Fishing is a major attraction for sport but plays a relatively small role in the economic life of Tennessee. There are seventeen TVA lakes and seven other lakes, all maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers; 10 of these lakes span an area of 10,000 acres (4,000 hectares) or more, and there are thousands of miles of creeks and mountain streams, all of which attract anglers. Tennessee has no closed season, except on trout.
In the 1970s, pollution from industrial waste dumping killed millions of fish and seriously endangered sport fishing. By the 1980s, however, industrial establishments in the state were complying more fully with the 1974 Water Pollution Act. Aquacultural facilities distributed 2.4 million trout, 254,000 catfish, and 694,000 walleye for restoration or conservation purposes in 1998, when the state issued 968,807 sport fishing licenses.