ALLONS — It's 6:30 a.m. The sun is slowly rising over Dale Hollow Lake, attempting to burn through a fog that has lazily drifted over the water during the overnight hours. A thick dew covers the grass on the lake's shore, the remnants of an usually cool July night that saw the temperature plunge to 50 degrees.
The silence is broken by the sound of a tent door being unzipped. A camper steps out and stretches as he looks across the foggy lake into Kentucky, the state line of which lies just a few hundred feet away. Across the grassy island, another camper emerges from a tent and gathers kindling for a campfire to ward off the chill of the dawn. On the opposite side of the cove, an outboard motor sputters, then catches fire, an angler emerging from the fog in a bass boat moments later, a golden retriever perched in the front of the boat, as dog and master head toward a secluded honey hole in a cove downlake.
A new day is dawning, and Dale Hollow Lake is slowly coming to life. There's something special about dawn on the water. Soon, ski boats, Wave Runners and yachts will fill the lake's main channel and the lake will be alive with activity, a hustle and bustle that won't end until well after the sun has set.
But, for now, the sanctity and serenity of the lake is virtually undisturbed, and it's easy to see why some refer to picturesque Dale Hollow Lake as the most beautiful lake in Tennessee, while others refer to it as the most beautiful lake in the Southeast.
Dale Hollow was created in 1943 for the purpose of flood control. It drains 950 square miles, consists of 27,700 acres on its surface (and is surrounded by another 24,482 acres of land) and has 620 miles of shoreline. From 1948-1953, power generators were added to the lake by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which continues to manage the lake today. Today, Dale Hollow generates enough electricity to power a city of 45,000 residents . . . if there was such a town nearby. But there isn't. Cookeville, the home of Tennessee Tech University, is a 30 minute drive to the south. Only the tiny towns of Celina and Byrdstown and Livingston lie on Dale Hollow's shores.
Dale Hollow Dam is located in Celina, in Clay County. But the sprawling lake covers parts of Overton and Pickett counties as well, and spills over into Cumberland and Clinton counties in Kentucky.
Besides its picturesque beauty, Dale Hollow may be best known for its fishing. At 130-feet deep in its deepest spot, the lake is deep and cold, and supports a large variety of fish. The world record smallmouth bass was caught in Dale Hollow, an 11-pound, 15-ounce fish that was caught in 1955 and put Tennessee on the bass fishing map.
One thing visitors to Dale Hollow will see is natural beauty. Because of a strict policy limiting private boat docks and removal of shoreline trees, Dale Hollow is surrounded by a natural setting. Wildlife frequent the shorelines (much of which are covered by the sprawling Dale Hollow Wildlife Management Area, which attracts hunters for everything from small game to deer to turkeys to feral boar), and Dale Hollow is a popular wintering ground for bald eagles. The birds can be seen frequently on the lake from mid-December through mid-February each winter.
One thing visitors won't see on Dale Hollow, meanwhile, is trash. Occasional soda cans or junk food wrappers can be found on the lake's shore, but officials go to great length to keep the lake clean, and Dale Hollow is noted as being one of the nation's cleanest reservoirs.
Of the many concessionaries on Dale Hollow Lake, Lillydale Campground is perhaps best known. A sprawling campground with RV hook-ups, island tent camping and a boat ramp, Lillydale is located in Clay County's Allons community, a 20-minute drive northwest of the Overton County seat of Livingston. The pristine beauty of the island campground, which was once embraced by a loblolly pine forest, was devastated by the Southern Pine Beetle infestation of 2001, but is being restored through the efforts of campground management, Boy Scouts and other volunteer organizations.
While Dale Hollow Lake is best explored by boat, there are plenty of areas surrounding the lake that attract visitors. The Dale Hollow Fishery, located just below the Dale Hollow Dam, is the largest federal trout hatchery east of the Mississippi River. It produces 1.5 million trout annually, which are distributed between Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee. The birthplace of World War I legend Alvin C. York is located just up the road in Pall Mall, along the banks of the Wolf River, one of Dale Hollow's major tributaries, and the birthplace of the "father of the United Nations," Cordell Hull, is positioned nearby in Byrdstown. Bring the family and make it a vacation, but don't forget your fishing pole. If Tennessee is a bass fishing paradise, Dale Hollow Lake is its bass fishing capital.
