Seventy-seven years with no river
Santeetlah Dam went up between 1925 and 1928 and from then until 2005 the water behind it went through a pipeline about five miles long to a powerhouse on the Little Tennessee, not down the Cheoah. The riverbed below the dam got dam leakage, a few tributaries and the occasional spill. The 2005 relicensing settlement for what is now Brookfield's Smoky Mountain project, FERC No. 2169, changed that on September 1, 2005, when Tapoco began releasing a scheduled base flow into the 9.3-mile bypassed reach for the first time, and the first high-flow event followed on September 17. The license runs to February 2045, so the flows you fish today are locked in for another two decades.
The base-flow table and the 18 release days
The settlement sets the base flow by month, and it is not a single number. Tier A, used when inflow over the previous three months is above the historic 25th percentile, is 50 cfs in January, 100 in February, March and April, 90 in May, 60 in June and July, 50 from August through November and 60 in December. Tier B, the dry-year schedule, runs about 10 cfs lower from February on and drops to 40 cfs from August through November. So the river is at its thinnest in late summer and fullest in late winter, the reverse of what the fishing calendar would prefer.
On top of that, Brookfield schedules high-flow releases for paddlers, at least 18 days a year under the settlement. The 2026 list posted on the company's Safe Waters page is February 21 and 22, March 28 to 30, April 11 and 12, 18 and 19, 25 and 26, May 9 and 10, May 30 and 31, June 27 and 28, October 24 and November 7. A standard release is 1,000 cfs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the Saturday, with the Sunday stepping down to 850 cfs at 2 p.m.; the February and March events ramp down through 600 and 300 cfs into the following days. The Forest Service charges a $2 daily pass on release days, prohibits alcohol at the river sites and bans camping within 500 feet of the water. Do not be in the channel when one starts.
What Bearpen Gap reads on an ordinary day
USGS 0351706800 is well down the reach near Tapoco, so it reads the base release plus whatever the tributaries add. In the three weeks ending September 23, 2026 it sat at 88 to 100 cfs on dry days, which is the 50 cfs September base plus creeks and leakage, spiked to 170 or so on small rains, and hit 904 cfs on a storm the last evening. A 1,000 cfs release day shows up as exactly that. R&R Fly Fishing's stream-level page is the only shop guidance that names this river, and it says flows up to about 150 cfs are generally good for smallmouth in summer and that a rise with no rain behind it is the dam. That is where the 50 to 150 cfs band on this page comes from, with the low end being the settlement's own August floor.
Smallmouth first, trout as a bonus
Be honest with yourself about what lives here. NCWRC's District 9 biologists surveyed the river from the dam to Calderwood Reservoir in 2017 and described a strong, high-density smallmouth population with slow growth, the fish they measured running from about six to fifteen inches with an average around nine. The Forest Service calls the smallmouth fishing excellent and lists brook and rainbow trout and largemouth alongside rock bass, and the LIHI certification describes the reach as a cool-water fishery with trout occasionally found. Slickrock Creek, Yellow Creek and Santeetlah Creek are the trout streams feeding it, and the Graham County chamber notes big wild browns in Slickrock, but no agency page documents a resident brown trout population in the Cheoah itself, so treat any brown you catch as a visitor. The river is cold enough for trout in winter and spring at 100 cfs and warm enough for bass by July at 60.
Undesignated water: seven trout, no gear rule, and the 14-inch bass
The Cheoah below Santeetlah is not on NCWRC's Public Mountain Trout Waters list and the game-land wild trout rule expressly excludes the Cheoah River downstream of Santeetlah Reservoir, so it is undesignated trout water: no closed season, no size limit, no bait restriction and a creel of seven trout, with a regular inland license carrying the trout privilege. Calderwood Reservoir from Cheoah Dam to the Tennessee line, Cheoah Reservoir and Yellow Creek from the pipeline to the river are Hatchery Supported and follow that calendar instead. Smallmouth and largemouth fall under the statewide rule of five a day with a 14-inch minimum, except that two may be shorter.
Joyce Kilmer Road, US 129 and the Magazine Branch takeout
From Robbinsville follow U.S. 129 west about six miles to Joyce Kilmer Road, SR 1134, turn left and go about two miles to the main put-in; the Forest Service lists one primary access and two secondary ones, with pull-offs along Joyce Kilmer Road and U.S. 129 the length of the reach. The takeout for boaters is Magazine Branch on Calderwood Lake below Cheoah Dam. The Tapoco Lodge, built in 1930, sits on the river near the bottom, and the Joyce Kilmer Slickrock Wilderness, the Appalachian Trail and the Benton MacKaye Trail all touch the drainage. Noon Day Fly Fishing, Endless River Adventures and Nantahala Fly Fishing are the Graham County guides the chamber lists; the Nantahala Outdoor Center runs the whitewater side on release days.