Yesterday I went fishing on the Harpeth at the Harris-Street Bridge. It was a pretty day. March has seen its share of fine weather this year. Good thing after such a cold, wet winter. The pear trees have all passed their peak and the redbuds are in full bloom. It won’t be long now before the dogwoods follow suit.
I sat on the bank and fished with red worms. Right away I caught two small channel catfish. Over the course of three hours I caught five more catfish. Only one was of a size worth keeping but I turned it loose. All had some sort of grub looking parasite on their pectoral fins.
As the afternoon wound down I sat on the bank drinking a tall-boy can of Heinekan when the most god-awful racket came assaulting the peace and quiet from down river. It was a john boat with a big motor mounted on it. I was just getting a good tug at my line when the boat got close enough to scare my seventh fish (and probably the largest) away. The two occupants of the boat waved as they passed then ground their contraption to a halt. Their wake rolled to the shore with great splashes against the rock and muddied the water for over fifteen minutes. That is a lot of erosion.
I am not one to make a lot of rules on people but damn let’s have some common sense. Save your damn Mercury outboards for Old Hickory Lake or Percy Priest or the Tennessee River. The Harpeth is a small, free flowing river that’s been designated “scenic”. Wade it or canoe it, hell I don’t mind someone using a trolling motor on it. But don’t go destroying the quiet and eroding the banks with a 200 horsepower crotch rocket of a fishing boat. I honestly thought that was already against TWRA or TDEC regulations but apparently it’s not.
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