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Home › Waters › Tennessee › Reelfoot Lake
Lake · Northwest Tennessee, Lake and Obion counties, the earthquake-formed cypress basin on the Mississippi River floodplain at Tiptonville · Tennessee

Reelfoot Lake Fishing Guides

The shallow cypress lake formed by the New Madrid earthquakes on the Mississippi floodplain, one of the best-known crappie and bluegill fisheries in the country.

An angler standing in a bass boat along a wooded reservoir shoreline
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Reelfoot Lake

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

About the Reelfoot Lake

Reelfoot Lake was made by the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811 and 1812, when the land dropped and the Mississippi backed into the depression, drowning a bottomland forest where it stood. The stumps and cypress are still there, and that is the whole reason the lake fishes the way it does. It is shallow almost everywhere, fertile, full of standing timber and submerged stumps, and it produces panfish in numbers that very few natural lakes in the country can match.

The gauge near Tiptonville reads lake stage, which is the number that governs everything here. A foot of change on water this shallow moves fish a long way and opens or closes whole sections of the lake to a boat. High water spreads fish into the flooded edges and the buckbrush. Low water pulls them back into the ditches, the boat lanes and the deeper open pools, and makes navigation among the stumps a matter of local knowledge rather than a chart.

Crappie are what made the lake famous, and the spring and early summer fishing over brush and stumps is the reason guides here stay booked. Bluegill and redear run large and are taken in quantity through the summer. Largemouth hold in the pads and the timber, catfish work the deeper holes and the ditches, and yellow bass, bowfin and gar are common enough to be part of any day. The waterfowl and the eagles are worth the trip on their own in winter.

This is guided water in the traditional sense. Local boats know the stump fields, the ditches and the lanes, and hiring one is the fastest way to fish it well. The state park at the lake provides ramps, lodging and boat rental, and the small towns around the shore have been outfitting visitors for generations.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Reelfoot Lake.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

Tiptonville - the town at the southwest corner of the lake, with lodging, food, tackle and guides.
Reelfoot Lake State Park - ramps, camping, a visitor centre, boat rental and the main public access.
Airpark and Blue Bank areas - the developed resort and ramp areas on the south and west shores.
Samburg - the small community on the east shore, with additional ramps and local guides.
Mississippi River - a short drive west, with a different and much larger fishery when the lake is off.
Union City - the nearest town of size to the east, with groceries, fuel and services.
Reelfoot National Wildlife Refuge - the protected north end, outstanding for birds and wintering eagles.

Seasons

Spring: the crappie season the lake is known for, with fish shallow on stumps and brush and every guide booked.
Summer: bluegill and redear at their best over the beds, with bass in the pads and catfish through the ditches.
Fall: cooling water brings a strong second crappie run and the lake quietens down considerably.
Winter: cold and often rough, with deep-water crappie for the patient and world-class eagle and waterfowl watching.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Reelfoot Lake?

Anglers target Black Crappie, Blue Catfish, Bluegill, Bowfin, Bullhead, Channel Catfish, Common Carp, Flathead Catfish, Freshwater Drum, Largemouth Bass, Longear Sunfish, Longnose Gar, Redear Sunfish, Spotted Gar, Warmouth, White Crappie, Yellow Bass on the Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee.

Are there fishing guides on the Reelfoot Lake?

GuidedFloats lists 1 guide and outfitters on the Reelfoot Lake. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the Reelfoot Lake?

Tiptonville - the town at the southwest corner of the lake, with lodging, food, tackle and guides. Reelfoot Lake State Park - ramps, camping, a visitor centre, boat rental and the main public access. Airpark and Blue Bank areas - the developed resort and ramp areas on the south and west shores. Samburg - the small community on the east shore, with additional ramps and local guides. Mississippi River - a short drive west, with a different and much larger fishery when the lake is off. Union City - the nearest town of size to the east, with groceries, fuel and services. Reelfoot National Wildlife...

When is the best time to fish the Reelfoot Lake?

Spring: the crappie season the lake is known for, with fish shallow on stumps and brush and every guide booked. Summer: bluegill and redear at their best over the beds, with bass in the pads and catfish through the ditches. Fall: cooling water brings a strong second crappie run and the lake quietens down considerably. Winter: cold and often rough, with deep-water crappie for the patient and world-class eagle and waterfowl watching.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Reelfoot Lake?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Tennessee agency site: https://www.tn.gov/twra/fishing.html