THEY SAVED TAILRACE FISHING

They Saved Tailrace Fishing

EDITOR'S NOTE: Johnny Burch, of Florence, Alabama, owns a wholesale fishing-tackle distribution company and helped to implement the Lake Watch Program.

QUESTION: Do you sell fishing tackle to fishermen?
BURCH: I sell fishing tackle to retail stores that sell the tackle to fishermen.

QUESTION: When September 11th occurred, what did you think would happen to the tailrace fishing below Wheeler and Wilson dams?
BURCH: I didn't think that it would be curtailed or cut off, until TVA made that announcement.

QUESTION: When did TVA make that announcement?
BURCH: TVA made the announcement within two weeks after September 11th, 2001.

QUESTION: What did they say?
BURCH: TVA said that all fishing within 300 yards of the dam would be eliminated and that they possibly might rope that section off with a buoy and cable.

QUESTION: What did you think about that restriction?
BURCH: I thought that restriction was going to hurt a lot of fishermen and businesses that depended on fishing at those dams for a livelihood.

QUESTION: Would that cause a detrimental economic impact to Wheeler, Wilson and other tailrace fishing areas throughout the TVA system?
BURCH: Yes, this river system is not only used by local people but by people all over the country. The tailraces are a huge tourism draw to this region, which in turn boosts this area's economy.

QUESTION: Smallmouth bass, largemouth bass and all of the species congregate in the tailrace for food and for oxygen, right?
BURCH: Yes, and sauger also are there in the wintertime.

QUESTION: How much money would be lost by closing access to those dam tailraces?
BURCH: I don't know the exact amount, but I know it would have been in the millions of dollars.

QUESTION: So when you heard that TVA planned to shut the dams down, what was your response?
BURCH: My response was to abide by the rules and not to cause any ripple at all until it got to the point where it was economically impacting people and businesses. I did call the chairman of the board of directors for TVA, Glen McCullough of Knoxville, Tennessee, to ask if I could meet with him.

QUESTION: What did you say to him?
BURCH: He was out of town. I talked to his secretary who redirected my call to Gary Malden, operations manager for the Rivers Division of TVA.

QUESTION: What did he say when you the problem to him?
BURCH: Gary called me back that day and said that he was the one who made the decision to close the dams. That was his job. He not only closed the dams here in Alabama but all 49 dams on the Tennessee River system.

QUESTION: So there where 49 dams that were closed?
BURCH: Correct.

QUESTION: What did you tell Malden then?
BURCH: I asked him if I could have a meeting with him to discuss the possibility of reopening the dams. He said he would be glad to meet with me. We set up a meeting the following week.

QUESTION: When you say dam, you mean tailrace fishing below the dams?
BURCH: Correct.

QUESTION: And so you set up a meeting how far in advance?
BURCH: The following week.

QUESTION: What did you do between the time that you set the meeting and the meeting?
BURCH: I talked to a friend of mine, Bob Freeman, from Florence, Alabama, an avid sauger fisherman who likes to fish the tailraces. Bob had made some phone calls to a man named Roger Good, assistant director of TVA Police in Knoxville, Tennessee. Roger and Gary had met in Knoxville on different occasions. I understand that they shared several phone conversations and kicked around the idea that they might could come up with a program to solve the problem. In the meantime, a local fisherman named Ray Gresham had made the suggestion through a local newspaper writer in the "Times Daily" about the fishermen being the eyes and ears at the dam for TVA like a citizen's patrol. So Bob Freeman, myself and Ray Gresham put that proposal together.

QUESTION: Did you all meet with the guy from TVA before your big meeting?
BURCH: Yes. We put together some questions to ask Gary Malden such as why motorists can drive across the dam and anglers can't fish near it? We decided to make the pitch to set up a community program to have the fishermen watch the tailraces. And Gary went back to Knoxville, Tennessee, with the idea that he would implement this program and try to get it started.

To learn more about the Lake Watch Program, call (800) 839-0003, or write TVA Police, P.O. Box 1010, SB 1K-M, Muscle Shoals, AL 35662.

TOMORROW: THE PERFECT PLAN