frequent GON. Lots of good folks on this forum.

Neither JPP or OH are going to be anything like Lanier, but i think JPP would be a little bit similar. i am personally more of a small water and river guy so i dont know a lot about them.

[agelesssone]

If I had the move to do over again, I'd move to Mt. Juliet. It's close to Percy Priest, nice neighborhood, and good school district.
I live in Goodlettsville in a great neighborhood, great Sumner County schols, but a bit of a hike to the lake that I fish the moat, JPP.

[TNBronzeback]

Welcome!
I guess which lake would be better for you is a matter of preference for your style of fishing.
JPP typically fishes more like a text book "lake" where as old hickory typically fishes more like a river due to its layout and current flow. They both have stripers so thats a plus.
Like Blink said if your accustomed to fishing Lanier, JPP would probably be a more similar environment.
Are you an all species fisherman or do you find yourself targeting 1 species more than another? That could help with your decision. They both have thier pro's and con's depending on what your looking for.
If you position yourself in the right area of nashville, you can be close to them both. :-)

[Reel Tune]

Also depends on what you are after. If you are after numbers and 10-15;b fish with the occasional 20-25lb then Percy Priest. If you are after trophy fish 30-40lb + then Old Hickory, but less numbers. I live between the two lakes and I prefer Old Hickory over Percy Priest, but I'm not a Striper fisherman, although I do fish for them a few times a year. You don't hear a whole lot about Striper Fishing on the lower end of Old Hickory, most of the fish tend to hang up lake closer to the river, but they do roam. Also if you are wanting a house on the lake you'll have to go with Old Hickory.

[Pookie]

If I lived in Savannah and got transferred, I would cry.

[JKTrevecca]

MT. JULIET!!!!!!!!! Great area with a lot of growth and nice homes. Real-Estate is very strong in the Mt. Juliet area. Close to downtown (15-20 minutes). Much less traffic than Franklin/Brentwood/Murfreesboro. And... the best part, it is known as "the city between the lakes".

You could have a house on Old Hickory and be 15 minutes from Percy Priest. Or... You could live right in the middle and be on either body of water in 10 minutes. Absolute best of both worlds. Here is a map.

My wife and I are looking in this area. We live in Donelson right now (same corridor just closer to downtown). Do it. You won't regret it. I promise ;-)

[Buccaneer]

Go to www.realtracs.com and start doing some digging. I moved here in 1998 from the Florida Space Coast, Titusville, and found my best value for a home was Hendersonville and I am very close to Old Hickory Lake. In the Realtracs site you can search Sumner and Wilson Counties by price range and see where that puts you in proximity to the lake. Good luck, welcome to Gods Country.

[jad2t]

For bass fishing JPP is decent. Plenty of bass in there, largemouth, smallmouth, and the occasional spotted bass. It's not as clear or as deep as Lanier but it is similar in other ways. Old Hickory has larger bass from what I've seen.

Priest does have quite a healthy population of Hybrids though as well as Stripers. The Hybrid action in the Spring can be really awesome. I've never fished for them deep in the lake during Summer but I'm going to start trying that starting next weekend maybe.

Priest is also a great Crappie lake.

[browntrout]

Welcome to the area and to the forum. I might suggest looking in the Murfreesboro area. Great schools, 1 hour drive to Priest, Old Hickory, Centerhiil, Woods, Normandy, Tims Ford, Caney Fork river. Housing is fairly reasonable here. Just a thought. Again welcome to the forum......

Roy

[SalmonDaze]

Another Mt. Juliet recommendation.

We moved here from Cleveland, OH last year and love it. But I'm with others . . . moving FROM Savannah???

I'm fortunate to work with and have gotten to know other new friends that are as bad as I am about needing fish time.

Other comments about OH and JPP are good. I also like Center Hill, the Cumberland, and The Caney. Haven't made it to Tim's yet, but will be joining my neighbor at his 2nd home on Tim's this fall for a long weekend.

Also . . . where's your office in Nashville? Wilson County is BIG. For me, a shorter commute (west side of MJ) gives me lots of advantages and puts me <2 Miles from the 7 points launch ramp (literally, straight down the road).

Send me a PM if you'd like any other input.

Welcome to the Volunteer State!

[jad2t]

Nobody has mentioned the top bit of information we can give you about TN waters though...

NEVER fish anywhere SAMBOLIE appears!!

[aero320]

My wife and I spent last week doing touristy things in Savannah. Very interesting place but miserable HOT and Humid! I think you will like this area, the climate is excellent. Both Spring and Fall are magnificent, the summer is OK, and winter is mild.

Other than not having the ocean, fishing is really excellent for a number of species. By the way, hunting is good in Middle Tennessee if you are so inclined. I live about 80 miles southeast of Nashville, so I fish Tims Ford, Woods, JPP, below the dam at Normandy for trout, the Cumberland River between Cordell Hull Dam and Old Hickory, and below Nickajack Dam in the Spring. Both Kentucky and Barkley Lakes are within reason from the Nashville area.

Murfreesboro would be a good place to locate. I used to live there and still attend church there. I would also suggest that you take the wife on a dinner cruise on the General Jackson riverboat while you are in town. The boat is part of the Opryland Hotel complex and you will find that anything with the Opryland name will be first class (much better than the dinner cruise on the riverboat in Savannah that we took recently).

This forum is a good bunch of guys that will try to help you get used to fishing in the area. I will be happy to take you fishing on Tims Ford and Woods (for crappie). Some of the others will take you to JPP and OH.

If you are interested in trophy Stripers, TKWalker is the person you want to listen to, he is a retired trophy Striper guide and is very knowledgeable on the strategies that are used to catch them.

One last thought, make sure that you do not have to drive through town (Nashville) to get to work. You can find a nice neighborhood in any direction around Nashville.

[TNBronzeback]

[QUOTE

One last thought, make sure that you do not have to drive through town (Nashville) to get to work..[/QUOTE]


AMEN to that! X2

[SAMBOLIE]

Welcome to TN and the forum.

For what it is worth. We have members who could not catch a fish in an aquarium. They have to have an excuse for their inability not to catch. You will recognize them immediately. Others who actually post pictures of fish never mention my name.

Seriously, I would not take a free home in Nashville (Davidson County) and I live here. The current mayor and past mayor are camera hogs and the taxpayers are left with the debt of their foolish spending. The best photo of either would be their back side as they leave office.

I have not found traffic to be any worse in Nashville than it is in Mt. Juliet or Spring Hill. You can't avoid traffic problems when the burst of businesses and population explodes without the infrastructure to support it.
If you work in Nashville you are going to experience a traffic nightmare in the am and pm regardless of where you live.