Fishing Near Cookeville, Tennessee

What is in there

Fish and limits around Cookeville

Water around Cookeville holds largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, spotted bass, crappie, bluegill, rock bass, striped bass, walleye and sauger.

Center Hill, smallmouth bass 18-inch minimum, largemouth 15-inch minimum, walleye 16-inch minimum, crappie 15 per day with a 10-inch minimum. In the Center Hill system above the dam, including the Collins River, Calfkiller River, Rocky River and Cane Creek and their tributaries, muskellunge are 1 per day with a 50-inch minimum. On the Caney Fork River from the Rock Island State Park boat ramp upstream to Great Falls Dam, 1 January–30 April, anglers are restricted to one hook with a single point or one lure with a single hook with one point, and to three rods, this is the walleye-run rule, and although the reach itself is in Warren and White counties it governs the upstream end of Putnam’s Center Hill water. Cordell Hull regulations apply to the northern drainage. State park lakes default to crappie 15 per day with no length limit and channel or blue catfish 5 per day.

From TWRA’s statewide creel and length limits, last updated 4 August 2026. Water-specific exceptions change, so check the current guide before keeping a fish.