Percy Priest, maybe someone knows someone who can get something done

With summer getting closer, just wanted to share. That the lake was a zoo last year is an understatement.

It is unbelievable the danger of being on Percy Priest. The laws being broken, safety ignored, it is unbelievable. It is unbelievable how many on the lake do not speak or read english, but do not know the basics of boating safety and just do not care about being safe or respectful of anyone or anything else. Saw a guy almost run over a kid on a float, the kid was swimming in front of bank at Hurricane creek boat ramp, that is surrounded by a "no wake" area. Me and a few others went to talk to the guy. He yelled at us he was legal, barely spoke english and he would not listen to anything. He was running wide open on a jet ski, in the no wake area, and by the four corners boat dock.

This type of activity was every single day last summer on Priest. You are in the minority if you speak english at the boat ramp, most do not or say they do not.

Many are using cast nets on the lake and they keep every single fish they catch in the cast nets, bass, stripe, blugeill, bait, etc. Every single fish. The TWRA does not have enough officers to cover the area. I saw one guy on the floating dock throwing a cast net, he had several different game fish in a 5 gallon bucket. We managed to kick the bucket in the water when he ignored us that he is not allowed to keep game fish caught in a cast net.

I saw one boat of japanese, I am pretty sure they were, completely full boat, kids on peoples laps, aluminum boat with tiller handle 30 hp motor. I mean full, not one life jacket, not one. They said no english when we told them that not only they needed life jackets, one for each person and the children had to have one at all times, and also it is the law. They went boat riding like no big deal.

Many of what I call immigrants want to run wide open with someone sitting in the front seat of a bass boat. See it almost every day. Also saw them running wide open in john boats with kids sitting on front with feet hanging over the front. I have pics.

Saw a couple guys pulling a jet ski. The tongue of the trailer was in the trunk of the car, no trailer hitch. Yes, tongue of the trailer was in the trunk, trunk lid was pulled down on the hitch. Police were called, they were still there at midnight beating on the car trunk, not sure what happened. Also they rode their jet ski in no wake zone, wide open, no life jacket. Double flipped me a bird when I told them the law about wearing a life jacket on a jet ski. I have pics.

Saw 2 guys, hispanic, catching fish, filling their fish baskets with every single fish, did get the game warden to them, he said he wrote them a large ticket and could have wrote for more, but small hybrids can be hard to prove in court. They had a bunch of undersized bass and I am all for anyone keeping fish, even bass, just keep what is legal.

Priest is for sure a dangerous place and be aware of your surroundings and watch for people who have no clue how to handle a boat and none about safety.

Headhunter said:

This type of activity was every single day last summer on Priest. You are in the minority if you speak english at the boat ramp, most do not or say they do not.

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If you're suggesting that TWRA hire interpreters to sit at the boat ramps to translate what you're yelling at them, I'd say that's a complete waste of money and resources that could be spent elsewhere.

I gave up on Priest and Old Hickory many years ago. Because of everything you mentioned and the fishing going down the tubes.

Buzzard Breath said:

If you're suggesting that TWRA hire interpreters to sit at the boat ramps to translate what you're yelling at them, I'd say that's a complete waste of money and resources that could be spent elsewhere.

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Not suggesting anything other than something needs to be done. Just go spend a day once the weather warms up.

I see a bunch of dumb stuff out of US citizens on the lake too. Not sure its an immigration issue haha probably should just leave the nationalities out of the discussion. Just say people are doing illegal stuff because you have no idea if they are illegal or not.

I didn't fish Percy a ton on busy days last year, but the one day I remember being there on a Saturday, TWRA was out doing their job, and doing it well.

Had a turd on a jetski following me and jumping my wake. TWRA immediately got him. Saw them with a couple other people pulled over as well.

Never confront someone over their law breaking in public.
Call the authorities.
Watch,witness and record.

Buzzard Breath said:

If you're suggesting that TWRA hire interpreters to sit at the boat ramps to translate what you're yelling at them, I'd say that's a complete waste of money and resources that could be spent elsewhere.

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Or maybe he wants his tax money and license fees to be utilized to protect citizens and the environment.
But hey, what else would we expect from you?

I attended a seminar with a bunch of TWRA officers last March. At lunch we were talking about Davidson County war stories. One guy told me 8 out of 10 creel limit violations were either Hispanics or Orientals. Many repeat offenders.

Pic IN the Casa said:

I attended a seminar with a bunch of TWRA officers last March. At lunch we were talking about Davidson County war stories. One guy told me 8 out of 10 creel limit violations were either Hispanics or Orientals. Many repeat offenders.

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some people must have a wad of money at a couple hundred bucks per fish.

TWRA been cracking down some on KY lake during the busy season. one usually hides out under the bridge at jville.

Pic IN the Casa said:

But hey, what else would we expect from you?

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????? What's this mean? What would you expect from me?

If you think the majority of the people in the situations mentioned above are paying those fines I have some great ocean front acreage in Bradely county for sale cheap. It sucks that everything is made into a race issue when in reality it's more of a mind set of where the people came from. I have spent a lot of time in foreign countries and the majority of people in those countries have zero concept of resource management. Doesn't matter if it's fish, trees or plastic bottles it's all daily subsistence living with zero thought of the future. People in the US have been guilty of in the past too, the Atlantic Salmon is a prime example, hell whitetail deer here in TN. If Honduras was populated by white people who live in the current conditions there the behavior would be the same. It's not an issue of race, unfortunately it's too easy to put that spin on it and hinders the ability to have a real conversation on how to fix this and many other issues.

casjoker said:

If you think the majority of the people in the situations mentioned above are paying those fines I have some great ocean front acreage in Bradely county for sale cheap. It sucks that everything is made into a race issue when in reality it's more of a mind set of where the people came from. I have spent a lot of time in foreign countries and the majority of people in those countries have zero concept of resource management. Doesn't matter if it's fish, trees or plastic bottles it's all daily subsistence living with zero thought of the future. People in the US have been guilty of in the past too, the Atlantic Salmon is a prime example, hell whitetail deer here in TN. If Honduras was populated by white people who live in the current conditions there the behavior would be the same. It's not an issue of race, unfortunately it's too easy to put that spin on it and hinders the ability to have a real conversation on how to fix this and many other issues.

