Chattooga River - What Others are saying about boating the headwaters
Are you a Yahoo?
The recent editorial in the Georgia Outdoor News Editorial (Click Here) by Steve Burch seems to sum up the general, and some what arrogant, attitude among the angling community. Mr. Burch suggests that the angler’s form of “reverent intensity” and respect for the river is superior to a boater’s “irreverent and audacious” behavior. That you and I we are a “yahoo” who invades an angler’s river sanctuary like it was an amusement park ride. Yes we boat in small groups rather than alone for safety reasons, a concept lost on many lone anglers wading in swift moving water.
When Don Kinser becomes a "kayaker" you can tell
the battle for opening up the Chattooga headwaters is really heating up. Desperate measures for desperate times. Upstate
Buzz Williams of the Chattooga Conservancy opposes boating on the headwaters of the Chattooga. He shared his views on “yahoo” boaters in a recent interview on Your Day, a public service program of Clemson University Radio Productions. Click here to listen as Buzz tells the state of SC that you are a “yahoo”, go straight to track 7 for Buzz’s comments.
Click Here to read what anglers are saying on the North Georgia Trout On-line website forum.
Here are some excerpts from some recent emails flying around the angling world:
“… fishermen in general are sick of all the boating on the Chattooga and
would like to see that use stopped on the entire river because of the current
hordes of people that not only essentially prevent fishing below 28, but that
overcrowd the river pushing those wanting a quieter experience upstream...”
“Wanting
to open up the stretch above highway 28 now is viewed as a greedy grab for all
of the river by an element that already has 3/4th of it...”
“…and
has not spent thousands of dollars and man hours doing conservation improvement
projects in the watershed as TU has.”
Here are some thoughts from an angler who says "I'm a rabid trout fisherman and although I might never fish the Chattooga, I'd hate to think what permitting whitewater boating on that river would do to trout fishing…” He went on to say:
“…Consider
how much money the trout resource brings in: from swim fins and float tubes to
fly rods and barbless hooks, to hackle and peacock herl to how-to books and filleting knives, from fly-tying
vices to gasoline for a pickup truck, from motel rooms to meals at a local
restaurant. Millions of dollars change hands simply because of trout. I won't
even go into how many people feed their families as employees of hatcheries.
What about the money that students pay to a university to study ichthyology and
related ecosystems?...”
“…Further,
trout fishermen tend to ply their sport for a lifetime, passing the skill onto
their children. Boys and girls share equally in their love for the sport and
many marriages include a husband-wife duo out on a stream, flicking their
hand-tied flies onto an eddy. Boaters spend money too but the amount of money
does not come close to what the trout resource brings in. (People will gladly
pay big bucks to own a house through which a trout stream flows.)…”
Obviously your money just isn’t green enough to deserve the right to boat the Chattooga headwaters based on this logic. …or maybe it really is about money and influence after all?
But to be truly worthy of the right to boat on the Chattooga headwaters you need to build our own boats!
“…For
me, the term, "wild and scenic" implies a certain approach that is
different from pleasure boating. If the boaters in question built their own pirogues
or keel boats in the fashion of Lewis and Clark, I'd have no argument having
them on the river because they would have proved to my satisfaction that they
were intent on preserving the resource with a deep appreciation for what the
river was before the white man discovered it. If they built their own boats,
wore authentic clothing, made their own knives, carried 19th century firearms
which they crafted themselves -- a parallel to a trout fisherman who wraps his
own rod, ties his own flies, feeds his family with his catch -- then I would
welcome them onto the river because then they would understand that the river
is not something to be used, then discarded and disregarded until the next
frantic rush to escape the big city.”