Ten Mile's Lake Season Closes in Stages, and TVA Sets the Last One

When did summer end on Watts Bar this year? Around Ten Mile, three dates have a claim. Maple Creek on the Water, the restaurant at Euchee Marina Resort, served its last plates on Saturday, September 19. This Friday, October 30, the last live music of the season plays at a marina down the lake. On Sunday, November 1, the Tennessee Valley Authority begins lowering Watts Bar toward its winter level.

Each date comes from a different operator, and together they set the order of a Ten Mile fall. The restaurants close first and the docks quiet down next. TVA sets the water level last, and once the lake reaches its winter level, the open season belongs to anglers and to the sandhill cranes gathering a short drive south.

Maple Creek Closed First, and the Docks Shift to Off-Season Hours

Euchee Marina Resort, at 200 Euchee Lane, still lists its 2026 Music on the Dock lineup. The final show was the Second Wind Band on Friday, September 4. The restaurant closed two weeks later. The marina hasn't closed, though. The Euchee Marina Resort site says its dock store is open in season, while its gas docks are available year-round. Boaters who need fuel are asked to "give us a holler when you get here." Staffed hours vary in the off-season, so call (423) 334-1004 before a trip that depends on someone being there. The marina says calls are returned within 24 hours.

Blue Springs Marina runs on a different off-season schedule. Its homepage says it has joined Sun Life Marinas, that marina operations continue as normal, and that slip holders get Compass Club network perks. On its contact page, the marina lists itself as open year-round with these off-season hours:

• Monday through Thursday: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Friday through Sunday: 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The Crow's Nest restaurant at Blue Springs is listed as open Thursday through Sunday during the season, with hours subject to change. Its page doesn't give a closing date for fall. Check before you plan a late-season lunch by boat.

Friday Night Has the Season's Last Set on the Water

While the Ten Mile docks wind down, Rockwood Marina & RV Resort has one more event weekend. Its events page lists a second Halloween weekend for October 30 and 31. Shaun Abbott plays Cove Cantina on Friday, October 30, from 6 to 9 p.m. The marina calls it the final live-music performance of the season and says it's open to the public. The resort's first Halloween weekend, October 23 and 24, featured a movie, crafts, a costume contest, trick-or-treating and campsite decorating. More Halloween activities are planned for this weekend.

The next morning the calendar switches from events to lake levels.

November Runs on TVA's Operating Guide

Watts Bar keeps its summer water longer than most of the TVA system. TVA staggers drawdowns on its main-river reservoirs. Kentucky Reservoir starts after the Fourth of July weekend, and Chickamauga, Guntersville, Wheeler and Pickwick start after Labor Day. Fort Loudoun and Watts Bar wait until November 1. In practice, Ten Mile's waterfront stays at summer depth for roughly two months after the lake just downstream starts dropping.

As of 1 a.m. on October 19, TVA reported Watts Bar at 740.82 feet. The typical summer operating range is 740 to 741 feet, and the winter minimum is 735. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency describes the winter drawdown as five to six feet.

The 2026 Reservoir Level Operating Guide on TVA's Watts Bar lake levels page shows how that drop is spread across November. The target zone holds steady through November 1, starts stepping down on November 2, and reaches its winter band on December 1. The same table lists last year's recorded levels for the same dates.

The bottom of the target zone drops a little over a foot each week. Last year the lake followed the upper half of the band most of the month. It read 736.95 feet on November 30 and 736.85 feet on December 1, about four feet below where it started.

These figures are targets, not a forecast. TVA says release schedules can change without notice and that posted levels are updated periodically. TVA's general guidance is that main-river reservoirs are lowered at least to winter flood-guide levels by January 1 each year. On a shallow cove, a foot a week is enough to change how a boat sits at a dock from one weekend to the next. The live reading on TVA's page is the number to check before taking a boat out.

The Lower Lake Is When the Fishing Changes

As the water drops, much of the lake's activity shifts from pontoons to fishing boats, and TWRA's Watts Bar fishing guide shows where the fish go in winter.

1. Largemouth bass follow shad into deeper water on the lower lake and school there. Steep banks with depth can also produce, and a warm spell can make shallow water worth trying again.
2. Crappie move to deep creek ditches and the main river channel once prolonged cold sets in.
3. Sauger and walleye are best toward the upper reservoir near the Fort Loudoun tailwater and at the heads of larger tributaries. TWRA says the fall bite from the tailwater to I-75 continues into winter.
4. Striped bass and catfish carry over from fall. TWRA names Rockwood and Whites Creek as starting areas for stripers moving onto the main lake, fished at 10 to 20 feet, and says main-river catfish techniques work through winter.
5. Yellow perch come later. TWRA puts them in late winter through spring and names the Clinch River as the best Watts Bar area for them.

For launching, Meigs County's Ten Mile waterways access page includes Big Springs, known locally as Hog-Pin, and Fooshee Pass Day Use in its free-access section. As the lake falls, a ramp's usable length gets shorter. Check the current TVA reading against the ramp you plan to use before towing a boat there in December.

The Biggest Winter Gathering Is Downstream at Hiwassee Refuge

The largest seasonal crowd in the area is made up of birds. TWRA's Hiwassee Refuge sits on Chickamauga Lake where the Hiwassee River meets the Tennessee River. TWRA says it holds the largest winter flock of sandhill cranes in the Southeast outside Florida. Cranes can be seen from the observation platform from November through February, numbers peak in January, and an endangered whooping crane occasionally appears. TWRA also ranks the refuge's winter bald eagle numbers among the top five in the state.

Two dates matter for planning a visit. The refuge closes to all use from November 15, 2026, through the last day of February 2027. The wildlife viewing area stays open year-round, and public entry and fishing remain permitted on the main river channel that passes through the refuge. To reach the Hiwassee Observation Platform, take Highway 60 through Birchwood. About 1.7 miles north of town, turn right on Shadden Road, then right on Blythe Ferry Road, then left on Priddy Lane, and follow the signs.

The second date is the Tennessee Sandhill Crane Festival. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology's event listing shows the 2027 festival on January 16 and 17, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days. Free buses run from the Birchwood Community Center to the refuge and to the Cherokee Removal Memorial, where volunteers set up spotting scopes. The listing says as many as 12,000 cranes have spent the winter at the river confluence. TWRA's own festival page hasn't posted the 2027 dates yet. For comparison, TWRA announced the 35th-anniversary festival for January 17 and 18, 2026, at the same three sites.

That makes mid-January the best time for crane viewing, about six weeks after Watts Bar reaches its winter band and well before main-river reservoirs start refilling in late April or early May.

If the drawdown has you wondering how your dock, slip or shoreline will work at 735 feet, or what the lake looks like in winter from a property you're considering, Christina Branham can talk through the Ten Mile waterfront with you in any season. Search Listings or Contact Christina.