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i agree but ignorance of the law is no excuse.

How do you fix ignorance of the law when the two recourses available to TWRA are taking their catch and giving them a fine which will never be paid. I know it's hard to imagine but many people from these undeveloped countries honestly do not understand how the over use of a resource works. I have been in meetings where an individual will tell you "hey we had lots of fish 20 years ago but (insert your preferred religious diety) must be made at us because we almost never catch fish now". I am like hey dumbs you caught way to many and depleted the fishery, I might as well have given them a pickle and bag of chips as much good as trying to explain to them what happened. Best one was watching donkey yugo in one end of a pond and seeing a village elder scooping water out of the other end to make tea. I asked the old guy if he was worried about getting sick from drinking donkey poo water. "No the donkey stays on the other side we only get water from this side". Stories for days like that.

TNReb said:

I didn't fish Percy a ton on busy days last year, but the one day I remember being there on a Saturday, TWRA was out doing their job, and doing it well.

Had a turd on a jetski following me and jumping my wake. TWRA immediately got him. Saw them with a couple other people pulled over as well.

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TNReb said:

I didn't fish Percy a ton on busy days last year, but the one day I remember being there on a Saturday, TWRA was out doing their job, and doing it well.

Had a turd on a jetski following me and jumping my wake. TWRA immediately got him. Saw them with a couple other people pulled over as well.

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Try coming off plane suddenly and then quickly getting back up on plane. See if they can jump that? Just saying.....

NumberOne said:

I see a bunch of dumb stuff out of US citizens on the lake too. Not sure its an immigration issue haha probably should just leave the nationalities out of the discussion. Just say people are doing illegal stuff because you have no idea if they are illegal or not.

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I have fished Priest all my life. US citizens do stupid stuff and break laws, no doubt. Never said they didn't.

But in over 40 years of fishing, and I avoid saying anything to anyone, I have rarely seen anything almost never said anything to anyone.

In the past couple years, once the weather gets nice, every single day I go to Priest I see something that is either illegal or scary dangerous and almost every single time it is by someone who either doesn't speak english or claims they do not. Most every single time I went to Priest when the weather got nice, there were non english speaking people on jet skis, much of the time with no life jacket, running wide open in the no wake zones and would argue with you if you said something. I will attach a picture of a non english speaking person (the guy with him spoke some english but said his friend didn't) response to me when I told him it was no wake and he needed a life jacket. They are the guys who pulled their jet ski to the lake with the tongue of the jet ski trailer in the trunk of the car, no ball or hitch, tied into the trunk of the car.

I am sure US citizens have thrown a cast net and kept fish illegally, but I have never seen a US citizen doing so. But people who either don't speak english or claim they don't, I saw that being done 4 times last summer and they keep every single fish caught in the net, bass, crappie, stripe, bluegill (yes it is illegal to cast net for bluegill). One guy was standing on the floating dock at Hurricane creek and loading a 5 gallon bucket, in the middle of the day on a Saturday. I told him it was illegal, he either didn't understand me or acted like didn't, so I "accidentally" kicked the bucket in to the water, it had small bass, bluegill and one crappie in it.

Can't leave nationalities out of the discussion when they are the majority of the problem. One I still can't believe and I could not get an officer out there, was 3 hispanics, at least I think it they were speaking spanish, were catching small hybrids, a BUNCH of them on a point near Cooks. After they caught a bunch of hybrids, they then ran to a point near Seven Points and gave the fish to a couple Laotians. There was a ton of small hybrids on the point. They would run back catch more, and run back and give them to the Laotians. They did that 3 times a morning I saw for 4 mornings in a row. They were hybrids, and had to be hundreds of them, and at that spot they were all small, I was catching them, I rarely if ever keep one and won't keep one unless it is at least 7 or 8 lbs and prefer 10 lbs or more because that is what my friend that likes them wants. I don't eat them just catch them. I maybe caught 2 over 15" on those mornings at that spot, the rest were all under, but the hispanics kept every single fish they caught.

There are still schools of small bass in Priest and when one small group of hispanics finds a school, they keep all they catch. Finally got the warden on them once last spring. They got a good ticket and had a bunch of bass and hybrids, none were legal size.

I don't care what color, nationality, sex, gender you claim, US citizen, illegal or legal immigrant ( I am for immigration, just immigrate legally), financial status, etc. a person is, you should not only obey the law and be safe, you should know the law.

I have fished in middle Tennessee my whole life and Maybe been checked 5 times and not anytime recently. Where are the Twra officers? Fishing is going downhill in my opinion, whatever happened to catching 7lb bass on percy priest lake every month or 12lb hybrids constantly. Feels like a decade ago. Fisherman from two nationalities, are wiping out the fishery and Twra isn't doing anything about it. They are not following limits and fishing illegally(snatching and cast nets). And if you don't believe me, I invite you to come fish below any dam in middle Tennessee and your see multiple violations every time out there.