Twenty-six miles, three corridors, nine sourced sites

Center Hill Dam sits at river mile 26.6 on the Caney Fork, in DeKalb County, Tennessee, and the Corps calls what comes off it “an economically valuable put and take trout fishery.” Below the dam the Caney Fork runs 26.5 miles to the Cumberland River, and TWRA regulates the whole reach as one water: “Caney Fork River: Center Hill Dam to Cumberland River, including tributaries.” Nine access sites, read directly from TWRA's own GIS feature service on 29 September 2026, sort into three corridors by river mile — dam reach, mid-river, and the lower river down toward the Cumberland. Central time applies throughout.

The tailwater in one paragraph

Center Hill Dam is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Nashville District, structure — “a combination earth fill and concrete structure 2,160 feet long and 250 feet high,” completed in 1951, with a three-generator hydroelectric plant rated at 135,000 kilowatts and an eight-gate spillway capable of 500,000 cubic feet per second. Above it sits Center Hill Lake, a separate water this site does not cover. Below it, TWRA lists the tailwater's species plainly: “Center Hill Dam, Caney Fork River – Rainbow, Brook, Brown, Cutthroat – March through December – Special Trout Regulations.” The Corps' Master Plan calls the same reach a “viable put, grow, and take trout fishery” that supports float trips of varying length. Release information is TVA's department, not the Corps' or TWRA's — TWRA's own sentence sends anglers to “Call TVA at 1-800-238-2264 to check dam discharge and generation schedules,” reservoir code 37 for Center Hill.

The dam and what actually changes the river

Center Hill Dam has no pool schedule that matters to a tailwater angler — the lake's guide-curve figures (summer pool 640–648 ft, winter pool 625–630 ft, per the Corps' 2020 statement after a seepage repair) describe what is above the dam. What changes the river below it is release volume, and the Corps has published two very different numbers for it. On 10 June 2024 the Corps reinstalled the dam's orifice gate and set, verbatim, “a new seasonal minimum continuous flow of 250 cubic feet per second from the dam,” held “through November” to keep the tailwater cold and oxygenated for trout. On 11 May 2024 the Corps announced the other end of the range: releases stepped up to “18,000 cubic-feet per second (cfs). This includes 11,000 cfs from hydropower generators and 7,000 cfs from spillway gate operation,” adding that “river conditions below Center Hill dam will be extremely dangerous and the public is discouraged from recreating in the area.” A 2024 Water Control Manual update describes the operating logic behind the low end: continuous releases through the orifice gate in the low-flow season, switching to a pulsed, 48-hour-interval minimum flow the rest of the year to preserve peaking capacity — the manual does not date where one season ends and the other begins, so this page does not print exact dates for the switch.

Gauges: read the tailwater's own station, not the lake's

USGS 03424860, Caney Fork at Stonewall — the tailwater's real-time instrument (Smith County; 36.18611, −85.90444; drainage area 2,520 square miles; operated with the Corps' Nashville District). It reports discharge, parameter 00060, and gage height, parameter 00065, both live series back to 2011. On the day we read it (29 Sep 2026, 01:30 CDT) it showed 1,350 cfs and a gage height of 7.79 ft — printed here only to show the station is live; treat any number on this page as stale and read the gauge yourself before you go. It sits well downstream of the dam and lags the release by a travel time no source we read states.

USGS 03424010, Caney Fork at Center Hill Dam (tailwater) — a field-measurement site only, no continuous discharge or gage-height series, at 36.0978, −85.8272. No coordinate for the dam itself is published by the Corps on any page we read; this is the closest sourced point to it and is what the map above anchors the dam marker to, captioned as drawn there. Center Hill Lake's own gauge, USGS 03424000, carries no data and answers no question about the tailwater.

Corridor 1 — the dam reach (DeKalb County)

Three USACE sites cluster within four-tenths of a river mile of the dam, all reached from I-40 exit 268 via TN 96 / SR-141 south to the dam. TWRA's GIS layer, read directly on 29 September 2026, gives each one full coordinates, surface, hours and a comment field — the same comment field that carries the generation hazard, verbatim, at three of the nine sites on this river.

USGS 03424010, the tailwater's field-measurement gauge, sits in this same reach. No Corps page we read gives a coordinate, season or fee for Long Branch beyond what is printed above; a 2018 Master Plan figure of 18 campsites at Long Branch (against Recreation.gov's current 60) is kept here as history, not reconciled.

Corridor 2 — mid-river (Smith and Putnam counties)

Four to five river miles below the dam, one walk-in access and three TWRA-sourced sites cluster around the Smith/Putnam county line.

Corridor 3 — the lower river, toward the Cumberland (Smith County)

Anchored by the USGS Stonewall gauge and running to the furthest-downstream site TWRA's own query returned.

Trout, and stocking we cannot fully reconcile

TWRA's stocking-locations report (updated as of 9/21/2026) lists exactly one Center Hill row: “Center Hill TW | 09/10/2026,” with the report itself noting it is “updated bi-weekly through the stocking season.” The 2026 Trout Stocking Schedule table lists Center Hill TW under a run of spring-through-fall months, but our read of that table could not confirm the exact months displayed — treat that string as status pending, not fact. Recreation.gov adds only that the river “is stocked with rainbow and brown trout.” TWRA's Trout Management Plan (2017–2027) names Center Hill among tailwaters stocked with adult brook trout “up to 80,000 annually” — a combined figure for several tailwaters, not a Center Hill number, and not printed here as Center Hill's. The same plan names Center Hill among the tailwaters carrying a 14–20 inch protected length range on rainbow and brook trout — the slot printed in the regulation section below. Annual stocking counts by species, sizes at stocking and holdover rates for this specific river are not published on any page we read.

