East Tennessee: Boom or Bust?

Matt Tyson

Member
My wife and I spent several days this week roaming towns and cities in East Tennessee (east of Nashville) and are considering retirement in the Chattanooga area. Anyone have experience hunting birds in that part of the country? All the locals I spoke to said you need to go toward the western side of the state for birds these days. Would welcome any perspectives...thanks!
 
You're about as far off a major flyway as you can get, but there are pockets of really good habitat in places that will kill ducks.
 
Thanks, Michael. Folks I spoke to said there used to be good numbers of birds but complained the TVA killed a lot of the grasses in the region that helped hold birds in years past.

I look forward to getting to the know the area better, and aside from the less-than-stellar duck numbers/reports, we were really impressed with the liveability of the area for our preferences.
 
Chicamauga grass has come back with a vengeance and has excellent fishing, plus it's a major flyway for Sandhill Cranes, and we do have a limited season for those now.

I think a lot of birds shifted west towards Guntersville when that happened and really haven't shifted back much even though the grass is much better than it was.

I'm just up hwy 111 from Chattanooga in Cookeville, and it's a great area to live. You can be in some rural areas in short order.
 
Thanks again for the local insights. We were incredibly impressed by all the area has to offer, including the ease of which we can feel far from city life even if just down the road from it, and I figured there would be options for keeping all my passions alive.
 
I saw plenty of Geese on the local rivers while fishing recently. I would expect there to be some woodies around by duck season. Either way the fishing was quite good
 
Geese can be plentiful in TN, ducks are hit or miss because it's not in a major flyway. Same thing I have to deal with in North AL.
 
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