NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – Old Hickory Lake was impounded in 1954, making it almost 70 years old. Since most of the natural habitat, like trees, has disintegrated, the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency (TWRA) is adding artificial fish attractors to increase the quality of fishing on the lake.

In deeper water, they are deploying what they are nicknaming “Tennessee Towers”.

“They’re 10 feet tall by 10 feet wide, and weigh about 1,000 pounds worth of concrete,” explained Ted Alfermann, TWRA fisheries division wildlife manager. “And so we’ve got these commercial, or industrial rollers that we put on our barge and our trailer to put those things on there to load them, and then we get them out there on the water, and then we just take them out there one or two at a time and sink them.”

On Tuesday, they sank six of the towers in two locations, and 10 more sites will receive three towers apiece.

“The fish are responding quickly,” Alfermann explained. “When we put these towers or any of our other structures in the water, we’re getting fish on them within a week or two.”

The TWRA is also sinking some smaller fish attractors that are made for shallower water. In addition, they will create two underwater rock reefs and 10 large rock humps in the lake this fall.

All of these sites will receive a special marker buoy as part of the new Bill Dance Signature Lakes. The GPS coordinates will be available on the TWRA’s GIS map online.