The regulation: this water's own trout rule, and the statewide rows beneath it

TWRA's Tennessee Trout Regulations page, read twice on 29 September 2026 with identical wording both times — and re-verified a third time this integration session, again identical — prints this water by name:

“Caney Fork River: Center Hill Dam to Cumberland River, including tributaries.
Total daily creel of all trout (rainbow, brown, and brook) in combination is five (5) fish.
Rainbow Trout: Five (5) per day, 14–20 inch PLR, only one (1) fish over 20 inches may be harvested.
Brook Trout: Five (5) per day, 14–20 inch PLR, only one (1) fish over 20 inches may be harvested.
Brown Trout: One (1) per day, 24-inch minimum length limit.
Cutthroat Trout: Five (5) per day, 14–20 inch PLR, only one (1) fish over 20 inches may be harvested.”

TWRA defines the protected length range itself: “Slot Limits or Protected Length Ranges (PLRs) allow anglers to harvest fish above and below a specified length range.” On the Caney Fork, in practice: a rainbow, brook or cutthroat between 14 and 20 inches goes back; fish under 14 inches may be kept within the five-fish combined limit; one fish over 20 inches may also be kept. Possession, statewide: “The total possession limit is twice the daily creel limit. You may not have more than the daily creel limit with you while afield.”

Statewide rows that also apply here (not changed by the trout rule above)

Licenses (TWRA, prices confirmed twice): a trout supplemental license is required in addition to a fishing license. Resident Annual Trout Supplemental: $21.00. Nonresident: Annual Fishing (all species incl. trout) $98.00; 3-Day Fishing (all species incl. trout) $40.00; 10-Day Fishing (all species incl. trout) $61.00; Annual Fishing, no trout, $49.00; 3-Day, no trout, $20.00; 10-Day, no trout, $30.00. Licenses run 365 days from purchase. For a weekend trip from Kentucky, the 3-day all-species license at $40 covers trout here; the no-trout licenses do not.

Boating: TWRA requires a Coast Guard-approved PFD on the open deck for every child 12 and under except when anchored, moored or aground, and one wearable device aboard for every person or person being towed — this applies to canoes and rafts as well as motorboats. Paddlers under 13 must wear a life jacket while underway. No registration requirement is stated for a private non-motorized vessel; a non-motorized-vessel rental permit is required only of a business or entity that leases or rents them.

Facilities, camping and nearby services

• Long Branch (Corps): 60 sites with water/50-amp electric, flush toilets, showers, drinking water, a group shelter, boat ramp, fish-cleaning station and playground. 478 Lancaster Rd, Lancaster, TN 38569; 615-548-8002. Season and fees: status pending.
• Corps office: 158 Resource Lane, Lancaster, TN 38569-9801; (931) 858-3125.
• Buffalo Valley and the Tailwater Fishing Pier: day-use only per TWRA's GIS record — no camping listed at either.
• Towns named in sources: Lancaster (Corps office, Long Branch address); Carthage/South Carthage and Gordonsville appear only as route descriptions in TWRA's own directions fields, not as named services. Outfitters and canoe-rental businesses turned up in search results but were not read this run — not printed as fact.

Safety: read the discharge, not the weather

• The river changes fast, with no warning system described. The Corps can move from a 250 cfs continuous minimum to an 18,000 cfs flood release — “extremely dangerous” in the Corps' own words — and no siren, horn or public release notice appears on any page we read.
• Three of the nine access sites carry TWRA's own hazard language in their comment field: Long Branch, Buffalo Valley and Kirby Lane all read some form of “Check Generation — Danger at High Water.” Two more (I-40 Welcome Center, Stonewall) carry “Water level flucuates rapidly.” These are TWRA's own words, not this page's paraphrase.
• The Stonewall gauge lags the dam. It sits well downstream of the release point; the travel time between the two is not published anywhere we read.
• The dam-top road closes for Corps operations. On 22 June 2026 the Corps closed “State Highway 141/96 at Center Hill Dam in Lancaster” to all traffic, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., for maintenance — printed here as a reminder the road can close, not as a standing schedule.
• PFD rules apply on every site above. See the regulation section.
• Status pending: a coordinate for the dam itself; the travel time from dam to gauge; current hourly discharge (the Corps' own report tool refused this run's read).

What we have not verified

• The sport-fishing proclamation behind TWRA's trout page — blocked on every attempt read, across two sessions.
• Fill and drawdown dates for Center Hill Lake, and the exact low-flow/non-low-flow season boundary in the 2024 Water Control Manual update.
• Stocking counts by species for this specific river, and the Trout Stocking Schedule's month string.
• Long Branch's season and fees; Edgar Evins State Park's address and phone (a lake facility, not printed here as this water's).
• Whether Putnam County extends to any site beyond Happy Hollow — no primary page read confirms it beyond that one record.
• The exact river mile of the Cumberland confluence, and any outfitter, shuttle or lodging business — none read this run.

Related on this site

Waters

• Cumberland River tailwater